THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND. MARCH 22,- .1908.
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HOW PieiLPON MORGAN ORG down a
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of Gotham
and
Jrinr;ru; i .iaun(jA. a oia nanan
garden in the heart of New York
City Is done. He tore down a $000,
EHfO house to make room for it.
His VjOO.OOO art gallery is ready for his
priceless London collection of art . ob
jects tobe housed in it. On its site stood
two yisn.rtno city mansions only, a few
months ago. Now Mr. if organ has his
eye on more of the adjoining property;
he lias set Ufa heart on having a private
varlt lu the iPeT of the great city, where
land Tor residence purposes is worth
thousands oT dollars a front foot.
New York Isn't at all surprised at these,
ambitious plans ambitious even for this
master of finance. The great block of
high-priced land on Madison avenue be
tween Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh
streets, now' dominated by Mr. Morgan,
Is only one of a dozen similar ones in
New York. The average. New Yorker
wouldn't turn his head at passing the
block; it is an even chance that . he
wouldn't know the . great house and its
art gallery were Mr. Morgan's. He is
used to these ways of millionaires.
Dozens of them have done it before.
Others are doing it today. More will do
it tomorrow.
New York is fast turning into a city of
palaces and tenements. It is becoming
a city rebuilt. It can't spread Man
hattan Inland is already completely built
up. Modest brown stone houses give way
to palaces of stone and marble, and
w hen a $100,000 house . goes down a
$l,0").00o one goes up.
. So when Mr. Pittsburg or Mr. Chicago
wants his Murray Hill Mansion in New
York, or Mr. Knickerbocker thinks his
quarters are cramped, lie doesn't build
on some new lot, he tears down a few
houses to get room.
Think of it, a city where, a man whose
income is $T000 a year cannot live in a
whole house! A city where even $10,000
men must dwell in flats with their wives
and children!
What becomes of them? gome journey
to uttermost Harlem or darkest Brook
lyn: but the great majority join the vast
army of commuters, forced out of the
city because the demand for land is so
great that they cannot live in New York.
It is only the very rich who can pay
the price.
A whole block of Fifth avenue front
age, consisting of a half a dozen brown-
tone homes, went to make the Cor
nelius Vanderbllt. Sr.. home. The Astors
took a half block just north of them:
Andrew Carnegie has a block frontage
higher up; C. M. Schwab took an entire
block on Riverside Drive at Seventy-third
street, and so it runs. George Gould has
demolished his $:00.000 Gothic home at
Fifth avenue and Sixty-seventh street to
build a $1,000,000 one after the French
style of architecture. William C. Whitney
tore a $.'00.000 mansion Inside out to put
in $;:. 000.000 worth of interior decoration,
only to die soon after it was done. James
Henry Smith, who inherited $50,000,000
from a rcciuse uncle, bought it for
9.000.000, to die in his turn.
Senator Clark, of Montana has just
completed his $5,000,000 palace at Fifth
avenue and Seventy-sixth street, tearing
down two flve-story houses. It is built
with a separate entrance for the public,
who Are to be admitted to the sumptious
art galleries.
And so it runs countless instances
might be Riven of other New York pal
ares where from two to. ten homes
have been sacrificed to satisfy the re
quirements of one millionaire.
Ficrpont Morgan's Palace.
Not many months ago three great
brownatone mansions occupied the
Madison-avenue block between Thirty
sitli and Thirty-seventh streets. The
northerly one was Anson Phelps
Stoke's. the center one was the W.
Karle Dodge home, and the southerly
one was Mr. Morgan's. All three were
of the old-fashioned brownstone type,
with big windows and rather gloomy
exteriors. Each had a tio-foot front
age, and there was plenty of air space
Itetween the three houses, all being de
tached nd separated by gardens.
But Mr. Morgan was making plans
to extend. Back of him on Thirty
ixth street was the five-story brown
stone home of William Salmon. No. 35.
Hiid adjoining it. at No. 37, the home of
.iHines H. Dunham. Mr. Morgan bid
$150,000 apiece for the houses, tore
them down, and today on their site
ntnd his $ri00.000 art gallery of pink
ish gray Tennessee marble, with a
frontage of 115 feet on Thirty-sixth
a,1 ; It was ill this superb pile.
