having only one head master instead of two, a larger number of pupils, so as to afford the best facilities for classification, a separate school-room for each teacher, a separate desk for each pupil, and a larger proportion of female teach ers than had before been employed in boys' schools. These were important ele ments of progress, and their general adoption has tended both to increase the efficiency and diminish the expense of our schools. But there is danger of pushing these changes to injurious extremes. Some of our schools are now too large for the best good of the pupils."

DR. T. M. BREWER, who was Chairman of the District Committee twelve years before,-"The dedication of the Quincy School-house, twelve years ago next June, marks an important era in the history of the Boston Public Schools. This school, with the Mayhew, organized contemporaneously on the same system, was the first single-headed school, with graded divisions of classes, from the lowest to the highest, successfully organized in Boston. It was spoken of as an 'experiment,' as an innovation of doubtful advantage,' by its opponents. Yet, within the seven years immediately following its dedication, every grammar school in Boston was re-organized on substantially the same plan. The very member, now no more, who most earnestly resisted the change, six years after made a report in favor of the re-organization on the single-headed system, of the last of the double-headed schools left in Boston. The Quincy Schoolhouse, with the Hancock, was the first erected upon the plan of a separate room for each division, with one large hall for the assembling of the school. The pioneer of the noble school edifices that adorn our city, that house has been constructed with such liberality, with so much wise forethought and discriminating judgment, on the part of the City Government, that, in my opinion, subse• quent structures have not been in any essential respects improvements upon the original plan. For many of the advantages of the new plan the city was indebted to Hon. John H. Wilkins, Chairman of the Public Building Committee, and to George B. Emerson, Esq., Chairman of the Conference Committee on the part of the School Board. With the latter it was my privilege to be associated. Not the least of the advantages over every previous school-house was the isolation of each seat and desk. This innovation was warmly opposed by the gentleman at the head of the Building Committee. Though afterwards denied to the Bowdoin School, it has since become the universal privilege of other schools. Less than twelve years ago the Quincy and the Hancock were the only schoolhouses in the city upon this plan. Now there are no less than fourteen, all but five, and another has been commenced, upon the same plan of liberal munificence. Mr. Chairman, when this school was organized, twelve years since, under the charge of its master, now our excellent Superintendent, it labored under very many disadvantages. To a large extent, it was composed of the overflowing of three other grammar schools, who, being permitted to retain their advanced pupils, left this school without any first class. For nearly a year it was kept in three or four scattered groups, in apartments having none of the equipments or advantages of a well-ordered school-room. To some extent these were compensated for by its efficient and experienced corps of teachers, under whose diligent and faithful services it soon rose to distinction, and its success gave to it its present solid reputation. Mr. Valentine, now the master, was then its sub-master; our present sub-master was an usher, and only two ladies, one of them our invaluable head-assistant, of those now in the service, took part in the earlier labors of the school. Here, too, was first tried the experiment of female instruction for boys of a higher grade than those just admitted from primary schools. With the practical evidences all around me, in every boys' school in the city, of the superiority of female instruction, I need not dwell upon the success of this experiment.

But, Mr. Chairman, I will not detain you with reminiscences already in part anticipated. Twelve years have brought with them surprising changes, all of them first initiated within these walls. We have lived to see its house the model for Boston School-houses, and the plan of its school made the universal system throughout the city. I will only add the expression of the hope that this school may continue ever to deserve its substantial reputation, and that, long after you and I have passed away, it may continue to exemplify the language of Solomon, and remain a place wherein "the rich and the poor meet together," for "the Lord is the maker of them all."

PLANS OF LINCOLN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON.

THE following description of the Lincoln Grammar School-House is taken from the annual report of the school committee for 1859 :

"In the design of the Lincoln School-House, which is located on Broadway, near K st., South Boston, it was the intention of the accomplished architect, J. F. G. Bryant, Esq., to combine all the advantages of the interior plan of the best buildings, with an effective and tasteful exterior, without any material increase of expense.

"There seems to be no good reason for perpetuating that baldness and almost primitive simplicity of style which have characterized most of the school edifices of the city. It can scarcely be deemed too much to demand, that the building which is the daily resort of our children and youth, and in which their mental and moral faculties are to be trained and unfolded, should be designed with careful reference to the rules of proportion, and even, in no small degree, of beauty. Certainly it would be well to keep this object in view, so far as it is consistent with a wise and proper economy. Harmony of style, and propriety and elegance of detail, will never be without their refining influences upon the mind of the pupil.

"The following mechanical description, extracted from the specifications' of the architect, will illustrate the interior conveniences of the building and its adjuncts, as well as the manner of construction and the formation of the exterior."

