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OCTOBER 5, 1912
THE WHITEHALL BUILDINGS AT GREYSTONE, R. I.
A Mode! Block of Tenements and Stores Erected by Joseph Benn & Sons of
England, in the Village of Detached Cottages Adjacent to Their American Mills.
By F. P. SHELDON & SONS, Architects.
GREYSTONE, formerly an obscure
village of Rhode Island, was in 1904,
chosen as the site for the Araerican
branch of the manufacturing concern of
Joseph Benn & Sons, Inc., of England,
manufacturers of textile fabrics. Besides
possessing all of the more practical re¬
quirements of a manufacturing site, it is
in itself a very attractive landscape, on
the edge of a river, surrounded with
wooded hills. In 1904 there was an in¬
significant number of cottages there, but
since that time there has been developed
along with the material progress and
growth of the manufacturing business, a
niodel village of over 100 detached cot¬
tages, each with bath rooms, hot and
CQld -water, the best of sanitary equip¬
ment, electric lights, new streets, etc.
Up to a year ago the village still lacked
a proper collection of stores and shops.
Mr. Benn decided to supply this want
and, at the same time a tenement bloclc
tion; and flnally, the structure should be
made tolerably pleasing to the eye on the
exterior, and substantially built.
To make the building flreproof, we
eliminated the uses of wood to a great ex¬
tent, although we did not go to the ex¬
pense of metal windows, doors, and trim.
This seemed hardly necessary, consider¬
ing the other non-combustible features of
the building, and the fact that it was so
completely divided into sections by flre
walls and flreproof floors. One of the un¬
usual stipulations of our client was that
there should be no posts or supports un¬
der the flrst tier of balconies on either
the front or rear. This made it necessary
to adopt cantilever piazzas, to which re¬
inforced concrete lent itself admirably,
by simply extending the floor slabs
through the walls. Of course, the design¬
ing of these cantilever piazzas required
very careful study, and the building of
them required very careful workmanship
and although it is now a year since com¬
pletion, and the piazzas have been sub«
ject meantime to the summer's hot suns,
no cracks have appeared.
The structure is four stories above the
ground in the rear, but only three In
front, determined by the contour of the
building site. This made possible rear
tenements in the basement. Back of these
basement tenements are the cellars for
the use of the basement tenants and the
storekeepers and the flrst floor tenants.
The tenements in the basement are ex¬
actly like the tenements in the flrst story,
the cellars being located underneath the
stores on the front of the building. The
tenements in the rear of the stores and
the basement tenements were laid out
primarily for the use of the shop keepers.
These basement tenements and the tene¬
ments above them on the flrst floor have
flve rooms each, in addition to the cellar
room, consisting of a living room or kit-
End and Side -View from Street, Showing Store Front with Gallery
above aad Ramp from Grade to Main Floor.
Rear Elevation, Showing the Architects' Use of Existing Grades, with
Ramp to Gallery and Double Tiers o£ Living Porches.
to house the shopkeepers and better paid
operatives in the mills. We should at the
beginning state that it was not contem-
plMed as an investment in the sense of
providing a fair return on the ccst, but
â– was rather a philanthropic enterprise for
the betterment of tenement conditions,
and the particular needs of this village.
The rent of the tenements and stores*
was, of course, limited by the amount
the operatives could afford to pay. The
same building in other locations could
easily command much more rent for both,
and it -would then give a good return on
the money invested. It still could have
been a paying proposition even with low
rents, had many of the decorative fea¬
tures been omitted such as the battle¬
ment wall and limestone trimming, the
white pressed brick, the wrought iron
piazza rails, etc., and still retain all of
the flreproof features.
The first requisite for a building hous¬
ing many people is that it should be fire¬
proof, although there are no building laws
in Greystone that would require it. Sec¬
ond, the sanitary equipment should be of
the best, not only for the comfort of tiie
tenants, but also as a prevention against
disease. Next, the arrangement of rooms
should be compact and convenient, and
the rooms well supplied with windows for
ample daylight, sunshine, and ventila¬
te insure the proper placing of reinforce¬
ment and the concrete, as any defect in
either design or workmanship would
cause disastrous results.
The general dimensions of the building
are readily seen in the accompanying
plans, and the photographs give a fair
idea of the exterior appearance. Wc
should say here that the form, size, and
dimensions of the structure were limited
and prescribed by the building site. The
interior arrangement was largely worked
out by our client, as best suited to the
usual requirements and tastes of English
operatives. Architecturally speaking, the
overhanging piazzas may be criticized,
and from a utility point of view, no doubt
many will criticize the fact of having
only one main entrance to the building,
that Is, the incline at one end, but this
and other unusual features were desired
by our client ,and the plans were there¬
fore developed along these lines.
As a further point of Interest, it might
be aded that most of the reinforced con¬
crete was laid during the months of De¬
cember, January, and February; and
proper precautions having been taken,
not the slightest defect has developed
in the -work done in freezing weather, un¬
der the severest conditions of snow and
ice. To prevent cracks, the piazzas were
thoroughly reinforced against expansion,
chen, pantry, bath room, and two bed
rooms.
On the next two floors are tenements of
more rooms than those mentioned above,
but they have no cellars or communica¬
tion with the cellars in the basement.
Ueing one story above the ground, they
are reached by the incline shown at one
end of the building, which incline is con¬
structed of concrete. This broad incline
to the flrst tier of piazzas on the front
is really the main thoroughfare to the
tenements on the second floor. A flre
escape on the rear furnishes a second
means of egress.
The second floor tenements, having no
cellars, are supplied with a coal and
wood room out of each Kitchen or living
room. The coal rooms were designed to
carry from four to five tons of coal, which
is dumped into them through cast iron
coal chutes in the rear wall. For the
removal of ashes and garbage boxes are
provided on two projections of the rear
balconies. Passing through these two
projections is an 18-inch pipe runningi
from the second tier piazza in the rear
to the ground, with a Y-branch near the
ground for diverti|ig the ashes into a
cart. When the ash cans and garbage
boxes are filled, the contents are dumped
down one of these two pipes into a cart
below and taken away. There is also a
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