Sand House for Railroads

I'm not sure that I'd ever given much thought to the Railroads needing or using sand before but below is some basic information on a Sand house build for and maintained in Richmond VA. from "Buildings and Structures of American Railroads."

Sand-house at Richmond, Va., Richmond & Alleghany Railroad.—The sand-house of the Richmond & Alleghany Railroad, shown in Figs. 174 and 175, is a good type of a cheap sand-house, where a limited amount of sand is used.

The house is a low frame structure, 16 ft. 6 in. × 14 ft. 6 in., with an open bin, 6 ft. 6 in. X 14 ft. 6 in., adjoining one end of the building for the wet sand. In operating this house the wet sand is delivered from cars into the open bin, and from thence it is shovelled, as required, through an opening in the side of the building into an interior storage-bin for wet sand. A cast-iron sand-drying stove is located in the middle of the house, which is filled from the wet-sand bin. As the sand dries, it drops to the floor through openings in the sides of the stove, from where it is thrown on a screen placed over the dry-sand bin at the other end of the building. The enginemen are required to enter the house and fill their buckets with sand directly from the dry-sand bin.
The frame is 10 ft. high on the front of the building and 9 ft. on the rear. The principal sizes are as follows: sills, 4 in. x 6 in. ; plates, 4 in. X 4 in.; corner and door studs, 4 in. X 4 in.; intermediate studding, 3 in. X 4 in., spaced about 18 in.; nailers, 3 in. X 4 in.; rafters, 2 in. X 6 in.; posts for bin partitions, 3 in. X 4 in.; rails for bin partitions, 4 m. X 6 in.; floor in bins, 2 in. ; outside sheathing, J-in. vertical boards with battens; roof-sheathing, Jan. boards, covered with tin.
While, as stated above, this is a representative design for a cheap sand-house, it could be improved by roofing over the outer wet-sand bin, and the second handling of the wet sand from the outside bin to the interior one should be avoided.

1896 Society Building

Have you every come across a Society Building in your research? Well, today's post are the floor layouts of a Society Building. I found them interesting for not only my characters to attend a play or show but also if one of them were to work in an office.

First Floor

Second Floor

Third Floor

Fourth Floor

Fifth Floor

Roof

Also today I'm the host author on Heroes, Heroines & History Come check it out.

1896 Six Room City Cottage Floor Plans

Below you will find the floor plans for the 1896 Six Room City Cottage and the article written by a fellow concerned about some aspects of the plan. I've chosen to add these comments because it might give you as the author some information as to what your characters might be concerned about with regard to their home or the one they hope to build. Also, I've chosen these plans because you'll see the use of closets, bathrooms and a 19th Century modern kitchen. Another fun fact is these are the basic plans of the house my husband and I rented when he was a college student. The differences were that ours was a duplex (so it was double this floor plan for the entire house) and the right side was the left side in our portion of the duplex. It was a great old house and we have a lot of memories from living there.

Six-Boom Cottage for a City Lot.
From N. H. D., Newburg, N. Y.--I am an interested reader of the paper and in studying the plans of workingman’s cottages published from time to time I find some very good points, but the fault with the majority of the plans is that there is no stair hall proper for the two-story portion or else it starts in a cramped section of the building. The floor plan submitted by “ R. _B.” of Meriden, Conn, and published in the September issue is, in my opinion, very convenient. The shape of the bathroom as well as its location is exceedingly odd, as it cuts otf the square angles of the “kitchen and the two bedrooms, but necessitates two doors more than are necessary. The family bedroom is at the rear of the house, and I should like to inquire how the correspondent proposes to warm it. The sink is too far from the stove and the small room marked “entry " at the front of the house is of no use whatever. Another fault is that the cottage takes too much ground for the frontage. This is the fault I find with most of the plans submitted. They cannot be erected on a common city lot of a frontage of 25 feet, and it is well known that in the city a lot 25 feet front will cost anywhere from $200 upward. A house for such a lot is, in my opinion. the best for the workingman. I send herewith the floor plans for a two-story frame cottage. which I consider well adapted for a 25-foot lot. It can be built in a good manner for about $1000 and possibly less. It can. however, be made to cost more, according to the finish inside and out. The frontage is such that by building from 18 inches to 2 feet from the line on one side light are placed under the cables. and a composition consisting principally of plaster of paris and wood chips is poured on, the cables, thus being imbedded in the concrete mixture, which solidifies in a few minutes. The vertical part of the concrete inclosing the floor beams is supported by wire netting passed around the flanges of the beam. If a flat ceiling is required, iron bars are laid acrOsS the bottom would be given to the dining room and bedroom over it, and at the same time there would be a nice passageway to reach the rear of the house and yard. Again, no one could block the light and air from that side. The parlor has a bay window with arch and the dining room has two windows. The kitchen, it will be noticed from an inspection of the plans, may be entered from both hall and dining room, this arrangement giving direct communication between the kitchen and the front door. The pantry is conveniently located to both rooms, while the entry tends to keep the cold air from the kitchen in the winter. The sink is placed near the stove and is convenient for hot and cold water. On the second floor are three good sized sleeping rooms. a sewing room, four closets and a bathroom. The arrangement is such that the sleeping rooms and bathroom can be heated by stoves or other means as may be most convenient. The bathroom is so located that a direct connection is had for water and waste pipes from the sink in the kitchen. The plans show the position of the closets with regard to the

1884 House Plans Part 2

Below are some House plans from 1884 the cost of each of the houses to build is listed beside the house. These are houses and cottages that the lower income and farmers could build.

