Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/799



A Four-Family Apartment House

By George M. Petersen

ĈHE four-family apartment house, and apartment houses in general, are, properly speaking, tenement houses and are so classed under the rules of the Board of Health and Bureau of Buildings in most of the citiesof thiscoun- try. While the origin of the four-family apartment is somewhat mysterious, it was probably designed by someone who wanted the class of tenants known in the large cities as "flat dwellers" and who also wanted more rents than could be obtained from a two-family house. The modern four-family apartment is nothing more nor less than two two-family houses joined together on a common wall.

The wall dividing the house in the center is of either fireproof or fire-resist- ing material; such as hollow tile, old brick, concrete blocks or stone, although the hollow tile is the most commonly used. This fireproof wall extends the entire length of the house and from the cellar floor to the ridge of the roof without an opening of any kind except a fire-door in the cellar and the entrance doors to the apartments.

The building shown in Fig. i is 32 ft. wide by 72 ft. long and is built on a lot 55 ft. wide by 160 ft. deep.

The living-rooms and dining-rooms in this house are finished in a fumed oak effect, while the bedrooms and bath- rooms are either natural oak or white enamel. The rear halls may be finished in the same kind of wood as that used for the bedrooms.

Bathroom floors should be of hard lozenge tile to prevent the absorption of water, but should never be glazed, as the constant wear and tear to which the av'erage bathroom floor is subjected will crack the glaze and disfigure the floor.

The floors throughout the remainder of the house should be of oak, with the exception of the kitchen floor, which may be of maple.

With a properly constructed house a four-family apartment is as desirable as is a two-family flat and has the advan-