[Illustration: ONE-STORY COTTAGE--FLOOR PLAN]
Soon after some excellent two-story brick cottages of modern construction were built. The superintendent said to one of the house fathers: “You have done so well in this temporary cottage that we intend to give you one of the new cottages.” The house father replied that he and his wife would prefer to remain in the one-story cottage. This preference led to a study which resulted in the construction of three one-story brick cottages, two of which had a small basement under a part of the building, and the other had no excavation. The first two one-story cottages were planned by Mr. T. E. Billquist, architect, and have been in satisfactory use for a number of years.
The writer said to one of the cottage matrons: “You have worked in a one-story cottage and in a two-story cottage: which do you prefer?” She replied: “The one-story cottage is greatly to be preferred. The matrons in the two-story cottages are tired to death climbing up and down stairs. When they are upstairs, the boys are doing mischief on the first floor, and vice versa. But I can stand in the door of my room and can see the kitchen, the dining-room, the living-room, the porch, the dormitory, and the locker room, and it makes the work very much easier.”
We submit a photograph of the exterior and floor plan of a one-story cottage, which was built without any excavation. Heat was supplied by natural gas, which simplified the problem. The dormitory contained 20 beds and was readily overlooked from the adjoining room of the house father. The foundation and the floor were of concrete, and the superstructure of brick. A large part of the work of construction was done by the boys.
In the first two cottages small basements contain heating apparatus, lavatories, and playroom for stormy weather. All of these one-story cottages are attractive in appearance inside and out. The temporary one-story “shacks,” built in 1911, are still in use. They cost only $4,000 each.
The one-story plan is gradually coming into favor. At Mooseheart, the great institution for dependent children, maintained by the Loyal Order of Moose, they have adopted as a standard cottage unit a one-story cottage for 16 children, with two dormitories containing eight beds each.