Hints and suggestions on school architecture and hygiene : with plans and illustrations for the use of school trustees in Ontario / by J. George Hodgins.
- J. George Hodgins
- Date:
- 1886
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hints and suggestions on school architecture and hygiene : with plans and illustrations for the use of school trustees in Ontario / by J. George Hodgins. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![at an outside door exposed to them with such force as to make themselves felt through the whole school room whenever the door is opened ; it gives dry and clean approaches to the building after snow storms, in place of impassable drifts ; and last, but not least, shelter for those too punctual scholars who are sure to arrive before the building is open in the morning. “5. So important has experience shown the southerly aspect for entrances to be that to this necessity is perhaps due the fashion of east and west lighting for the school room proper. “ 6. There may be situations where a south exposure is impracticable for one or both entrances. In such a case, much may be done by contriving porches, which, although entered from the east or west, or even from the north, can have wide windows toward the south, and angles or screens which may shelter the early arrivals from the cold winds.” 84. The State School Superintendent of Wisconsin also gives a good reason for separate entrances to the school. He says:— “It tends to prevent crowding and disorder of the pupils before reaching, or on leaving, the school rooms, and removes the temptation for boys and girls to remain in the entries engaged in conversation.” The Vestibules and Cloak Rooms, or Wardrobes. 85. The author of the United States Book on School Architecture, speaking of vestibules and wardrobes, says:— “1. A good rule for vestibules is that the outside doors shall be placed at an angle with those opening from the vestibules into the school room. This will cut off the direct impulse of the wind and exclude draughts with ten times the effectiveness of out¬ side and vestibule doors in parallel walls. They should be light and sufficiently spacious to give the crowd which pours out of the school room doors at recess a little breathing space before they are pushed into the open air.* “2. Attached to each vestibule should be a . . . wardrobe. These may open directly from the school room.but the smell of wet clothes in rainy weather .... is penetrating and disagreeable, and a better disposition is to open the wardrobes from the vestibules, these being at the same time so arranged that the teacher can observe every¬ thing that goes on in either of them, f * In constructing the entrances to a school house it should be remembered that the Canadian law requires that the doors should be made to open outwards. Care should also be taken to make the staircases and passages of the school house of more than one story as wide as possible, so as to facilitate the egress of the pupils in case of fire or panic. Pupils should also be drilled to leave the school house in the shortest possible time so as to pre¬ vent crushing in case of alarm. (See paragraph number 129, on fire drill, page 74.) t Dr. D. T. Lincoln, in the Report for 1882, of the New York State Board of Health, says on this point:—“ It is not proper to hang overclothes in the rooms where scholars sit. A closed ward¬ robe .in the school room condenses the effluvia and concentrates the effect of packing a quantity of most reeking [garments]. The chance of diffusing infection is increased by such con¬ tact. [The wardrobe] should be large enough [so that the] clothes should hang without overlap¬ ping each other. It should have good light and free circulation of air, and be well warmed.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30480449_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
