APARTMENT HOUSE. A building ar ranged in three or more suites of connecting rooms, each suite designed for independent house keeping, but with certain meehanieal conven iences, as heat, light, or elevatoriervice, fur nished in common to all the families occupying the building. Legally, there is no distinction, in the United States, between an apartment house and any other tenement. Popularly, the apart ment differs from the tenement in the greater elegance of architectural finish, in the larger number of conveniences, and in the greater com plexity of mechanical service furnished to all tenants from a central plant. Midway, in popu lar usage, between the tenement house on the one hand, which is the home of the poor, and the apartment house on the other, whose annual rentals place it beyond the means of those with moderate incomes, stands the flat, which, like the cottage of the suburb, is designed for people of moderate means. The distinction, however, be tween a flat and an apartment, is not well defined, and the term apartment is often applied to any well-appointed flat. In the article on "Apartments" in the Dictionary of Architecture and Building (New York, 1902), the term is limited to those suites of rooms for independent housekeeping which rent for more than $300 per annum.
The typical flat or less expansive apartment, in New York City consists of a parlor, two or more bedrooms, besides the servant's bedroom, a dining-room, bathroom, and kitchen. These
rooms either open directly into each other or are connected by a private hall. Ordinarily. they are arranged one behind the other, according to the rectangular shape of the ordinary city lot, and are reached by a common stairway, and often by an elevator. The provisions are brought up by a dumb-waiter or freight elevator. Light and air for the interior rooms are obtained by means of interior courts or air shafts. Of course, this general plan is subject to many modifica tions, depending on the size and shape of the house and the number of fiats on a floor. Flats are usually heated by steam or hot air and lighted by gas or electricity. 'Rot water is fre quently supplied. In the rooms are susceptible of much greater flexibility in ar rangement than in flats, as such buildings are usually built over several lots, and frequently cover an entire block. The number of services furnished by a central plant to all the tenants is also greatly increased. An apartment hotel litrers from an apartment house in that only living rooms are provided for the different fam ilies, who eat in a common dining-room, as do the guests of an ordinary hotel. In some of the newer and more elaborate apartment houses of New York there is a restaurant in the building, where families may eat meals or not, as they choose, there being a separate dining-room and kitchen in each apartment as well.