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MARCH 30, 1912
AN IDEAL SEMI-SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT.
The Girard Estate in Philadelphia Has Succeeded In Supplying the Popular
Demand for Private Dwellings With All the Conveniences of Apartments.
NEAV tracts of suburban land are be¬
ing improA'ed in growing numbers by
development companies. In conimon with
Gity apartment Iiouse builders, suburban
development companies endeavor to offer
better and more convenient honies with
healthful and attractive surroundings.
Many of the suburban developments about
New York have attained a notable degree
of perfection, but it has remained for the
Girard Estale in Philadelphia to produce
â– within the city limits a suburban colony,
ideal from the standpoint of â– comfort and
yet not too expensive for people in mod¬
erate circumstances.
The Girard Eslate enjoys the distinc¬
tion of being the largest single owner of
real eslale in Philadelphia, Its founder,
Stephen Girard, like the first John Jacob
Astor, 'was a man of faith in real estate
as an investment. In his time Philadel¬
phia was a small city, yet he saw the
possibilities of growth, and acquired great
traicts of land nol only in the heart of the
city but miles away from the center of
activity. Before his death he established
of the streets and to look after the re¬
moval of waste and the general order and
cleanliness of those portions of the prop¬
erty usually left to the care of the occu¬
pant or the municipal authorities.
The most striking feature that one
notices on enlering the settlement is its
semi-suburban 'character—broad streets,
smooth and well-kept grass plots border¬
ing the sidewalks, double rows of shade
trees, porches and side yari3s and a diver¬
sified exterior design avhich effectually
dispels the idea of a "row" of houses. An¬
other significant thing is the absence of
any ash or garbage cans and the lack ol^
any evidence of ashes or house sweepings
in the streel. An ashman is unknown in
the district. As heat, light and hot water
are all furnished to the tenants from a
central plant, and as cooking is done hy
means of gas ranges, there is no necessity
for any fires within the houses. This
feature of the settlement is most important
as it effectually removes the greatest argu¬
ments against private house living,
namely, the labor and expense of running
from the disp-osal of waste 'paper and
sweepings when these are placed on the
sidewalk lo await removal by the City
contractor, each house is furnished with a
large canvas bag in which all such refuse
may be placed, and this receptacle is re¬
moved once every week by an employee
of the owner. This scheme prevents any
of the refuse escaping to the street and
has a marked effect on the appearance and
â– cleanliness of the neighborhood. The side
yards -between the houses are open to the
street and permit of all pac^kage deliveries
being made at the kitchen doors. The
property is worth, with the street improve¬
ment made, about $1,0110 for a 2,5 foot lot
and the houses range in cost from .'^3,000
to .i!-5,oOO each. The estate sets aside a
sinking fund of one-half of 1 per cent, of
the building 'Cost, which it is estimated
â– will in the long run cover the expense of
repairs.
The most important feature of the oper¬
ation, however, is the plan by which heat,
.electric light and hot water for domestic
purposes are furnished lo the tenant, who
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A TYPICAL STREET IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA,
the estate and, 'having no direct heirs,
placed it to a certain extent under the
jurisdiction of the city. Among other un¬
usual provisions of his will was the stipu¬
lation that none of the property should
ever be sold. Since his death the city has
grown in ail directions and the value of
his original holdings has enormously in¬
creased.
Among other lands Whi-ch he bought was
a LrSyCt of some flve hundred acres lying
to the south of the old â– city of Philadel¬
phia and not far from the League Island
Navy Yard. On a part of this property
he built a summer home, which still
exists, and the entire block surrounding
it has been planted with trees and shrub¬
bery and set aside as a public park.
Until recently the tract was used only for
farm purposes and was considered of lit¬
tle value. About two years ago, the city
having by this time 'grown out to the
northern boundary of the farm, the trus¬
tees decided to improve the tract and to
carry out the development along new and
untried lines. The result has been the
erection of a group 'Of dwellings, uniciue
In character and appointments, meeting
the modern requirements of city housing
and at the same time preserving the
valued characteristics of the private home,
to accomplish this it was found necessary
not only lo build the houses according to
very modern plans but also to undertake
the care incident to a proper maintenance
furnaces and the dirt attendant upon their
operation.
The houses are two and three stories in
â– height and are built in pairs, each side of
a double house â– being occupied by one
tenant. Several types of architecture
have been employed and the majority of
the houses are very artistic in design. A
number are of the bungalow type, others
have gambrel roofs and slill others show
Moorish and Italian characteristics. Some
are of brick, some of stone, and others
are faced wilh concrete, 'No two pairs of
similar architecture adjoin, a feature
which adds greatly to the general appear¬
ance of the streets. Each pair of dwell¬
ings has a frontage of either thirty-two
or thirty-six feet, and between the pairs
is a yard about twelve feet wide. There
are grass plots in front of the porches and
fair-sized yards in the rear of the build¬
ings. The houses are very well built and,
while not large, are of sufficient size to
accommodate 'Comfortably the average fam¬
ily. They have from seven lo eight rooms
each, besides a bath and laundry. The
â– cellars are large, dry and clean, and hav¬
ing no furnaces or hot water heaters to
take up space, -can be used to good ad¬
vantage for storage or amusement pur¬
poses. Many -of the tenants have fitted
up their cellars with billiard tables and
shuffle boards.
To avoid the dirt and disorder arising
helps himself by turning a valve or pres¬
sing a button. The idea of healing more
than one building from a single plant is
not entirely new. In our own city many
of the private houses on Madison avenue
and elsewhere are heated by steam taken
from pipes in the street. The New York
Steam Company, a private corporation,
supplies the steam at a fixed price per
annum. In several cases a row of apart¬
ment houses has been built by one owner
and a single heating plant supplies the
buildings. In the Eastern Parkway sec¬
tion of Bi'ooklyn a number of owners in
one small area have co-operated to heat
their houses from a central plant, but
nowhere in New York has this plan been
attempted by developers as an initial and
essential part of a suburban residential
operation. The plan of the Girard Estate
is not a co-operative scheme supported by
a few owners who may at any time with¬
draw their support, but a permanent ar¬
rangement, logically conceived and care¬
fully operated, lo furnish to a large num¬
ber of dwellings a maximum efficiency pf
service at a minimum cost.
The operation has met with marked
success. The estate at present has 2S5
houses, covering an area of about 160
acres, and of this number only eleven are
unoccupied. This spring another block of
fifty-four dwellings will be erected and it
is eventually expected to have in the