AND   BUILDERS







GUIDE





Vol. XI.                      NEW YORK, SATUEDAY, JANUARY 4, 1873.                          No. 251.





Ptibîixhed M'eeklu h'u

THE REAL ES PATE REOOUD  ASSOCIATION.

TERIK.

One year. In adv.ince......................§6 00

AU cominiinications should lie addressed to

C   "W.   SWKEIT.

7 AND 9 WAUREN STRKHTT.





No receipt for inoiiey due tire RK.\.Ti Est.\te Riccoiin
will be acknowledged unlo.sf^ siiçned by one oE our regnlar
collectors. Heniiy D, S.Mri'ii or Thomas P, Commings.
A.11 bîlls for collection wiU be sent frotn the office ou a regit-
larly priiited form.





A Complexe Index of the New York Con-
veyances of Real Estate, as pnblished in the
Record, arranged so that at a glanée référence
can be made to the sale of any lot published in
the last volume, will be ready for deliyery next
week. Application should be made imniedi-
ately, in person or by letter, at the ofiBLce of the
Recoud.





Attention is directed to the very able re-
view of the Canada Lumber Market for the
year 1873, compUed and arranged by our spécial
Correspondents, Messrs. Carbray & Routh.





ABÏÏSE OF THE MANSAET ilOOF.
The London Standard^ in commenting upon
tîie late Boston fire, and the important part
played in it by the so-caUed Mansart roofs,
makes some severe comments upon our abuse
of this really handsome architectural feature,
and in doing so takes the opportunity of read-
ing us a lecture upon certain other architectural
peculiarities among us, which unfortunately
strikes rather hard, as no one of any observa¬
tion can venture to deny the truthf ulness of the
remarks. Treating of the Bo.ston fire the writer
says :—

By far the larger part of the buildings de-
stroyed in the late fire at Boston, after rising
flve or six stories into the air, were surmounted
by tall sloping roofs, miscalled after Mansart,
the great French architect. whose name is thus
unjustly consigned to lastingdishonor in Ameri¬
ca. Thèse roofs were whoUy of timber, thiniy
sheathed with slate or zinc, and, consequently,
were nothing more nor less than great tinder-
boxes, which blazed up with inconceivable
rapidity as the fiâmes f rom the other side of
the Street were blown over against them. At
this great height,often 100 ft. above the ground,
the streams from the fire-engines could do little
exécution, and thus, in a short time, whole
acres of warehouses were on fire at the top, and
it seemed impossible to prescribe bounds to the
area of dévastation.

This is but a réitération of the testimony that
was given by ail the correspondents of our own
newspapers, and although the Boston disaster
has had the effect of throwing discrédit upon
the Mansart roof—to a;n extent almost to insure
the future prohibition of it-ritis very clear that





the fault was not  in the use but the abuse of ■ fui and beautiîul, regardless  of  ail  dictation





an architectural feature which intrinsically has
nothing dangerous .about it, if only properly
constructed, as it might be made compulsory to
be. In alluding to that insane thirst after
mère novelty and f ashion in architecture, which
we hâve so often deprecated in thèse columns,
the Standard says :—

In the United States certain architectural
novelties and innovations hâve a run like anew
style of dres~à or a new pattern of vehicle. In
former days, not very long ago, the Grecian
architecture was the fashion, and houses of ail
conceivable kinds, churches, collèges, gaols,
private dwellings, were erected after the man-
ner of the Athenian temples. Parthenons of
piue and Erechthemns of lath and plaster arose
ail over the land, the village school-house had
its portico and the rich man's country-seat
boasted its péristyle, To the Grecian succeeded
the Gothic Pointed manner, in which ail new
structures were built, from a pork-packing
house to a penitentiary. Tins flourished for
a time and passed away. At the présent mo¬
ment the reigning madness in architecture is
the Mansart roof, which is indisciiminately ap-
plied to houses of ail shapes and pattems, large
azid smaU, without the least regard to the pur-
poses for which they are intended. Many of
thèse roofs are themselves of three stories, and
rise forty feet or fifty feet above the eaves or
cornice, and as in ninety-nine cases in a hun-
dred they are made of wood, with the flimsiest
covering, they ofEer to a fire the greatest possi¬
ble opportunity for working mischief.

