ISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT. Apartment houses have been in vogue in the large cities of Conti nental Europe for some centuries, and, in Paris particularly, they have been developed to a high degree of elegance and luxury. In Great Britain, apartment houses have never become popular. In the United States, their develop ment began with the rush to the cities which fol lowed the Civil War. The chief causes which have led to their rapidly increasing popularity are: (1) The great congestion of population within a limited area in our large cities, which makes separate houses more and more imprac ticable; (2) the advantage of enjoying such common services as elevator, heat, artificial light, and hot water independent of the kitchen range, which can be furnished a group of families in a single building at much less cost than if those families were separated in isolated homes; (3) the migratory tendency among city dwellers which makes them prefer the easily vacated apartment to the more permanent house; and (4) the smaller amount of domestic service re quired in an apartment, which, in these days of high-priced and unsatisfactory servants, is per haps the most important consideration of all.
During the past few years, large numbers of apartment houses of the highest grade have been built in all large American cities, and have become popular among the most wealthy and luxurious classes of the people. A description of a single one of these highly developed modern structures will give an idea of the whole class.
The following account of an apartment house built in 1899. on upper Broadway, New York, is based on a description contained in the Engineer ing Record for January 20, 1900: Apartments in this building rent at from $2500 to $3000 annu ally. The building itself covers an entire block, and is fireproof in its construction. The main en trance leads into a vestibule, beyond which is a large hall and general reception-room where hall boys are in attendance. At the rear of the hall are the elevators which lead to general halls on each floor. Each apartment consists of a parlor, library, dining-room, kitchen. butler's pantry, servant's room, bathroom, servant's bathroom, and a number of bedrooms. Gas-ranges are used for cooking, so that neither coal nor ashes are encountered. The built-in refrigerators are kept at the proper degree of coldness by means of a refrigerating plant in the basement, thus exclud ing ice, also, from the apartments. I-Tot as well as cold water is furnished. There is an arrange ment in connection with the dining-room radia tors for plate-warming, as the apartments are heated by steam. The house is furnished with both gas and electric-light fixtures. Electricity is generated in the building, and is furnished to the tenants free until midnight., after which they must depend for light upon gas at their own expense. Every apartment is provided with a telephone from a private branch exchange. Household provisions are distributed by a freight elevator, and there is a separate servants' stair way. The mechanical plant which furnishes steam, hot water, electricity, and refrigeration to the building is situated in the basement. Con nected with it is an apparatus for drying clothes. This consists of a series of clothes dryers, heat being derived from a number of steam coil pipes and the air being circulated by an exhaust fan. In this and other high-class apartment
houses an elaborate ventilating system is pro vided. In some of the most recent houses the sleeping-rooms for the servants are grouped together upon the top floor. Occasionally a bar ber shop within the building is added to the list of conveniences accessible to its occupants.
It is interesting to compare such an American dwelling as the one just described with a French apartment house of the same grade. In Paris, the height of buildings is limited by law to five stories, so that it is impossible for a sin gle structure to accommodate the same number of families as in America, and hence the central mechanical plant must be less elaborate or, pro rata, more expensive. As a matter of fact, Parisians are only beginning to avail themselves of conveniences which American city dwellers have long considered essential. Hot air instead of steam heat is universal, a supply of hot water is seldom furnished, and only within a few years have adequate water-closets and other toilet facilities been enjoyed. The rooms of a Parisian apartment, hoWeve•, are likely to be larger, and greater in number, than in an American apart ment of the same grade. Prominent in the ar rangement of every suite is the principal bed room belonging to the mistress of the house, which is larger in comparison with the other rooms, and faces the street. Opening upon this bedroom is the boudoir or dressing-room. Beside the other bedrooms are the drawing-room or salon, the billiard-room, dining-room, and the butler's pantry, which separates the dining-room from the kitchen. The kitchen in proportions and importance ranks next to the principal bed room. The contrast is striking between such a suite of rooms and an American apartment, for in the latter the bedrooms are relegated to the rear and, like the kitchen, are extremely small in comparison with the parlor, library, and dining-room. In Parisian apartments the ser vants' rooms are on the top floor, a separate staircase is provided for them, and they are otherwise isolated from the rest of the family, as in many of the newest American apartments. In general the suites of a French apartment house are grouped around a central court; each suite is composed of a double row of rooms, the parlor and main chambers situated on the street and the dining-room and subordinate rooms upon the enurt, a hall separating the two groups of rooms. Recently a second hall or gallery has been intro duced in many apartments which connects parlor, (lining-room, and chambers, and is decorated with pictures, sculpture, and other works of art.
For legal restrictions regarding the various sanitary arrangements of apartment houses, see article TENEMENT HOUSE PROBLEM. The litera ture concerning apartment houses is confined to various articles in the technical magazines, some of which may be found in the following volumes: Volumes 40, 41. and 42 of the Engineering Record (New York) : Volume 7 of the Architec tural Record (New York) ; The Brick Builder (New York), for June, 1898. and an article on London and Paris flats in the British Architect (London), for February 3. 1889.