RECORD AND   GUIDE





March 5, 1904





Apartment House Interiors.

Less has been written descriptive of the interiors of apartment
houses than of their planning and construction. Their planning
is a problem which means the utilization of a given area to the
best advantage. Their construction is chiefly determined by law.
The interiors, aside from the arrangement of rooms, are deserv¬
ing of attention. Individual taste has greater scope here than
on the exteriors, and the interiors, too, are more subject to
change of style than the exteriors. Face, or pressed brick in
various colors with stone trim (usually Indiana limestone) and
metal cornices are now exclusively used in apartment house con¬
struction. Of course, the whole structure depends upon the
amount of available capital, but there Is a growing tendency to
elaborate the interior rather than the exterior. As much thought
and money may be expended upon an apartment as upon a pri-
vite dwelling, A private dwelling may have no improvements,
conveniences or luxuries that an apartment may not possess.
The best apartment houses are almost palatial.

Entrance doors are of bronze or wrought iron and heavy glass.
Public halls have tile floors, marble wainscoting and stucco
ceilings, or ceiling of plaster relief -n'ork, sometimes highly gilded.
The lighting effects are often beautiful. Groups of electroliers
of bronze or polished brass with translucent, opaque or opalescent
globes are used, or incandescents may be concealed behind a
ceiling cove and the hall be illuminated indirectly. A feature
is made of the elevator enclosures of bronze or wrought iron. If
wood Is used for the trim here, it is hardwood, but since there is
a tendency to reduce to a minimum the amount of combustible
material, the trim is often of polished marble.

Upper halls are not so elaborate. Elevator enclosures are of
wrought iron in simple designs; walls may be covered with art
burlap; the trim is usually of oak.

The apartments themselves show a diversity of materials and
styles of decoration and furnishing. Much depends upon the per¬
sonal choice of the occupant. There is telephone, messenger call,
fire alarm, electric bell system, steam heat with automatic tem¬
perature regulator and electric light and gas fixtures. The trim
is of hardwood, and usually cabinet trim, in plain oak, quartered,
birch or maple. Oaks are sometimes stained to produce certain de¬
sired effects of style to match the furniture, especially in dining-
rooms; black for the "Flemish" effect, dark brown for tbe "Mis¬
sion" style, etc. Birch is often stained or "mahoganized." Even
North Carolina pine is used and covered -with while enamel paint
to produce the "Colonial" effect. The walls are covered -^'ith art
burlap or the one-tone, the so-called cartridge, paper. The floors
of the parlor or reception room and the dining-room are usually
parquette floors, while those of the other rooms have hard¬
wood centers with or without parquette borders. Bathrooms
have tile floors, tiie or marble walls, open or sanitary plumbing,
porcelain tubs and often separate shower baths. The best
apartm.ents have also servants' bathrooms. Kitchens are fur¬
nished with gas ranges, refrigerators, porcelain sinks and dumb¬
waiters; they have tiled floors and sometimes tile wainscotings.
Laundries are on the roof or in the basement and are equipped
with steam dryers.

In the less expensive apartment houses—the average buildings,
the six-story, tbree or four-family types on plots 50x100. that cost
about $65,000—the entrances are less elaborate, the details less
fine. These are the chief differences. Flat houses, which, after
all. differ from apartment houses more in location than anything
else, have no elevators, no electric lights, and none of the little
luxuries, but in decoration and furnishing they are much the
same as apartment houses of average cost.





riaterial   Market.

BRICK.

Mr. William K. Hammond, president of the Manufacturers'
Association, remarked yesterday that as the outlook was not
for a season of brisk building, there was some talk jf raking
measures to prevent an over supply, and probably some action
would be taken to protect the reasonable interests of manufac¬
turers, but no meeting had yet been called.

With the weather gradually moderating, there are occasionally
two or three good days for bricklaying, which builders having
urgent contracts take advantage of. Numerous carts hauling
brick were noticed in the streets yesterday and the day before,
and probably before the river opens the visible supply
will be exhausted. Yesterday only two cargoes remained unsold
in the wholesale market, all the rest of the local stock being in
the hands of dealers at their yards and In fifteen or twenty boats.

President Hammond advises, as there is no question but that
the local supply will be exhausted ere the up-river yards can be¬
gin to ship, that builders who cannot put off operations should
at once secure a supply sufficient to last them for several weeks.
. The probability of a sharp increase in prices is strong. Con¬
tractors are now paying about $10,50 per thousand, delivered.
Last spring's schedule was from $6 to $6.25, delivered. Some
cargoes can be expected from Long Island, but scarcely any from
Staten Island, where all the available stock will be needed for
the local trade. The ice cap on the Hudson is still hard and fast,
and though no one can foretell what the weather will do, the
general expectation Is that the flrst of April will scarcely see
clear sailing to Haverstraw Bay.





