Evening Star Newspaper, January 16, 1937, Page 31

REAL ESTATE. REALTOR STUDIES | EUROPE'S HOUSING Citizenship of Those As- sisted Has Been Im- proved, He Says. Joseph W. Catharine. Brooklyn | realtor, who is vice president of the | National Association of Real Estate " THE EVENING Bungalow in Takoma Park Sold STAR. ’Boards for the region including Wash- | ington, recently returned from a study of housing conditions in England and | other European countries. His ob- | servations as a practical real estate | man are set forth in a report to Stewart McDonald, Federal housing adminis- trator. | “Curing the condition of inadequate housing has resulted in a pronounced , improvement of citizenship and char- acter of those assisted.” Catharine | said. He was particularly impressed by the building of & new town of Wel- | wyn, which is located on a railroad about 20 miles from London, England. Planned for 40,000 inhabitants, it is ecomplete with every element required | of a town. Surrounding the tract is a | This bungalow at 707 Elder street, Takoma Park, containing five rooms and bath, which has WASHINGTON, | | large stretch of open country laid out | been purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Smith, through the office of Waple & James, Inc. The structure was built by the National Capital Securities Corp. tor park purposes and to guard against | the encroachment of other cities. Its detached and semi-detached houses rent for from $250 to $750 an- | nually, and they may be purchased for sums ranging upward from $1,750. In his report to the housing ad- ministrator, Mr. Catharine describes | the five-year program of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which calls for the annual construction of 1,500 houses | erected for dispossessed tenants from | slum areas and overcrowded buildings. | Plans for the development of housing | for other cities in Scotland were also described In Belgium and The Netherlands Gatharine collected & great deal of data. He was especially attracted by the houses built in The Netherlands | s for elderly couples. These houses, eonsisting mostly of four rooms, rent for 32.50 per week Among the housing developmenis Catharine visited in Germany was the celebrated Siemens City, about 10 miles from Berlin. This project was | founded by the Siemens-Halski Co.. | = large clectrical concern comparable 10 our General Electric Co. The de- | velopment was financed in part by | the workers, the company, and the government. | In Italy, Catharine inspected several large developments in the heart of | the city of Rome and studied the Italian government's 50-year-mort- | ‘gage Joan system. He also studied the French government's 1328 system of mortgage loans made for approxi- mately 85 per cent of the valuation running for 25 years and requiring liquidation during that period. CARE URGED TO BAR DISASTROUS FIRES Continental Insurance Company Chief Engineer Calls for Cau- tion Against Blazes. NEW YORK, January 16.—Empha- #izing the almost incredible swiftness with which fire may spread. Frederick P. Walther, chief engineer of the Continental Insurance Co. and the Pidelity-Phenix Fire Insurance Co., today urged precautions to keep the present. Winter season free from dis- astrous blazes which in past vears have taken appalling toll of life and property. Especial care was urgad to prevent fires starting from faulty or neglected heating systems or from unusual circumstances arising during excessively cold weather. “When blazes do start, from any rause whatever,” Mr. Walther con- tinued. “the need for swift action eannot be overstated. The prevention of a catastrophe may depend upon | immediate alarm, immediate efforts tn control the blaze—and immediate evacuation of all persons whose safety may be endangered by its spread. “The terrible speed of fire was demonstrated in a test conducted in ‘Washington several years ago. Two buildings were deliberately set afire, under direction of the United States Bureau of Standards and the National Fire Protection Association. The buildings, of two and five stories, were of a comomn type of brick- Joisted construction. Within four to five minutes after fires had