PLAN AND DESCRIPTION OF NORTH-EAST GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE,

The Grammar School-house on New street, between Second and First-streets, in Philadelphia, was erected after plans and specifications made by Samuel Sloan, Architect, in 1852. It is 81 feet 6 inches front, by 65 feet 6 inches deep, and three stories high, each story being fifteen feet in the clear. The basement, windows, and door trimmings are of the best blue marble, finely cut and polished, and the walls are of the best pressed brick. All the outside walls are laid with a hollow space of four inches the inner and the outside walls being tied together with alternate bricks in the heading courses.

The building is warmed by three of Chilson's furnaces, of the largest size, and ventilated by a shaft, extending from the cellar to the top of the roof, with lateral flues and openings from each story, with a stove at the base in the cellar, to warm the shaft, to quicken the discharge of the foul air, both in winter and summer.

The peculiarity of this, and the more recently constructed school-houses in Philadelphia, is in the plan of the school-rooms. Instead of one large room, with two or more class rooms in connection on each floor, each story is divided into four apartments, of suitable size to accommodate the number of pupils assigned to one teacher, with movable glass partitions. By this arrangement, the Principal can have a full view of all the pupils and assistants on the same floor, while each division is protected from annoyance or interruption from the exercises of the other. By removing the glazed partitions,-one half of which is admitted into the wainscotting below, and the other, into the wainscotting above, and are so hung as to balance each other, the several apartments are thrown into one, and the whole school is then within the hearing and voice of the principal.

The following cut, Fig. 2, represents the first floor of the North-east Grammar School, and gives a good idea of the new plan of arranging the school-rooms.

a, a, a, a-Entrance lobby to the rooms on the ground plan.
B-Entrance and stairway leading to the second story.
C-Entrance and stairway leading to the third story.

D, D, D, D, D-Class rooms to accommodate 60 pupils each.

E, E-Vestibules, which afford a communication from one room to the other, having glazed doors on its four sides.

F-A shaft, which contains all the hot-air pipes, from which they branch to the various rooms on each story and discharge through register in the floor.

The vestibules E, E, on the second and third stories, are also the entrances to

the class rooms from the outer gallery or landing of the stairs.

HI, H, H, HI, H, H-The ventilating flues, which are placed in the angles of the rooms opposite to that of the hot-air registers.

I, I, I, I, I-The teachers desk, with a small platform 6 feet broad by 8 feet long.

Fig. 2.-SECOND FLOOR OF THE WARREN GRAMMAR SCHOOL.

The Warren Grammar School-house is situated on Robertson-street, was built in 1852, on the same general plan as the North-east Grammar School, the description of which is applicable to this.

Fig. 1. PERSPECTIVE OF WARREN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE.

The Warren Grammar School-house is situated on Robertson-street, was built in 1852, on the same general plan as the North-east Grammar School, the description of which is applicable to this.

Fig. 2.-PLAN OF THE INTERIOR.

Glenwood School-house is situated on Ridge-road, and is intended for an Unclassified school. The building is 66 by 46 feet, besides the projection, and is two stories high. Each story is divided into two apartments, separated by a glazed partition.

PLANS AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL,
PHILADELPHIA.

In 1853, a new building was erected for the accommodation of the Central High School, in Spring Garden, on the east side of Broad street. The lot is one hundred and fifty feet on Broad street, by ninety-five feet deep, having Green street for a boundary on the north, and Brandywine street on the south.

The building is constructed throughout in a substantial manner, with good materials, and with a main reference to utility rather than ornament, although the latter has not been altogether lost sight of. The walls throughout are built hollow, to prevent dampness; the outside walls and those on each side of the transverse hall have an average thickness of eighteen inches, while those separating the various class rooms have a thickness of thirteen inches. The exterior is built of the best quality of pressed brick. The plainness of the extended façade is relieved by projections and recesses in the line of the outer wall, by a horizontal line of marble work separating the first story from those above, by a large main entrance in the middle, by the cornice, and by the dome of the observatory above. Though simple in design, and constructed in an economical manner, the building presents externally quite an ornamented appearance.

The observatory is built upon two piers of solid masonry. These piers stand isolated from all the rest of the structure, being inclosed within the walls on each side of the front entrance. They are sixteen feet wide by two and a half feet thick, and extend upwards, without material change, from below the foundation to the top of the third story. There they are connected by iron girders, and on these girders the instruments rest. The dome of the observatory rests upon the other walls of the building, and has no connection with the piers that are used to support the instruments. The height of the dome above the level of the pavement, is one hundred and twelve feet.

Throughout the building, careful provision has been made for light. The win

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