Could any photograph be more truthful ?
Take a walk through the city, that portion of
it especially above Union square which has of
late years become so prolific in huge hôtels,
and look at the many buildings that answer
precisely this description. How short a time
ago, too, is it when the Mansart roof was utterly
ttnknown hère, when indeed the roof seemed to
be eonsidered as a thing to be kept out of sight,
and fiât tin roofs surrounded by copings were
univei"sal. But when the ' ' fashion " once be-
gan, how rapidly it took—in Boston and Chica¬
go it went at last literally like wild-fire—and
eveiy one who wanted his house ^or store alter-
ed came to the conclusion that the only way to
hâve a fashionable and genteel appearance was
to top it with a Mansart. A device which was
originally intended to take away from the in-
ordinate height of buildings was hère—by a
ridiculous misapplication of idea—actually used
to increase it, and the meanest little two-story
shanties, in trying to ape the dignity of thetr
neighbors, instead of increasing the height of
their front walls, deliberately stuck on one or
two stories of flimsy slanting roofs and dormers,
and then thought they had done something
grand in the fashionable "Mansart" line. A
little dwai-f trying to add to his stature and
dignity by donning the shako of some gigantic
grenadier cotdd not make himself more prepos-
terously absurd. Until our proprietois, archi-
tects and builders leam how to follow the use-





from the shaUow whims of fashion, they must
expect to fînd their productions the butts of
ridicule not only eibroad but at home.





WEY NOT COMPAETaiEïrTSI
In view of the singular fatality from fire
which has attended granité and iron structures
recently, it would be well for the business com-
munity to take into considération, the subject
of compartment stores and buildings. If busi¬
ness édifices were subdivided by iron partitions,
with ii-on doors and shutters, fires might be con-
fined to the location whence they originate.
Mr. A. T. Stewart's great store is fire-proof, but
it is fiUed with inflammable goods. Let thèse
catch fire aud there is nothing to prevent the
fiâmes rushingup thewide staircases, and min-
ing the goods in the upper stories ; but were it
possible to eut off sections of the store so as to
isolate the fiâmes, many valuable buildings
might be saved. Ad this is cqjropos of the bum-
ing of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

The destruction of fire-proof buildings, so
caUed, is really a serions matter and a discrédit
to our architects. Our financial institutions de-
mand absolute security from fire, and the con-
structors of our future warehouses and stores
must see to it that they can erect buildings saf e
from so dire a disaster.

A peculiar mode of fire Insurance is prac-
tised in France, by which a party can insure
himself from any damages that may occur to
his property through fire arising on a noighbor's
promises, but not if the fire originates on his
own. The object of this is evidently to cieate
greater care and watehf alness on the part of
each householder, making each individual, as it
were, a watchman against fire. The scheme
seems an ingenious one ; for whUe it insures a
man against the négligence of others, which is
beyond his control, it makes each man individu-
ally responsible for the carelessness of his own
household, which is about the surest way of
guaranteeing watchfulness on the part of indi"
viduals. It also seems only just that responsi-
bility should f ail where it really belongs, and
hence the scheme is in every respect a very f air
one. So many instances are constantly occur-
ring of fires originating from the greatest négli¬
gence or oversight, by which people endanger
the property of others wMle their own may be
carefully covered by insurance, that this scheme,
when closely investigated, appears a very ingem-
ous way of meeting the difficuJty. At any rate,
if it succeeds in France, there is no reason why
it should not equaUy do so hère, where reckless-
ness is perhaps more of a gênerai characteristic
than in any other quarter of the civilized world.
Under such a system not only would a larger
amoïint of gênerai wat«hfui;iess.resylt, feïlt an