been started in several places on the ground floor, the flames had spread by stairways and elevator shafts to, all parts of the buildings. In less than 20 minutes from the start of the fire, floors began to fall. Part of & wall fell in 28 minutes, and n just 45 minutes all the walls had collapsed! LIVING COSTS REDUCED BY NEW HOME OWNERS A survey of the buyers of 30 homes in a development approved by the Federal Housing Administration shows that 90 per cent of the new- home owners are paying less in monthly payments on their insured mortgages than they had previously paid in rent. In the 30 cases a widely varied list of akilled artisans and workers was recorded ax having bought their homes under the Federal Housing Administration's system. It included | & Jetter carrier, bookkeeper, dairy- | man, painter, policeman, plasterer, | electrician, carpenter, restaurant | manager, clerk, engineer and gar- dener. In one case a man whoée an- | nual income is $1,300 is buying his | home in monthly payments of $25.06. | The average income of these 30| buyers was found to be $2,087 a year. | Statistics show that the average monthly insured mortgage payment is 82786, and the average amount previously paid for rent was $35.74. » W House of Dutch Colonial design at 4522 Brandywine street, Homeland, recently sold to Comdr. and Mrs. R. G. Thomas by the Cafritz Construction Co. —Star Staff Photo. BY DOROTHY DUCAS AND ELIZABETH GORDON. ©OOD veneer panels. which fit togetner as neatly as jigsaw puzzle pieces, make a smooth wood-covered wall possible today, without the ex- pense of solid wood paneling. A mew product has come on the market. which gives a real wood sur- face, backed by wallboard, and does not have to be joined together with strips of wood, chromium, or any other material. So ingeniously is it cut that the edges of the panels fit to- gether without any nails showing. There is a depression on the top sur- faces of one edge and the under sur- face of the other edge of every panel. making a perfectly looking joint. Tht nails are driven right through the lower half of the lapped-over parts, | which are then sealed with a special adhesive that comes with the wall- board. Looking at a wall which is covered with this wood veneer wallboard, you would never guess it was anything but conventional, thick panel wood. For it is real wood, you see, cut paper- thin and fused to the wallboard under pressure. The reason its price is &0 much lower than solid paneling is because one tree can make thousands of veneer panels where only dozens were possible before. You know there is nothing “fake” about them when you touch the panels and get the familiar feel of smooth grained walnut, mahogany or avodire, a rare cabinet wood—the three cabinet woods in which the panels come. The panels are not intended for direct application to framing or fur- ring strips, but go right over an old plastered wall. In new construction a plywood backing may be substituted for the plaster, to receive the wall- board. | The panels come in units 6. 9 and 12 inches wide and 8 or 10 feet long Being very thin——only one-quarter of an inch—they are flexible, so they will conform to any variations in the wall surface. The boards go on above and below old baseboards, moldings and casings at doors and windows, oo, thus elimi- | nating the nuisance and expense of ripping out the trim. If you want to do a room complete, though, there are baseboards, moldings, casing and cornices to match the panels. | An attractive effect can be achieved by using panels of two or even three widths on the same wall. Care should be exercised not to have any two | adjacent boards of the same grain. ‘The panels are in a great variety of grains and figures, however, Everybody loves the friendly face of wood, and wants it somewhere in his house, we are sure. But it has been out of the question for those of us who are on limited budgets. || Now there are few houses which can- not afford to indulge the taste for ||| A Lovely New Detached Brick $12,950 3109 Tennyson St. N.W. (Chevy Chase, D. C.) A large six-room, two-bath | home with paneled recreation room and fireplace, full finished ottic with 4-in rock