Single Story House $450 - $550 (depending on whether or not you add the half floor pictured below)

Story & One half House $550

First Floor is the same design as the house above.
Second Story

Country Cottage $550

For additional house plans from 1884 here's a link to a previous post.
1884 Cottage House Plans

American House Plans

I found this tidbit on an American House from an English publication titled "The Choice of a Dwelling." It gives a detail description along with some basic floor plans.

This common disposition of the plan of an American house is not without useful application at home; plans are here offered (illustration No. i) of one erected by the author in Philadelphia during a residence in the United States, which possesses the most desirable of the features above detailed.
The plot was 25 feet frontage by 100 feet in depth, the invariable area devoted to what is called a "city lot."
The extreme depth on the basement and principal floors is 78 feet, including the piazza, and of the bed-room floors (of which there are three) 50 feet.
In the basement the dining-room is 20 feet wide by 25 deep, and is octagonal, the corners being cut off to obtain more space for the room by curtailing the passage (which is only used by the servants and tradesmen coming to the house), and at the same time not to contract the doorway and its side lights. A fire-proof safe occupies one of the front corners, and from another a door opens into a large private store-closet. The other portions of the plan follow the general description previously given. Servants' bathroom and water-closet are provided on this floor.
The principal floor comprises two long rooms, each 25 by 15 ft. 6 inches, with columns between; the extension or tea-room in the rear, and back of all, the enclosed piazza breast, and with Venetian blinds working in grooves between the pillars that support the over-hanging roof. Between the end of the reception-rooms and the rear apartments, are wide sliding glazed doors, which, when opened, do not show, the opening extending nearly to the cornice. There is at the end of the hall a serving room with lift to a closet below, for use in entertaining company.
The bedroom plan represents two large bed chambers, back and front, with dressing-closets between, lighted by a well, and at each end of the hall small rooms, that in front being a single room, and in the rear, a general bath-room and water-closet. Each floor is similarly arranged. The dressing-closets are very completely fitted; on the right are wide drawers, and above are wardrobes, but of full size and with every contrivance that ingenuity can devise for hanging and placing dresses; upon the left is a bath with shower over, and a marble wash basin; a large cheval glass forms part of the fittings.
§ 296. Cost.
The cost of this residence, built very substantially, finished throughout with hard polished woods, and fitted with heating and ventilating apparatus, hot and cold water to every dressing-room, gas pipes, speaking-tubes, &c, throughout, the exterior faced with cut stone, the floors all double—in fact built in the best manner, and of the best materials—was about ^7000 of English money, the land upon which it stood being worth then about ^2500. At the present time I learn the house and ground are worth nearly ^16,000, the great increase being due principally to the rise in value of the land.
§ 297. Features worthy of adoption.
Some features of this, and similar American plans, are worth introduction into our London buildings; the octagonal planning of the dining-room, giving as it does so fair a space for the front door, removes a frequent objection that builders of small houses are compelled to devote a verynarrow allowance to the entrance passage.

Portland Cement

When I hear the term of Portland Cement I always thought that the stuff came from a manufacturer in Portland...NOT! Okay below are some basic tidbits on Portland Cement from 19th Century sources:

The term ''Portland Cement" as here used means an artificial cement made by mixing in certain known proportions, clay and chalk containing silica, alumina, iron, and carbonate of lime, and burning this mixture to the point of incipient vitrifaction and then reducing this burned product to an impalpable powder.
The term "Portland Cement" primarily means an artificial mixture. The term "Natural Portland" has very much the same meaning as natural artificial would have.
...
In the making of Portland cement. The selection of the raw materials, their proper treatment by the different methods in general use. The burning of this material with the types of kilns used. The reduction of the clinker to cement powder and its proper storage.
...
Source: Portland Cement it's Manufacture ©1895

PORTLAND cement is generally made from two material (chalk and clay), which are mechanically combined previous to calcination, the proportions of which are therefore always liable to variation; and as the results obtained will have different properties, the necessity of testing at once becomes apparent, not solely to detect a bad or imperfect cement, but also to determine the peculiar properties which the particular cement under consideration may posess, and as a guide to the means to be employed in order that it may be used to the best advantage.
Source: Portland Cement for Users ©1890

And lastly this tidbit from The Encyclopaedia Britannica ©1833 to help understand how the word 'cement' was used.
CEMENTS, substances employed to nnjte together by their solidification from a soft or liquid state, and without mechanical rivets, things of the same or of different kinds. Stony cements may be natural, as the lime employed for mortar, and the so-called Roman cements; or they may be artificial, as Portland cement, made by calcining mixtures of chalk with clay or river-mud (see Building, Vol iv. p. 459) Roman contains more clay than Portland cement, and seta more rapidly. A good artificial water cement is obtained by heating for some hours to redness a mixture of 3 parts of clay and 1 part of slaked lime by measure. Another hydraulic cement may be made by mixing powdered clay and oxide of iron with water. A very hard stone cement is prepared from 20 parts of clean river sand, 2 of litharge, I of quicklime, worked into a paste with linseedoil. Paper-pulp, mixed with size and plaster of Paris is used for moulded ornaments. Keene't marble cement is plaster of Paris which has been steeped in strong solution of alum or sulphate of potash, and calcined and ground. It is slaked with alum solution when used. In Martin's cement, pearl-ash is employed as well as alum. Parian cement contains borax. Selenitic cement is a mixture of calcined gypsum, sand, and hydraulic lime. A cement used for cracks in boilers is a mixture of clay 6 parts and iron filings 1 part with linseed-oil. For steam-joints, ox-blood thickened with quicklime is employed. The iron-rust cement consists of 100 parts of iron turnings, with 1 part of sal-ammoniac; this is an excellent cement for ironwork. For water-tight joints, equal parts of white and red lead are worked into a paste with linseed-oiL A serviceable packing for connecting pipes, making joints, filling cracks in retorts,