FIG. 4.-UPPER FLOOR NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDINGS.

served to the whole building. Great attention has been bestowed upon the efficiency of the warming and ventilating apparatus, and the system adopted has been highly successful. The building is rendered almost fire proof, being entirely covered with slate and tin, and detached. The means for extinguishing a fire, should any occur, are considered ample there being six hydrants, (three inches in diameter each) three in the east wing, and three in the west wing.

We now insert such plans and illustrations of School Architecture as are in the possession of the Department, grouping them in the following order:

1. Plans for Grammar, Union, or Superior Common Schools.

2. Plans for Common Schools in Villages and rural sections.

3. Plans for laying out the Ground and School Premises; Trees, Shrubberies, &c.

4. Plans for interior of the School-house: Heating and Ventilating.

5. Plans for interior of the School-house: Seating, &c.

6. Illustrations of out-door Amusements, Gymnastics, &c.

PART I. PLANS FOR GRAMMAR, UNION, OR SUPERIOR

COMMON SCHOOLS.

In the selection of sites and the erection of School-Houses, Trustees should have special regard to the following remarks and suggestions:

1. The sites should, where practicable, be fixed in an agreeable and cheerful neighborhood, apart from railways, mills, factories, &c. The position should be somewhat elevated, or on a gentle slope, and not in the vicinity of low ground or stagnant water.

STATUARY

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2. The door should face the south, and the principal windows be to the north, thus rendering access to the School-House agreeable at all seasons, and the light inside always free from the glare of sunshine.

3. The ground should be planted with trees, so as to provide a shade for the building and play-ground, and not leave both exposed, as is too often done, to the fierce heat of summer and the storms of winter. The grounds should also be nicely laid out, and shrubs and flowers planted where practicable, so as to promote in children a taste for neatness, order, and beauty.

4. The proper and economical heating and ventilation of the building should also be and Toronto.-(See illustrations in Part 4.)

5. The School-room should be provided with comfortable seats and desks. These can now be easily procured at the school furniture manufactories in Oshawa, Markham, carefully studied.-(See illustrations in Part 5.)

6. When the School-House is thus prepared and ready for occupation, map and apparatus, and a good teacher should be procured,

For the following plans and illustrations, we are in part indebted to H. C. Hickok, Esq., Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Pennsylvania, to the Hon. Mr. Barnard, and to other gentlemen:

PLAN No. 1.-FOR 500 PUPILS.

This building is three stories high, and is designed to accommodate 750 pupils--250 on each floor. Unless in very rare cases, a School Building should not exceed two stories in height. In all the passages and school rooms, the doors should open out ward, (not inwards, as is generally the case,) so as to admit of easy egress in case of fire, accident, &c.

The four corner rooms on each floor are, in effect, class rooms, the main room in the centre being the principal school-room, under the constant supervision and control of the first Master.

Under this system of government and instruction, for which a glazed partition throughout, and the wide central passages, afford full facilities, each story would require five Teachers-a master and four assistants-and each would thus constitute one large School. The two class rooms on the second story will be found very suitable for recitation purposes, if either or both of those stories be appropriated to pupils of an advanced grade.

The first story is for girls; the second for boys, and is nearly similar to the first story.

both open directly into the yard at the back of the building, and neither of them into the street; but a gate should lead from them to the street.

SPECIFICATION,

This plan represents a building forty-seven by ninety-two feet; three stories high, first and second fourteen and third thirteen feet each in the clear; pitch of roof seven feet, and height of the first floor two feet six inches.

This building is three stories high, divided into class rooms, separated by glass partitions, the first story being for girls, and the second for boys. It is intended to be of stone and stuccoed; but if brick is more economical, it would answer equally well.

In this building the two transverse partitions are to be supported by piers in the cellar, the girders to bear on the top of the piers and the walls of the flank; and the joists, arranged longitudinally, to be doubled under the other glass partitions. If the building should be built of stone, the walls will be-cellar 24, first story 22, and second 20 inches thick; but if of brick, they will be respectively 24, 22, and 18 inches thick. The doors and window sills, and the platforms and steps, are to be of cut stone.

With the changes hereafter suggested, this house will be found to be very suitable for a small town with from three hundred and fifty to four hundred pupils of all grades; or the forward or other division, containing the same number, in a larger town or a small eity, in which the plan of having the schools of each part separate from the others, but still on the Union system, is preferred.

The general idea of the plan is admirable. It provides not only for the three regular grades of Schools in the same building, all so arranged as to be within the full control of the principal teacher, but it affords considerable class room, great facility of entrance

and egress, and a fine large lecture hall. These are all very desirable qualities. In the details, however, it slightly fails; but it can be readily improved, both in capacity and arrangement, with little trouble and no increase of cost.

There is no actual nenecessity for the third or back stairway. The space occupied by it, if thrown into the girls' Primary School, will make it of equal capacity with that of the boys'. Each of these rooms will then be about twenty-five feet by thir-ty-five. This will readily seat two hundred Primary pupils--one hundred in each room. The Superior School rooms are about twenty-five feet square; a space which will seat from thirty-five to forty pupils of that grade in each room.

To secure readiness of entrance to the Primary Schools, there should be an outside door to each, opening through a small entry or clothes room. These doors had better The second story also admits of some desirable changes. The two Secondary Schools may be placed across the back part of the building over the Primaries, each being of sufficient size to seat about sixty pupils; the partition between them should also be of glass, to correspond with the first story.

The remaining portion of the second story, next the stairs, will then become applicable to the lecture hall and class rooms; two class rooms of about twelve by fifteen feet each being taken off one end of this space.

The lecture hall will be about thirty by forty feet, and as it will never be occupied when the Schools are in session, the doors to the secondary and class rooms may open into it. By this arrangement, also, the class rooms will be readily accessible both to the Superior and Secondary Schools, in connection with which they will be chiefly used.

Thus the same space will be made to accommodate a larger number of pupils and in better proportion to the numbers and wants of each grade, than as set forth in the plans above given. The cost of the third stairway will also be saved, and will defray the expense of the alterations just specified.