wool insula- tion, oil heat, G. E. electric range and refrigerator, large porch, 2-car brick garage. THIS IS AN ELECTRICKITCHEN 1 Air-Condit i Detached | $14,.500 6221 29th St. N.W. (North of Rittenhouse St.) 4 Lorge Bed Rooms This new, ultra modern home is in @ beautiful wooded section of Chevy Chase, D. C. It has 4 large bed rooms, 2 baths, side ond rear porches, rock wool insulation, furred wolls, full fin- ished attic, Gar Wood Oil-Burn- ing Air-Conditioning Heating plant and 2-car garage. THIS 15 AN ELECTRICKITCHEN _HEAUTH HOME | home. wood-decorated walls. for wood veneer panels cost 20 cents a square foot, as compared with about $1 a square foot for the same wood in solid planks. F YOURS is an old-fashioned oil burner, but still in working order, you owe it to the faithful fellow to Temove the danger he probably in- troduces all unwittinglv into your For most of the early oil burners element. built into them, as the newer ones all do. ‘This means that if the furnace fails to ignite, for any reason, the oil would keep on feeding into it anyhow, flood- ing the fire box and possibly cousing damage by explosion and fire, as soon as the ignition came on again. The had no combustion safety | —-Star Staff Photo. 'anrety device automatically stops the feeding of oil into a furnace within | | five seconds after the ignition fails, | | You can add this protective unit to | most old burners. It is an intricate | combination of & combustion safety | element and a relay switch, and func- | tions to prevent the feeding of the oil | if the ignition spark does not ignite | the first drops of oil. The under- | | writers’ laboratory has passed and | approved the unit, which is a com- | ponent part of most modern automatic | heating devices. | If you have a furnace which lets | | its oil drip out through a hole in the | | bottom of the fire pot into s drip | bucket, when ignition fails, you should | investigate the possibility of adding | this device. Even though you have a | bucket. in which to collect the oil s0 | it does not overflow into your cellar, | there is danger of fire, since the fire | pot itself might fill up with unburned | | oil and ignite it through stored-up | heat within the walls. Or, when the | ignition comes on, the oil might burn 80 suddenly there would be an ex- plosion. : As a matter of fact, much of the trouble with the old oil burners ix the | | tendency to burst out suddenly with & “puff,’ or shower of soot that rises from the furnace and covers the walls, curtains and upholstery. “Puffs’ are nothing more than litile explosions of an accumulation of oil in the fire | box. The proper way 1o avoid them ! is to stop the oil from flowing when- ever ignition fails. “'HAT fun to have a fire on the hearth, when the flames leap up at the touch of a match! But how seldom they do. unless you have a goodly supply of quick-kindling briquettes that you can use, one at a time, under your small logs to start the flames a-crackling It's the constant poking, pushing and crunching paper into littie balls, that makes a chore out of lighting the fire. Husbands will be glad to lay a fire if they can avoid the nuisance of coaxing the fire to burn, as they can with the briquettes we have in mind. They come 72 to a package for $1.75, or a little less than 2'; cents a fire. One will do the trick for an evening, without any kindling wood or papers at all. Just lay the logs, inserting & briquette under a small log, and your fire will glow immedi- ately, as if by magic. We wager many families would sf home, seeing pic- tures in the flames, if it were less effort to start the flames rising. Russia’s imports declined 80 per cent between 1931 and January 1, 1937, Mortgage Loans at 5% A Federal Government Interest Insured Mortgage is invaluable to a home-owner and his family. You do not have to actually live in the property. D._C., BUILDING INCREASE OF &9PCT. ISSHOWN Construction Gain States East of Rockies The year 1936 provided a construc- SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1937. I | bullding in 1936 amounted to $506,~ 104,500 and compares with only §402,~ 150,300 for 1935. For public works and utilities the 1936 construction figure reached $920,- 412,500, as contrasted with only $690.