. New Boston; a chronicle of progress in developing a greater and finer city--under the auspices of the Boston-1915 movement. irty years ago. Strangers say theylook to them like half a house. Thenagain, they are so very low between thestories, with a very few memorable excep-tions, that no architectural grandeuris ever attained. Boston houses of thefirst class, however, those constructedduring the last few years, are convenient,elegant and certainly beautiful. A pre-vailing mistake is noticeable in makingthem too narrow. A cramped lot fromtwenty to twenty-five front width neces-sarily gives a
. New Boston; a chronicle of progress in developing a greater and finer city--under the auspices of the Boston-1915 movement. irty years ago. Strangers say theylook to them like half a house. Thenagain, they are so very low between thestories, with a very few memorable excep-tions, that no architectural grandeuris ever attained. Boston houses of thefirst class, however, those constructedduring the last few years, are convenient,elegant and certainly beautiful. A pre-vailing mistake is noticeable in makingthem too narrow. A cramped lot fromtwenty to twenty-five front width neces-sarily gives a narrow entry, a poor stair-way, a bad landing, like a footpathbetween two boulders, narrow parlors,unless bad proportions are propagatedthrough the whole. . The fronts of thirty-two and fortyfeet j)ave the w^ay for those proportionsbetween width, depth and height, onwhich elegance, either externally or in-ternally, absolutely depends. A neara])proach to the correct style is found atthe foot of Beacon Street. . A peculiar passion has been dominantin Boston among builders to have half ANCIENT AND MODERN BOSTON 1G9. COLONNADE ROW IN It appears destined for retail shops and a more splendid position could not b selected for a first-class series of stores basement stories. Human beings weredesigned to live above ground. Thesehalf-buried rooms are usually damp, thewoodwork absorbs moisture and prema-turely decays. Paint is affected, changedin color in some localities, especially onmade land, and finally, a defective drain-age is not an unusual accompanimentof basement kitchens; and fetid waterevaporating slowly and a tainted atmo-sphere are cogent reasons for not multi-plying such places in compact settlementswhere sun is too much excluded evenwithout them. There is no hope or expectation ofimprovement in the architecture of the public buildings of Jioston till the frownsof outraged taste revolutionize the systemwhich has been both operative and dom-inant through its entire hist
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbostonm, bookyear1910
