Item of Interest January 28, 1933 Issue

Item of Interest

This Item will take you, if you wish, on a journey up through the nine floors of Section "A" of the new Publishing House and into the two-story penthouse. The trip is made more easily now because sheet-metal stair risers and treads have been erected to the eighth floor to replace the wooden ladders. Almost all window openings to the eighth floor are covered by temporary wooden frames over which is tacked white cotton treated with cellulose fixative which glazes the fabric and causes it to admit more light. Heat has not yet been connected in "A" Section as it has in "B," but the closing of the window openings keeps out the wind and admits the heat of the sun's rays.

We shall enter at the main entrance, No. 1 Norway Street, through a wooden door. The bronze doors to hang here and elsewhere will not be put in place until the last. We pass through a narrow vestibule to the lobby, which is filled with wooden staging above and piles of terra cotta tile below. The enormous space in the first floor, which before looked so extensive, is now filled with piles of brick, various kinds of apparatus, and is cut up by some interior partitions partly built and by the stairs of concrete which we shall ascend. They reach to the second floor, where sheet-metal stairs begin. We have already listed in these columns the various departments to be located on the first floor. On the second will be placed the Advertising Department, the Library, and the offices of the Monitor editorial writers; on the third floor the Accounting Department, the Mail Opening, Mail Clearance, Addressing, the Statistical Department, and part of the stencil files, which extend into Section "B." And here we think to look out through one of the seven windows over the front entrance, for they are not covered and are used partly to anchor the wooden staging of the lobby. The narrow balcony over the front entrance has a concrete floor to be faced with stone. Concealed at the bases of the eight monolithic columns set at the face of the balcony are recesses prepared to receive electrical outlets for flood lighting. Similar provision is made on the roof at each setback on the building up to the penthouse, so that, if desired, the exterior of the tower may be illuminated at night.

At the fourth floor we investigate the passageway and fourth-story setback on Section "B." Running up through the penthouse above at intervals in a center row are rectangular light shafts with skylights at the top. Skylights flush with the ceiling of the bindery for the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy are not yet glazed, but we can see that this will be a well-lighted place in which to do the fine and beautiful leather bindings for Mrs. Eddy's works.

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