- 213,200 for 1985. It was i this class of work that the greatest influence of P. W. A. and W. P. A. projects was centered. The December, 1936, total for con- struction of all descriptions in the 37 States amounted to $199,695700 and compares with $208,204,200 for No- vember, 1936, and $264,136,500 for December, 1935. The loss from De- cember, 1935, was entirely due to a shrinkage in public projects of every in 37 Is Revealed. tion total in the 37 States east of the | gescription. Residential construction started in Rockies of $2,675.206,000, & gain of REAL ESTATE. PLUMBING DEFECTS ENDANGER HEALTH Inspection in Old Buildings Is Recommended to Avoid Unseen Hazards. Plumbing in old buildings may pre- sent very serious health hazards. It should be inspected frequently and | modernized when found defective. Plumbing defects in hotels or pub-‘ lie buildings, which seriously endanger | the health of millions of peopie, in-! clude the corrosion in a sewer pipe defects caused 70 deaths and more than 1,000 ilinesses. In its recommendations for the avoidance of such occurrences, the Public Health Service says that in stitutions serving the public, particu larly those providing residence, meals or beverages, should be encouraged, alded and required to provide ade. quately for the protection of the pub- lic health, and that plumbing defects of any character should be promptly | and effectively repaired by a compe- tent licensed plumber and not be given mer2 temporary attention. 1733 45 per cent over the figure of $1,844,- | 544,900 for 1935, the F. W. Dodge | Corp. announced today. Increases over 1935 were especially pronounced in residential building, which nhowedl a gain of 67 per cent in the 1936 | figure of $801,623,800, as against only | $478,843,100 for 1935. Large in-| creases also occurred in commercial building, for which the 1936 figure amounted to $249,136,100, as against only $164,479,800 for 1935. For factory building the 37 States’ figure totaled $198,019,100 in 1936, as against only $108,858500 for 1935. December, 1936. amounted to $65,487,- 300, as againgt $68.440.700 for No- vember, 1936, and $45,140,100 for De- cember, 1935. - — . Camps Built In. Modern rooms are shown Wwith built-in lighting effects and in some cases, actual lamps are built in desks or bookcases that are bullt into the room. The bases, in such cases, are of a matching or contrasting wood | and only the bulb and shade need | Public, educational and institutional ' be purchased separately. | Attractively Priced 3 ] . . . This Beautiful | Center-hall Home 305 BRADLEY seme renging much highe: beths. Lavotory end den on price. t Hoor. BOULEVARD oup of hom Feoturi rooms end 2 Open, Heated and Lighted Daily and Sunday to 9 P.M. Drive out Comnecticut Ciub. left on Avenue to Chevy Chose Bradley Lane. cross Wisconsin Ave- nue about 3 blocks to house, GOSS REALTY COMPANY J._S. EATON. ales 1405 Eye Street NNW., NA, 1353, 6600 Wisconsin Ave. 3639 Van Ness St. N.W. Bethesda Branch, Wi o 11,750 He Last Remaining New Home in This Location A beautiful, semi-detached brick with six rooms. two baths, recrea- tion room with fireplace, screened breakfast porch, insulated attic. Built-in garage, oil burner with Summer-Winter hook-up for domestic hot water, Electrolux refrigerator, copper metal work. recessed radiators, furred walls, A Most Convenient In-Town Section. Phillips & Canby, Inc. Na. 4600 1012 15¢th St. N.W. which runs over a tank in which drinking water is being cooled, with ! | the result that sewage may leak into drinking water, or a cross-connection | between the supply piping carrying | drinking water and the sewer, which | would permit sewage to flow into the pipe carrying the drinking water. | The United States Public Health | | Service recently published a bulletin | citing an instance in one of the lead- | | ing cities of the country where such ! Juniper St. e Chevy Chase, D. C. 3 New center-hall brick Colonials, pleasing arrange- ment of rooms—wooded lots —many unusual features— recreation rooms — large porches — finished attic. Built on last year's cost— priced to sell. Inspect 