The Hill Floor Blocks at the Gregory Avenue School
At present there is but one set of blocks on the market that corresponds to the one Mr. Wells describes. These are the "Hill Floor Blocks," manufactured and sold by A. Schoenhut & Co., of Philadelphia. They are of hard maple and come in seven sizes, from 3" squares to oblongs of 24", the unit block being 6" in length. There are 680 pieces in a set. Half and quarter sets are also obtainable. They are the invention of Professor Patty Smith Hill of Teachers College, Columbia University, and are used in The Teachers College Kindergarten and in many other schools.
Useful alike to builders and cabinet makers
Advanced research in Peg-Lock construction
The School of Childhood at the University of Pittsburgh makes use of several varieties of blocks, some of commercial manufacture, others cut to order. The list given is as follows:[C]
A. Nest of blocks.
B. Large blocks made to order of hard maple in five sizes:
Cubes, 5" X 5".
Oblongs, 2½" X 5" X 10".
Triangular prisms made by cutting cube diagonally into two and
four parts.
Pillars made by cutting oblongs into two parts.
Plinths made by cutting oblongs into two parts.
Light weight 12" boards, 3'-0" to 7'-0" long.
C. Froebel's enlarged fifth and sixth gifts.
D. Stone Anchor blocks.
E. Architectural blocks for flat forms.
F. Peg-Lock blocks.
As children become more dexterous and more ambitious in their block construction, the Peg-Lock Blocks will be found increasingly valuable. These are a type of block unknown to Mr. Wells, but how he would have revelled in the possession of a set! They are manufactured by the Peg-Lock Block Co. of New York. Cut on a smaller scale than the other blocks described, they are equipped with holes and pegs, by which they may be securely joined. This admits of a type of construction entirely outside the possibilities of other blocks. They come in sets of varying sizes and in a great variety of shapes. The School of Childhood uses them extensively, as does The Play School.