The Cost of Shelter by Ellen H. Richards
page 23 of 105 (21%)
page 23 of 105 (21%)
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CHAPTER III. LEGACIES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOT ADAPTED TO CHANGED CONDITIONS CAUSE PHYSICAL DETERIORATION AND DOMESTIC FRICTION. "A large part of the evils of which we complain socially to-day are due to the kind of houses we live in and the exactions they make upon us."--H.G. WELLS. Four classes of houses have come down to us: (1) The family homestead in the country set low on the ground with damp walls and dark cellar, one of a cluster of rambling buildings; with a well, the only water supply, in close proximity to various sources of pollution. These houses are for the most part now abandoned to the foreigner, who uses them for the primitive purposes of shelter without the ennobling intellectual life they once harbored. Now and then a grandson rescues the old place, brings water from a spring or brook, digs a drain, lets light into the cellar, and builds on a kitchen and dining-room. The expense is often greater than to build anew, but the effect is usually very good when the changes are made under sanitary supervision. (2) The village or suburban house set in its own grounds, too near the street usually, but with garden and fruit-trees in the rear, and possibly a stable for horse and cow. This was the compromise made by the generation just from the free life of the farm-house, who, consciously or unconsciously, clung to the green of grass and trees, and the blue of the |
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