6413-17-20 31st Place N.W. To reach: Drive out Conn. Ave. to Nebraska Ave.. turn vioht tn Utah Ave. leit 1o f1st Ploce. themce § diocks to proverty J. Wesley Buchanan, Inc. 916 15tk S1. N.W. A BEAUTIFUL QUIET STREET WHERE HOMES ARE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY 2 SOLD—1 LEFT ‘This home features a beau- tiful studio lounge, 2-car ga- rage, large lot. Priced much lower than you would expact. Ta Rench to Juniver, Drive atrosiht out 164K &1 Weat on Juniper te homes, Investment Blds. NI Aoz Met. 1143 gmlllllllllllllllllllWlllllllllillllll"I|lllIllllmllllllllllflllIllllll|lIlillllllllllllllmlllmllmllllll"llllllll“llllmllfll" 2 i H g H g 2 g RPN T PN L T O U Only 2 More Families con have happy ownership of these wonderful homes in These ore the Homes with the remarkoble RECREATION ROOMS— different from any—more ottractive and practical thon all others. Seventeen of these beautiful homes, with their exceptionolly con- venient ond picturesque location, have been sold in record-breaking time becouse they offer the biggest money’s worth you'll find anywhere. Make Critical Inspection of 2027 Huidekoper PI. N.W. W. & J. Sloane did the furnishing and draping. Taoke special notice of every feature of plan and construction: of finish ond equipment. The last word in modern homes—thot'll remain models of the modern for years to come. Furnished Home Best locotion in northwest Washington—only e few minutes from downtown. In o select and exclusive community. Open Every Day and Evening At tne Intersection of Massachu: Sourh on Wisconsin Avente info blocks to Manor Place and into MOSS REALTY COMPANY Realtor Metro. 1776 CL. #BA3. Avenue and Wisconsi Street. continuing on uidekoper Place Tower Bldg. Evenings and Sunday. O e e T A T U T It can be designed to house as many as four families and does not have to be located within the city limits. We are experts in the handling of all matters of procedure in the shortest possible time. Bring your Federal problems to us. Housing Administration MODERN OWing 1937 HOMES Correspondents for approved lending institutions. Albert E. Landvoigt and essociate W. Earnest Offutt Edmunds Building Telephone District 7686 NEW DETACHED HOMES OF UNEQUALED VALUE IN A BEAUTIFUL SETTING OF LARGE TREES CONVENIENT TO STORES, SCHOOLS AND TRANSPORTATION 4 BEDROOMS AND 2 BATHS. PRICED AT ONLY $7,950 REASONABLE DOWN PAYMENT Insulated, Caulked ‘Weather-Stripped Furred Walls Bronze Screens Electrolux Refrigeration Magic Chef Gas Range Four Large Bed Rooms Model Kitchen and Dinette Two Full Baths ;'0 I’Iv’nl g;wq ‘»fil Ntholl' ‘:G‘. !vm:nrflll“ s n il nto Newcom! L mce _ to Tample Home 436" Neweomd Sk &K WILLIAM E. YOST 407 13th St. N.W. Large Living Room with Wood-Burning Fireplace Full Basement Ample Space for Recreation Reom e 6412-6424 Second Place N.W. Detached All Brick Drive out Third Si. to Tuckerman, right to Second Place. 1224 14th St. N.W. Six large rooms, two baths, finished at- tic, furred walls, metal weather-stripped, caulked, insulated with rock wool, bronze screens, automatic heat; very large lot; detached garage. Near all conveniences. See these homes and you will buy. Call Mr. Orem, Ge. 4639 WAPLE & JAMES, INC. DI. 3347 R O O FACING NATIONAL CATHEDRAL GROUNDS CHARMING 4 BED ROOM STUCCO HOME Over 9,000 sq. ft. of grounds with beautiful shade trees and shrubs 3503 WOODLEY RD. N.W. UNSURPASSED LOCATION The home is situated in the midst of a group of high- priced homes in one of Washington's finest in-town com- munities. Near transportation, it is only 15 minutes from downtown, a short walk to schools and churches, and in an ideal environment for children. EXCEPTIONAL COMFORT It provides spacious, well arranged accommodations. A large entrance hall opens on the left onto a screened porch overlooking side lawn, on the right intc a 25-ft. living room with fireplace. There are dining room, enclosed sun porch, kitchen with adjoining butler’s pantry and maid’s room. On the second floor are four bed rooms, screened porch and two baths with ample closets. It is priced at $18,500 with brand- new oil burner and 2-car detached garage. Open Sunday 11 to 4:30 MRS. JACK HAYES REALTOR 1216 CONN. AVE. NA. 7174 S