Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1890 — READY-MADE HOUSES. [ARTICLE]

READY-MADE HOUSES.

Dwellings Which Go Up With Alad-din-Like Celerity. Philadelphia Inquirer. The craze for rapidity which characterizes nearly every kind of modern enterprise has developed few things more interesting than the modus operand! of providing d welling for the increasing population. Perhaps in no other way is the hustling spirit of American progress better reflected. House builders need no longer bother about the thousand and one details incident to the erection of a building. Modern ingenuity and the general tendency to consolidate and simplify everything have done away with ail that, a < ‘ready made” house can now be purchased like a suit of clothes or a pair of shoes, and transported in piece to its permanent site. BUYING HOUSES PIECEMEAL. Under the modem arrangement the builder, instead of employing mechanics to get the materials in shape —to make window frames, sashes, shutters, doors, stairways and other parts as the walls go up—buys a house in pieces, has them carried from the mill to the site and stuck together by contract almost in a jiffy. Of course the brickwork has to be done as the house 1b built, but, aside from the walls, about everything is finished before it leaves the mill or shop. Even the brickwork is usually done by contract, so that the builder sees but one man in relation to his walls. MILLIONS INVESTED YEARLY. It is estimated that the amount of money which will be expended in Philadelphia this year in the erection of dwelling houses will be about $4,250,000. About 90 per cent, of this money is furnished by the trust companies on mortgages and ground rents. As the builder must pay various charges for the use of the money, such as interest, commissions and costs for making out papers and insuring titles, the business has become a source of great profit to the institutions.