PLANS AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ACADEMY BUILDING, ROME, N. Y. We are indebted to Edward Huntington, Esq., for the following plans and description of the new Academy building recently erected in Rome, N. Y., under his supervision. The building is 70 feet by 44 feet on the ground. The building was erected in 1848, on a lot 198 by 170 feet, on the corner of Court and James streets, fronting the public square, and is of brick, 70 by 44 feet on the ground. The basement wall, up to the water table, is of stone, laid in hydraulic cement. The roof is covered with tin, laid in white lead. The basement, 10 feet high in the clear, contains a lecture-room (which serves also as a chapel,) 26 by 40 feet, with comfortable seats to accommodate conveniently 200 pupils. The floor descends 2 feet from the rear of the room to the platform, giving 12 feet height immediately in front of it. A laboratory, 12 by 15 feet, adjoins the lecture-room, with which it communicates by a door at the end of a platform. The remainder of the basement floor is occupied by the furnaces for warming the building, and by the rooms of the Janitor. The FIRST FLOOR is occupied by the male department, and consists of a school-room about 30 by 54 feet, and nearly 15 feet in clear height, with two recitation-rooms, entries, &c. There are 62 desks, each four feet long and accommodating two pupils. On the SECOND FLOOR are the girls' school-room, about 28 by 40 feet, with seats for 76 pupils, 2 recitation-rooms, library, hall, and room occupied by Primary department. There is a large skylight in the centre of the girls' school-room, and another in the library. The rooms are 15 feet in height. The building is thoroughly and uniformly warmed by two furnaces in the basement, and a change of air is secured by ventilators at the top of the rooms, and also near the floor, opening into flues which are carried up in the chimneys. The warmth imparted by the smoke which passes up in the adjoining flues secures a good draft. In the upper story additional means of ventilation are furnished by the skylights, which can be partially opened. The desks are of varnished cherry, similar in form to Ross's school desk. FIG. 5. The supports are of wood, however, instead of cast-iron, and the seats are easy Windsor chairs. Both seats and desks are firmly secured to the floor by small iron knees and screws. The school and recitation rooms are all furnished with large slates set in the wall, in the room of blackboards. The teachers' desks in the school-rooms are similar to Fig. 6. FIG. 6. The whole cost of the building, including furnaces, scholars' desks and chairs, slates and inkstands, was about 6,000 dollars. |