STATE HOUSES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 14 August 1937, Page 8

STATE HOUSES

WEST END BLOCK. GOOD PROGRESS MADE. Visitors to the southern part of Cook Street, where the first of the local State houses are being erected, can now gaiiK. a good impression of the ultimate appearance, not only of the houses themselves, but the general conformation of the building line. Several of the dwellings have the walls up and of the others 6ome are at the stage where the framework gives an outline of the shape of the house.

Twenty to 30 feet apart, the houses stand on sections of varying ividths. A numlier are 50 feet wide and two chains deep, while the other sections are not as deep but compensate in having extra width. In general, the 22 houses are of four or five rooms, although in one case, in which there are two dwellings under the one roof, one has two rooms and a kitchenette, while the other has also a sun porch. The rooms vary in size, but a “Standard” reporter was told yesterday that 12, 13 and 14 feet are the most common measurements, 12 feet by 14 being about the general size. Though the exteriors are different, the main conformation of the houses providing a wide variation in many cases, the arrangement of the rooms has enabled material of the same character to be employed in numbers of the dwellings. Messrs Higgins and Arcus, of Wellington, are the contractors for 11 houses. They have one brick dwelling practically complete and a wooden house with the weather-boarding up, . while the frames of seven otliers are in position and another frame will go up on Monday. There are alvnit 17 men employed on the contract, and the 1 progress is such that the whole undertaking will be finished well before the due date, which falls after Christmas.

Mr 11. E. Townshend, of Palmerston North, who has the - contract for the erection of the other 11 ■ houses, has eight frames up and four with the floors down, a further stage of advancement. It is expected that four houses will be practically complete within a fortnight. There are 24 men employed on this contract, work on which was commenced slightly in advance of the other, Though the whole area is now necessarily carrying a considerable amount of builders’ materials, and though the ground is uneven, the general impression is one of a handsome addition to the city’s dwellings. While there is not the wide variation in size provided in most streets by the inclusion here and there of a large house, with correspondingly large grounds, the State houses have an air of neatness, of compactness and cosiness. If that general impression is carried through in the- lay-out of the gardens and lawns, the bloc'- should be one of the most attractive .a the city.