In fixing the ground plans of the several dwellings allowance was made for the high standard of the workingman's life at present, and accommodations of two rooms, therefore, were altogether abandoned, and sets of three or more rooms only were admitted. Each one family cottage was given a small garden and houses of two or more stories were provided with verandas and loggias, to afford their occu pants a sitting place in the open air. Each kitchen was also provided with a larder.
The first lot of houses in Alfredshof was erected on the cottage system, in one, two, three and four family cottages, in rows, each con taining a small number of houses. To each family-lodging a small garden is attached. The dwellings in the semi-detached or double semi detached cottages are also completely separated, each family having its own private entrance through its own garden. At the entrance of each dwelling is a veranda.
In 1899 construction work in Alfredshof came temporarily to an end. When it was re sumed in 1907, the ground had in the meantime become so dear that it was deemed inadvisable to continue the system. Therefore, in order to utilize the building space more rationally, and in order to provide a sufficient number of dwell ings in the neighborhood of the works, corre sponding to the increased number of working men, a more compact mode of building had to be adopted.
The question could only be solved by the multiple-storied house arranged in flats, which at the same time afforded the possibility of har monizing the colony architecturally with the town houses in the vicinity. The houses were arranged in blocks, an arrangement already adopted in the Friedrichshof. By an artistic grouping of the blocks, by leaving sufficient open ground, lawns and playgrounds between, and by carefully preserving existing trees, this new part of Alfredshof was made to answer all modern requirements as regards healthfulness and beauty.
In opposition to the Altenhof and the older part of the Alfredshof, this colony was from the very beginning erected on the system of the two or more storied house on account of the valuable and rather limited building space. Six
or four families enter the residence from one common entrance, and two or three families have one laundry in common. But apart from the street door each dwelling has its own pri vate front door on the landing.
The three or two storied houses of this col ony are united into more or less large blocks, which are grouped around squares and play grounds, so tnat lignt and tresn air is abundant. The trees and shrubs that grow in abundance afford a very pleasant and agreeable aspect.
Other notable German garden cities are Wandbeck and Altona, near Hamburg. The former covers about 10 acres and has 150 houses, while the latter is still under construc tion, with municipal assistance. It will ulti mately provide for a population of 30,000 per sons. In addition a large number of co-oper ative associations have been formed in Germany at Rostock, Plauen, Tilsit, Bonn, Chemnitz, Aachen, Halle, Dortmund, Erfurt, etc., and a considerable number of garden cities have been under construction or completed.
Industrial home towns is the usual term in the United States for what the British call garden cities, and the Germans, (Workingman's colonies." The basic principles are practically the same, the exception being that in British practice there are fewer houses per acre that is, more ground is allotted to gardens, lawns, parks, playgrounds and streets. The Hempstead suburban garden has eight one family houses per acre, exclusive of streets; Hempstead tenants, 10; Ilford, eight; Letch worth Garden City, 12 one-family houses per net acre. American industrial home towns have as many as 18, and even more, houses per net acre.
Notable among the industrial house towns of the United States are those of the Goodyear Heights Realty Company, Akron, Ohio; Keno sha Home Association, R Kenosha, Wis.; Dela ware and Lackawanna Railroad Company, Kist ler, Pa.• the Improved Housing Association, New Haven, Conn.; aside from those men tioned, there are numerous other industrial home town developments now under way in various parts of the country.