HOTEL DE VILLE, ST. QUENTIN.
This charming building has an uncommonly well-designed facade, picturesque in the extreme, rich in detail, and thoroughly dignified. We are indebted to M. Levy, of Paris, for the loan of M. Garen's spirited etching, from which our illustration is taken. The arcaded piazza on the ground story, the niche-spaced tier of traceried windows on the first floor, the flamboyant paneled cornice stage, and the three crowning gables over it unite in one harmonious conception, the whole elevation being finished by a central tower, while at either end of the facade two massively treated buttresses furnish a satisfactory inclosing line, and give more than a suggestion of massiveness, so necessary to render an arcaded front like this quite complete within itself; otherwise it must more or less appear to be only part of a larger building. The style is Late Gothic, designed when the first influence of the Early Renaissance was beginning to be felt through France as well as Belgium, and in several respects the design has a Flemish character about it.
HOTEL DE VILLE, ST. QUENTIN.
St. Quentin is situated on the Goy, in the department of Cotes du Nord, and the town is seated in a picturesque valley some ten miles S.S.W. of the capital, St Brieuc, which is a bishop's see, and has a small harbor near the English Channel, and about thirty miles from St. Malo.—Building News.
FIRE DOORS IN MILLS.[1]
There are few parts in fire construction which are of so much importance, and generally so little understood, as fire doors. Instances of the faulty construction of these, even by good builders and architects, may daily be seen. Iron doors over wooden sills, with the flooring boards extending through from one building to the other, are common occurrences. We frequently find otherwise good doors hung on wooden jambs by ordinary screws. Sliding doors are frequently hung on to woodwork, and all attachments are frequently so arranged that they would be in a very short time destroyed by fire, and cause the door to fall. In case of fire, a solid iron door offers no resistance to warping. In an iron lined door, on the contrary, the tendency of the sheet iron to warp is resisted by the interior wood, and when this burns into charcoal, it still resists all warping tendencies. I have seen heavily braced solid iron doors warped and turned after a fire, having proved themselves utterly worthless. It is needless to say that when wooden doors are lined, they should be lined on both sides; but frequently we find so-called fireproof doors lined on one side only.