118                                         THE  TECHNOGRAPH.
 

APARTMENT HOUSES.
 

By Chables W. Noble, '95, Akchitectural Course.
 

This title, or one very similar, has graced many articles in
various periodicals during the past few years. These articles
have been of more or less merit and interest, varying with the
purpose of the-author and his particular view of the subject.

From an architect's standpoint, however, it may be said
that little of value is to be found in a condensed form, so
that a student is at quite a disadvantage in obtaining accurate
or useful information concerning this class of buildings. It be¬
comes necessary, in studying the subject, to examine many vol¬
umes of both American and foreign works on Architecture, and
to take from each such material as relates to the subject; for, so
far as I know, there is not any complete work devoted to this
subject alone, though certainly it contains material enough to
form one.

Many persons consider apartment houses as having been de¬
vised in recent years, but such is not the case, for the study of
Roman Architecture shows them to have been known to the Ro¬
mans and used by them to such extent that laws were enacted
which related to them, and one of these laws governed the
height of such structures.

During the Middle ages the majority of the people in all the
large cities of Europe are said to have lived in such houses. The
fact that, for the most part, the common people were practically
enslaved,—the nobility owning all land, and owners, then as now
building for revenue—and, further, the extent of the city wall,
(an important thing in the matter of its defense, and all cities
were then thus fortified), demanded a compact arrangement of
habitations.

No accurate description of the arrangement of Roman houses
has come down to us; but from such matter as is recorded, it may