Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/379

 1868.] Descriptions. 311 strong and feeble. For this reason, it is of essential importance, that the lat- ter should be perfectly easy of access, and not be in anyway rendered difficult to any member of the church, by un- necessarily long flights of stairs. In many instances, in our large churches, where there are basement sto- ries, Galleries have also been erected on three sides of the Audience-Room, intended to accommodate from 250 to 300 persons, or nearly half the number for whom there are sittings on the Main floor. This arrangement involves the necessity of having two extra flights of stairs, meeting in the same vestibule, on the front, with the others leading to the basement and from the entrance. When the congregation is dismissed, this causes the vestibule and stairways to be crowded and choked up, rendering egress at all times most unpleasant, and, to many, unbearable. The popular impression, that the two-story plan is less expensive, than that where Audience-rooms, Sunday- schools, and, in short, all the accommo- dations required are on one floor — con- joined with limited space — has perhaps been the reason why these two-story edifices have been constructed at all. This idea is founded on the supposition, that the. saving is effected, by there being a smaller amount of wall, and roofing ; the fact of the additional height of the walls, and the extra thickness required, in order to secure a proper degree of strength — together with the additional length of building necessary to obtain sufficient space for the stair- ways — being altogether ignored. It has been proved by indisputable figures, backed by actual experiment, that the saving effected, in the one case, is fully counterbalanced by the additional cost, in the other ; that the additional stone work in the walls, in the former, is just about equal to the extra height required in the latter ; and that the cost of the greater necessary depth of vestibule and stairways is equivalent to the saving on the Roof. There would be no diminu- tion, whatever, in the relative cost in the details of Flooring, Plastering, Painting, Windows, &c, as about an equal amount of each would be requisite in either case. It is our intention, in a future number, to give a detailed Esti- mate and Bill of Quantities — showing the exact cost of each of two edifices, built on these two distinct plans, and having the same capacity in every way — which will corroborate what we have here stated, from our own practical ex- perience and knowledge, that the advan- tage, if any, is in favor of the plan in which the whole of the accommodation is on one floor. We must now proceed, however, to take up the subject of our Plate, and to describe the ground-plan in detail. The Church has a Tower at one corner A, eighteen (18) feet square, exclusive of the buttresses, and eighty-six (86) feet high. The Vestibule B is fifteen (15) feet wide; and contains two large stairways, leading to the Audience- room. This Vestibule is accessible from the Tower, and also from the op- posite side, or flank, of the building. The Basement rooms are entered, through doors, placed beneath the stairs, into a Centre Vestibule at B, as before mentioned. From this, a passage or Hall, eight feet wide, leads to the Lec- ture and School-room C, a fine, capa- cious apartment, 48 feet by 49^ feet. The Infant-school room D lies on the right of the passage, between the Vesti- bule B and large School-room C, is 20 feet by 28 feet, and entered from the hall — having glass partitions along the Large School-room which can be thrown open, converting the two rooms into one at pleasure. On the opposite side of the Hall are two Class-rooms E E, each 14 feet by 20 feet, having entrances from the pass- age, but not communicating one with the other. At the extreme end of the Lecture-room C is a Library F, 9 feet by 12 feet, a recess for a pulpit at G,