Other "Astonishing Extravagances
crowded with the treasures of Europe,
that Mr. Morgan received the moneyed
men of New York when the financial
fabric was tottering only such a little
while ago.
But this regal addition to his man
sion wasn't enough for Mr. Morgan.
He bought the Dodge home, next door
on Madison avenue. In due season he
tore it down. Today on its site is a
severely classic Italian garden, with
an antique fountain in its center. Some
day he hopes to own the whole block
frontage, but the Stokes family is very
rich, too. and loves its old Madison
avenue home too much to sell just
yet.
In some of the tenement districts
3000 souls hive on a plot of ground no
larger than the one where Mr. Morgan
dwells in solitary state.
George Gould's Problem.
George Gould found a different prob
lem confronting him when his growing
family of boys and girls needed more
room than his great $500,000 double
mansion could afford. His neighbors
along that section of Fifth avenue
which fronts Central Park, hadn't the
slightest idea of giving way to Mr.
Gould. If he wanted to get more room
for his house he would have to build
up in the air; he couldn't possibly
spread out sideways.
So Mr. Gould gave his orders to the
architects. They have designed for the
original site a seven-story palace of
granite and Indiana limestone. The
splendid house which bis father, the
late Jay Gould, gave him, has been
razed to the ground, and today the
new house fast, going up.
Nothing that taste can suggest or
money buy has been omitted. There
is a passenger elevator, a moving
staircase, a freight lift, an electric
laundry, a private ice plant, and a
huge swimming pool, 35 by 60 feet.
It will be completed in a year, at a
cost of $1,000,000, which does not in
clude the land or the furnishings.
Two floors in this newest New York
palace will be for entertaining. The
main entrance on Sixty-seventh street
leads into a great hall of majestic pro
portions. Here will be a small reception
room, library dining-room and foyer.
The second floor is arranged to be thrown
all together. Here is the large foyer hall,
.ru feet long. 25 feet wide and 35 feet
high. On the right is the ballroom; on
the left the salon. The third floor is for
Mr. and Mrs. Gould, and also has two
guest chambers. The fourth floor is for
the children and has three baths.. The
fifth floor contains 11 rooms for servants.
In the basement are the kitchen and
laundries, pantries, storerooms and the
like and in the cellar the winerooms,
trunk rooms and the pool.
The Vanderbilts' Homes.
For three decades the great twin brown
stone Vanderbilt mansions diagonally
across . from Saint Patrick's Cathedral,
taking up the entire Fifth avenue front
age between Fifty-first street and Fifty
second street, have been familiar land
marks. Across Fifty-second street is the
$1,000,000 city chateau of W. K. Vander
bllt, Sr., a superb pile of white stone de
signed by the late R. M. Hunt. Two
brown stone houses to the north of it
have gone down to make way for a sec
ond mansion for the son, W. K. Vander
bilt, Jr., of similar material and design.
This one family, therefore, now has a
block and a half frontage on Fifth ave
nue, probably the most costly length of
family homesites in the world, certainly
in this country, as well as the longest.
Today, however, Pittsburg has a foot
htild there. Henry C. Frick has leased the
southerly house. George W. Vanderbilt's,
for $100,000 a year, for ten years a mil
lion for a home, not In purchase price,
but in rent alone!
Farther up the avenue is another great
mansion of red brick and light Bedford
stone a whole block frontage. It Is one
Vanderbilt home. Here dwells the
widow of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Here,
only a few weeks aso. Miss Gladys Van
derbilt, the only unmarried child, became
the Countess Szechenyi. It is modeled
after the famous Chateau de Bois. near
Paris. A towering iron fence shuts it
in, and the garden where once stood three
brown stone homes. It cost $2,500,000.
The Twomblys and Webbs have a half
block frontage between them, at , Fifty
fourth street, and the F. W. Vander
bilts another half block at Fortieth street
three and a half blocks frontage for all
this one family on the costliest street in
the world.
When Senator Clark allows the public
to enter his towered new palace at
Seventy-sixth street and Fifth avenue,
V?
