BOSTON GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL THE building erected by the City of Boston for the accommodation of the Girls' High and Normal School, was begun in the Spring of 1869, and dedicated for its special uses by appropriate exercises, April 19, 1871-at a total cost (land, $60,206.41; building, $234,563.26; furniture, $15,947.65;) of $310,717.51-the highest figure yet reached in any structure of this class in the United States; but one hundred thousand dollars less than the city of Zurich expended on the building for the Federal Polytechnic University. The site has a frontage of 200 feet on Newton and Pembroke streets, and a depth of 150 feet; and the building occupies a space of 140 feet by 131 deepthe unoccupied portions of the lot being graded and paved with brick, at a level of three feet below the sidewalk, and thus bringing the basement floor two feet above the ground line of the base of the building. At the westerly, southerly, and easterly corners of the lot are steps leading from the sidewalks down to the yard; at the northerly corner is an inclined plane for a cart-way, leading down on the north-westerly side of the building to the outer-door of the boiler-room, which is in the northerly corner of the Basement. The other entrances to the basement are in the middle of the south-easterly and southwesterly sides, the latter being under the steps leading up to the entrance to the first story, on the Newton street side. The outlines of buildings are broken at the corners by projections eight inches by thirty-two feet on each side or elevation, and a projection fifteen inches by fifty feet in the middle of the Newton street front. The front line of the last named projection is fifteen feet back from the line of the street. The front line on Pembroke street is about eight feet back from the street line. The nature of the accommodations required in the internal aarangement rendered it impracticable to make any prominent breaks in the outlines of the building; but the slight projections at the corners and in the center, 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 beveled channel at the joints between the courses, and the upper course at the height of the first floor is capped with a heavy molded 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 twelve feet wide by fifteen feet high; the sides are finished with rustic block work, over which are heavy molded archivolts and cornices, and over the cornices are stone balustrades. Over the entrance at each end of the corridor is a semicircular arched window, twelve feet wide, and twenty-eight 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 center of each street front is a triple Lutheran window, twenty feet wide. On each face of the corner projections is a double Lutheran 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, pitched from each side towards the middle of the building. The main roof is truncated about thirty feet back from the face of the outer walls, above which is a flat, occupying a space about seventy feet by eighty-four feet, and which is surrounded by a wooden balustrade. On the middle portion of the flat roof stands an octagonal structure, thirty 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 center of the observatory, and terminates above the same in an octagonal cupola, thirty-seven feet high from its base up to the ball of the vane. The body of the cupola is thirteen feet in diameter, and fifteen feet high; in each face is an outlet for air, three feet wide by eight feet high. In the westerly corner is the chemical lecture-room, forty-four feet by fortyfive feet; around three sides of this room are tables placed about five feet away from the walls, and fitted up with all of the requisite apparatus and appliances, at which, and with which pupils may perform experiments. On the fourth side of the room is the lecturers' platform and table; in the middle of the room are settees for seating the class. On the northerly side of and adjoining the lecture-room is a laboratory, sixteen feet by thirty feet. On the easterly side of the lecture-room is a cabinet for minerals, sixteen feet by thirty feet. Adjoining the inher end of the cabinet is a passage and staircase leading to the story above. In the northerly corner is the boiler-room, thirty feet by fortyfive feet, in which are three boilers, each three feet six inches in diameter, by sixteen feet long, which supply the steam for heating the building. The room for coals occupies the space between the outside of the building and the line of the street, of the width of the boiler-room, and out to the curbstone under the sidewalk on the Pembroke street side. At the southerly end of the boilerroom is a room for the janitors, sixteen feet by twenty-four feet. On the easterly side of the boiler-room are the water-closets, twenty-two in number, for the High and Normal departments, occupying a space between the side of the R 17′2′′x 30' R C 16 x 23' 544'x 45' R 16' x 29' |