The building is a" parallelogram "in outline of ground plan, measuring ninety-three and four-twelfths feet in length, and sixty-one and two-twelfths feet in width, outside of its base or underpinning course, at the ground or sidewalk level in front of the building. It is four finished stories in hight, with an "unfinished" cellar story over the whole area, which is partially above and partially beneath ground. The cellar is nine feet high. The first, second, and third stories, respectively, twelve and one-half feet high, and the fourth story fifteen feet high. The top of the gutter of the outside walls is located four and two-twelfths feet above the ceiling of the fourth story, which ceiling is formed immediately upon the undersides of the tie-beams of the roof framing, or attic flooring. The roof is " hipped " from each of the four corners of the building, and is made a "Mansard," with curved sides and a "flat" top; the hight above the top of cornice to the top of the curve of the roof is fourteen feet; its "flat" is located in the center of the length and width thereof, and it measures eighty-six and one-half feet in length, and fifty-one and one-half feet in width, and has a pitch over its surface of one and one-half inches to a foot. The four corners of the roof are formed as projections; the spaces between the projections over all four sides of the building are recessed to intersect with recesses in the faces of the four exterior walls ; said projections are hipped over the inner corner of each, in imitation of the hip over the outer corner thereof-being the corner hips of the building. The recesses in the faces of the four exterior walls aforesaid are located in the center of the length of each wall, and reach the whole hight of said walls, to meet the roof recesses abovenamed. The recesses in the front and rear end walls each measure twenty-one and five-twelfths feet in width, and those in the two side walls twenty-three feet in width. Besides the four recesses aforesaid, there are recesses in the faces of the projections, or corners, which are formed to each exterior wall, beneath the roof projections; these recesses reach from the ground level up to the top of the third story, where they are formed with semicircular heads. The recesses in the corner projections of the front and rear ends of the house measure eleven feet and three and one-half inches wide, and four inches deep, and are single recesses; and the recesses in the corner projections of the two side walls of the house are eleven feet and three and one-half inches wide, and four inches deep, and are double recesses, with a dividing pilaster located in the center of the width of each of the same, and double semicircular heads to each recess,

springing from said pilasters. The four exterior walls are crowned with a corn'ce, the upper portion of which is formed as a gutter.

The interior arrangement of the first, second, and third stories is similar: each containing four apartments, located in the four corners of the house, measuring thirty-two and three-twelfths feet by twenty-seven and ten-twelfths feet each; a clothes closet to each room, measuring fifteen feet by five and ten-twelfths fet each; two staircases, measuring fifteen and eight-twelfths feet by ten feet each; and a hall, measuring twenty-four and eight-twelfths feet by twenty-two and fourtwelfths feet. Said rooms, closets, staircases, and halls are twelve and one-half feet high, in the clear, in each story. The interior of the fourth or upper story is arranged with two rooms in the two front end corners of the house, each measuring thirty-two and three-twelfths feet by twenty-seven and ten-twelfths feet; an exhibition hall, measuring thirty-eight and nine-twelfths feet by fifty-six and eighttwelfths feet, across the rear end of the house. There are two stairways, measuring five feet by ten feet; a clothes closet for each of the two rooms aforesaid, measuring five and ten-twelfths feet by fifteen feet each; two teachers' rooms (of L form,) measuring five feet by twenty-five feet each; and a hall, connecting with the exhibition hall, measuring twenty-two and four-twelfths feet by twenty-four and eight-twelfths feet. All the apartments, halls, closets, and staircases aforesa d in the four stories are "finished." The cellar story is subdivided into four apartments, in the four corners of the house, two staircases, and six closets. The apartments in the cellar are each to contain a furnace, and the closets are used for fuel. None of the cellar apartments or closets are "finished." There is also a hall in the center, of the length and width of the cellar story, into which the mouths of the four furnaces, the landing of the staircases, and the doors of the six fuel-closets all open.

All the apartments, halls, and closets in the fouth story are fifteen feet high. The teachers' rooms in this story have their floors located two feet above the floors of the other apartments. Each story is lighted by windows in the exterior walls. There are floor-lights in the hall of each story, immediately beneath the cupola or bell-tower, which crowns the roof of the house, in the center of its length and width. The four sides of the base or plinth of this cupola (above the roof level,) contain each an upright skylight. The attic or area beneath the roof is lighted by light stationary circular or bull's-eye" windows, inserted in the upright circular sides of the "Mansard " roof. There are no chimneys, other than metal pipes, in any part of the building, excepting one brick chimney located over the wall which forms the inside end of the exhibition hall. There are two entrances to the building in the first story, in the two sides of the same.

The lot measures one hundred feet in front by one hundred and seventy-five in depth, and contains seventeen thousand five hundred square feet. It is inclosed on the sides and rear end by a substantial brick wall, and in front by a granite foundation, surmounted by an ornamental iron fence. The rear portion of the yard is divided into two equal parts, by a brick wall running from the center of the building to the rear boundary.

The building is warmed by Chilson's cone furnaces, four in number, located in the center apartment of the basement. The cast-iron smoke pipes pass up through and warm the corridors.

The ventilating apparatus consists of a separate ventiduct of wood, leading from each school room to the roof. Here they are brought into two groups, at the opposite ends of the building, each of which is surmounted with one of Emerson's ejectors, of a large size. The transverse section of each ventiduct is about fourteen inches square. In each room there is a sliding register near the ceiling, and another near the floor, opening into its ventiduct.

A. A., &c., School rooms, twenty-three by twenty-seven feet.
C. C., Closets for clothes.

B., Exhibition hall, two-hundred and thirty-eight by fifty-six feet.