C. Clayton Bourne has leased the brickyard at Pishkill next
north of the one operated by him for several years past. The
yard leased is at present occupied by Mr, Dinan and is owned by
the Verplanck estate. The present occupant has expended con¬
siderable money on the yard, and Uriah Washburn of Haver¬
straw, John 'McNamara of Fishkill and Wm. H. Hilton of New¬
burgh were recently agreed upon by Mr, Bourne and Mr. Dinan
to appraise the amount to be paid by Mr. Bourne for the im¬
provements. The Dinan yard is the most northerly one of the
string of four or flve brick yards north of Fishkill.
LUMBER.
The National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association had a
pleasant convention in Washington this week. On Tuesday the
members were received at the White House in a body, and ad¬
dressed by the President, and on Wednesday night Secretary
Corteiyou, Secretary Shaw and several Senators addressed them
at a banquet. At Wednesday's session of the convention Chair¬
man R. W. Higbie presented the report of the committee on
railroad transportation, and explained the dissastisfaction ot
some of the delegates on account of alleged unfair treatment by
the railway systems. After the reading of the report a resolu¬
tion was adopted establishing a transportation bureau for the
protection of members of the association and the collection of
claims. The afternoon session was devoted to the consideration
of amendments to the by-laws and the election of officers. The
association elected the following officers to serve for the ensuing
year. Lewis C. Blade, Saginaw, Mich., president; Lewis Dili,
Baltimore, flrst vice-president; J. 'M. Hastings, Pittsburgh, sec¬
ond vice-president; F. W. Cole, New York, treasurer; G. F. Terry,
Ne-iv York, secretary; J. F. McKelvey, New Tork, general coun¬
sel.

FINISHED IRON AND STEEL.
Baltimore work is developing rather slowly for the structural
steel trade, and may at no time equal the high expectation. A keen
competition for the ferry conlracts yet to be given out here is
reported, though there is a strong likelihood now, after the recent
successful eft'orts of the Newport News Shipbuilding Company,
that outsiders will get the lion's share. At present the tonnage
of structural work going out is not heavy, though there are en¬
couraging features, as builders in various flelds who had put off
the idea of going on with their enterprise this year, are now ask¬
ing proposals for furnishing material.

Wire rods are the basis of the wire industry, and wires are
every(\'here in the building world. In 1890 this country produced
only 457,099 gross ions of rods, but in 1902 the output of rods
was 1,574,293 tons. Doubtless, in a few years the annual ton¬
nage of wire rods will exceed those of steel rails, which, in 1902,
was twice as much, but in 1890 was four times greater.
HARDWARE DEALERS' MEETING.
The second annual convention of the New Tork State Associa¬
tion of Retail Hardware Dealers will be held In Rochester on
March S, 9 and 10, at the Chamber of Commerce. The headquar¬
ters of the association will be at the Whltcomb House. A meet¬
ing of the directors will be held on Tuesday morning, 8th inst.
In the afternoon the convention will formally open al 2 o'clock.
Two sessions will be held on Wednesday the 9th, and as much of
thse sessions as may be required will be devoted to a discussion of
the relations of jobbers and manufacturers and their traveling
salesmen and the retail trade. The formal addresses at the
morning session will be by representatives of Russell & Erwin
Mfg Company, P. & P. Corbin, Reading Hardware Company,
Sargent & Co., Tale & Towne Mfg. Company, and other manu¬
facturers. There will also be a general discussion for the good
of the association. Both sessions on Thursday will be of an ex¬
ecutive character.

STONE  AND  ITS COUNTERFEITS.
The artificial stone men are growing in number and Influence.
Into every populous center their products are being invited, and
are continually multiplying.

The American Stone Co., of 1 Madison av, has been reorganized
under the name of The New York Cement-Stone Co., and re¬
taining the same officers. The officers are Philip P. Barrington,
president; Corydon T. Purdy, vice-president; Louis H. Scott, sec¬
retary-treasurer.

A quarry product tbat is coming into prominence in thia mar¬
ket is Medina stone, -which, appearing here in the latter part of
1902, was specified and furnished for 150,000 ft. of curb and 50,-
000 sq, yds. of paving blocks last year, a portion of which were
used in paving the approaches lo the new Wiiliamsburgh
Bridge, Medina stone was also furnished for several building
jobs, among -which were the Second Naval Battalion Armory in
Brooklyn, No. 160 Broadway, Manhattan, and the fire-engine
house at 164th st. and Intervale av.. Borough of the Bronx,' and
the prospects are that the sales for building purposes wilt be
considerably larger this year than the previous year. In regard
to curbing, it is expected tbat there will be a considerably larger
demand for Medina stone than last year, as orders are already
booked to nearly the extent of last year's business. Tbe de¬
mand for paving blocks is also active. Coming in two colors, a
light grey and a dark pink, 'Medina stone is a hard sandstone
with remarkably enduring qualities for paving blocks, and a
distinctive and attractive appearance for walls.

Tille to the land needed for the approach to the Willis Avenue
Bridge  from  the  Southern Boulevard will vest  In  the city on