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CHAPTER III CITY HOMES
THE problem of the house in town differs from that of the larger apartment, not so much on the decorative side as on the architectural. The rooms may individually be like apartment rooms but the structure of the whole menage is different.
We encounter, here in New York, two chief types of houses: the modern American basement residence with its entrance on a level with the street, its large foyer within, with the kitchen hidden behind it, and, on the floor above, another foyer with the drawing room in front and the dining room and pantry behind. It is generally five stories high, is often equipped with an elevator and it possesses passable mantels, lighting fixtures, staircases and wall treatments.
The other type is the regular brown stone, high-stoop dwelling, of which there were thousands built within the past half century, generally with a dingy hallway and vestibule, a long narrow parlor, with a front basement below, and a dining room or back parlor behind. Such a house seems scarcely habitable to our more artistic contemporary taste; it usually has to be altered. And considerable skill has been developed by architects and builders in making these alterations.
First of all, the stoop is demolished and the entrance
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made in the former basment hall, a trifle below the level of the street. This hall is widened by tearing out the existing basement wall and it then becomes a very acceptable foyer, capable of excellent decoration and furnishing. There we find frequently a marble fountain near the doorway, a settee of marble, stone or wood, consoles and straight formal chairs. The lighting is furnished by side brackets and a center hanging lantern as well as torcheres, which may stand at either side of an important piece.
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