of the building; and the working of the same since the building has been occupied, has been satisfactory.

The heating power is obtained from the steam boilers before alluded to. All of the rooms are heated by hot air radiated from apparatus located in the cellar. The halls and corridors are heated by direct radiation.

Electric bells and speaking tubes place the master's room in communication with all of the principal rooms. Blackboards are formed on every side of the class and recitation rooms. Water is carried to each floor, at two places in the central hall. And everything, both in the finishing and furnishing of the building, which would add to its efficiency and the comfort and convenience of its occupants, has been liberally supplied.

The exterior is simple in its design and construction; symmetry, harmony, and stability having been studied rather than novel and striking effects. The nature of the accommodations required in the internal arrangement, rendered it impracticable to make any prominent breaks in the outlines of the building; but the slight projections at the corners and in the centre, with the breaks in the roof lines, relieve the mass from any appearance of heaviness. The walls of the basement, from the ground line up to the first story, are faced with light-colored granite ashler work, from the Blue Hill quarries, in the State of Maine. The work is dressed with a bevelled channel at the joints be tween the courses, and the upper course at the height of the first floor is capped with a heavy moulded belt course. Above the basement the walls are faced with pressed bricks. The windows and entrances are trimmed with light-colored freestone, from Nova Scotia. A belt course of the same material at the height of the second story extends entirely around the building. The openings of the doorways are 12 feet wide by 15 feet high; the sides are finished with rustic block work, over which are heavy moulded archivolts and cornices, and over the cornices are stone balustrades. Over the entrance at each end

of the corridor is a semicircular arched window, 12 feet wide and 28 feet high, with deep stone jambs. On the face of the arch stones the name of the school is cut in bold raised letters. The main cornice is of wood, with copper gutters; the cornice is ornamented with brackets and dentils. The corners and central projection on the Newton street side are finished with high Mansard roofs. In the centre of each street front is a triple Luthern window, 20 feet wide. On each face of the corner projections is a double Luthern window. The Mansard roofs are crowned by ornamental cast-iron snow-guards. The roof of the main body is what is termed a hipped roof, pitching from each side towards the middle of the building. The main roof is truncated about 30 feet back from the face of the outer walls, above which is a flat occupying a space about 70 feet by 84 feet and which is surrounded by a wooden balustrade. On the middle portion of the flat roof stands an octagonal structure, 30 feet in diameter, which, in connection with the roof, is designed to be used as an observatory for astronomical observations. The main shaft of the ventilator passes up through the centre of the observatory, and terminates above the same in an octagonal cupola, 37 feet high from its base up to the ball of the vane. The body of the cupola is 13 feet in diameter, and 15 feet high; in each face is an outlet for air, 3 feet wide by 8 feet high. The whole is surmounted by a 15-inch gilded ball and gilded vane. The whole height, from the ground line at the base of the building to the ball of the vane, is about 150 feet.

The work has been faithfully and well done under the general direction of the Committee on Public Buildings, and the personal supervision of James C. Tucker, the efficient Superintendent of Public Buildings. The contract for the masons' work was awarded to Wm. Sayward, the carpenters' work to Morton & Chesley, the painters' work to Wm. H. Emerson, the plasterers' work to Lawrence Cleary, the roofing to C. S. Parker &

Sons, the plumbers' to Lockwood & Lumb, the heating to Geo. W. Walker & Co., the school furniture to Wm. G. Shuttuck, the bells to A. Michaut.

Cost of the land, $60,206.49; building, $234,563.36; furniture, $15,947.66; total, $310,717.51.

HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, DORCHESTER. This beautiful structure had been commenced and was well advanced in its construction when Dorchester became a part of the city, January, 1870, after which time the finishing and furnishing was carried out under the direction of the Committee on Public Buildings. The site of the building is at the corner of Dorchester avenue and Centre street. The structure is two stories high, exclusive of basement and attic. The walls of the superstructure are of brick, faced externally with pressed bricks. The trimmings of the doors and windows, and also the angle quoins, are of Nova Scotia freestone. The basement is, externally, about 5 feet high above the ground, and is of granite. The walls are finished with a handsome cornice, composed partly of stone and partly of wood and bricks, with copper gutters. Above the main cornice is a high Mansard roof, which is surmounted by an ornamental, ventilating turret, about 30 feet high. The main building is 80 feet by 43 feet. Projecting from the middle of each of the two longer sides is a wing, 16 feet by 34 feet, and in front of each wing is a brick and stone porch, or vestibule, about 7 feet by 12 feet. The wings are occupied by the staircases and cloak-rooms. In the basement story is a chemical lecture-room and laboratory, a room for the steam-heating apparatus, coal-room, and a room on each side of the building for dry earth-closets. On the first floor is a large class-room, a lecture-room, and library. In the second story are three class-rooms. The whole of the attic story of the main building is devoted to an assembly hall. The basement is finished 10

feet high; the first and second stories each 14 feet high, and the assembly hall 16 feet high. The interior is finished throughout with ash. The furniture is of oak. All of the modern improvements have been supplied, and the whole interior is as convenient and pleasing as any structure of the kind in the city. The building will accommodate about 200 pupils. The final working plans were prepared by Geo. Ropes, architect; Wm. Sayward was the contractor for the masons' work, and Edward McKechnie for the carpenters' work. Cost of the land and building $90,580.51.

THE SHERWIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE. This school-house, built in 1869-70, is located upon a lot between Windsor and Sterling streets, in Ward 14, with a frontage upon each street of 178 feet, and a depth of 180 feet. Externally, the building is quite plain and simple in treatment, built of brick, with granite trimmings. The walls are relieved by slightly projecting wings upon fronts and sides, each of which finishes in a gable roof. The building is three stories in height, and contains 16 school-rooms, each 28 by 32 feet, and an exhibition hall in the third story, 50 by 82 feet. The basement is 10 feet high, the first and second stories 13 feet each, and the third story 17 feet. The body of the house, including the projections, is 93 by 111 feet. The main hall runs longitudinally through the building, from front to front, 24 feet in width, and communicates with abroad staircase at each end. The basement is devoted to fuel-rooms and play-rooms. An experiment is being made in this school-house with earth closets, the system so extensively and successfully used in England; if satisfactory, it is likely to be adopted in all school-houses in which good drainage is impossible. The exhibition ha!l, which is one of the largest in the city, is an elegant, imposing room, symmetrical, well lighted and ventilated. In all particulars, this school-house is a well built, commodious and creditable building throughout. The

architects were Emerson & Fehmer; the mason, Wm. Sayward; the carpenters, Chamberlain & Marston. The furniture was furnished by Joseph L. Ross and John C. Hubbard. Cost of land, $22,428; building, $103,906.53; furniture, $6,999.57. Total, $133,334.10.

12

DEARBORN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON HIGHLANDS.— The old building, before the recent enlargement and remodelling, was a brick structure measuring 60 by 72 feet, having a projection on the front of 12,2 by 36 feet, and a projection on the rear of 40 by 58 feet, two finished stories in height, each of 14 feet, with a cellar under the same, and an attic story over the second story, which was finished off into school-rooms; each end of the building was finished with a pediment, having upright windows in each.

12

The enlargement of the building consisted in the raising of the roofs of the entire structure 17 feet, and building new exterior brick walls from the old walls to the roofs, with new pediments, furnishing thereby an exhibition hall over the entire main building, and two additional school-rooms. The rooms in the attic are abandoned.

The remodelling consisted in the building of brick in place of the wood partitions, and of new stairs and staircases, and the entire removal of all chimneys and ventilators, and the building of new chimneys, ventilators and ventiducts, and the consequent changes required in the walls to receive them. Each school-room has now two ventiducts, 16 by 20 inches, carried up to the ventilating space in the roof, which space is specially contrived for the reception of vitiated air, and its ejection from the same by a glazed, curbed skylight and ventilator. The furnaces were removed and a new steam-heating apparatus was built, each room in the school-house being warmed thereby. Plumbing was inserted anew, and dressing-rooms built for the teachers.

Bells and speaking tubes were arranged connecting