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PfMMki -iff? f!
!tlSl?l 1 M Z t'fl Mi feSti' The twin Astor mansions at Fifth
"FTjEJi J IT rB -l j" p" ,. i g i "X" avenue and Sixty-fourth street have
!it'i ' I 4 -riPlfi L C t?5? - 'JSL.- i'3 'Sf'l one remarkable peculiarity. There is
f.. rS t f . ff A " -fl?' W it X i f "V f I JV no provision made for visitors afoot.
if I I f": i , If' 11 - ; I I "1 -Siis.'i, The front door opelis on the carriage
nil ll "J, - 14 J fL . fLA ! l ll 1 x, If ' y- L " ja jFt sL way, and unless you drive up you must
As-i H ML ! - i - 7" -v I - 1 1 9 " - f 'J I'V" I'JV Pick your way in among the carriages
i',ei ' -jffU -IsSgSL-.- f and horses there is no footpath to
; s. T frtcrt oZ3 ywbji f-l''g&aa2 , II the front door. But then anyone wiio
l4,y!SiSrwnS' fTjTf --ige' may call on the Astors is supposed ko
"lX!iTf l-2.3hF 3 have a carriage, and there Is an en-
'tjHi f f-:H" I trance for others at the back.
JE5 -.'"i-a I g'V''4"'?,fc.w&'' """U'"rS Z!hzzz '"' 'lMai ' Further, though the houses look as
W't f??f-" jr"'ilKi",.!!'' -rySfr lr ?Sn5Jjl&J on- th?y are absolutely separate es-
fiJMJF """ySl tablishments. one occupied by Mrs.
x tJ HSl T - - f g William Astor. social arbiter of New
- -a:T' x,rk s,oc'e,ty rd ihf ?ther h76 k son-
' - . miiii tmiiSL-J wwa88'5SSssva ll Colonel John Jacob Astor, and hts beau-
I . 1 , -I I tlful wife and two children.
j ' '1smiygrltKI ' The sreat gallery in- the rear con-
J&XATOA. TVZLLTAM-Ji.. CLARK'S 1 9j-occ. If G! ' X5 l
It will be worth while to drop in, no mat
ter who you are or what you have seen.
It will be a revelation in luxury, a marvel
of money's magic.
It is not as large as the Vanderbilt
bouses, nor the houses of the Astors.
Mr. Schwab or Mr. Carnegie, but it cost
more. Before Senator Clark sets foot in
it he will have paid out $5,000,000. It isn't
ready yet., though work lias been going
on ten years. The hair of ' Washington
Hull, the architect, wTas brown when -he
started: it is gray now. so many perplex
ities have confronted him.
Beside the original Fifth avenue lot.
Senator Clark bought four adjoining
houses. Three in Seventy-seventh street
and one on Fifth avenue, for a site. Then
started the great pile. Kleven stories
high, including basement and towers it
looks more like an institution than a
home.
All sorts of difficulties beset the-work.
Money set them aside. Rather than be
bled by contractors; Senator Clark bought
six different plants to supply material a
granite quarry at North Jay, Me.; a
stone finishing plant at Bangor. Me.; a
marble factory at Ravens wood, L. I.; a
woodworking factory at Ravenswood.
and a bronze foundry in New York City.
Bronze is everywhere in the "white
granite structure. The roof and most
of the tower is bronze; so is the plumb
ing, the window casings and sashfngs. and
the balcanies. Today the bronze factory
pays a profit, for Senator Clark has un
derbid the contractors who wanted to
bleed him, and does outside work. Hie
work Took the grand prize at St, Louis,
where it was exhibited.
The whole interior is a mass of sculp
ture, modeled by Philip Martiny. the
famous artist and carved by the most
expert workmen obtainable. The enor
mous entrance hall and winding staircase
is of ivory-tinted marble, in pure classic
carving. The ceilings are of quartered
oak overlaid with gold leaf to show the
grain. On the ground floor are reception
rooms, offices. billiard and - smoking
rooms,, all in mahogany, Caucassion wal
nut or English oak.
There are entrances to the ground floor
the private-one to the main hall: one
for carriages through a great gate in the
arch under the oval conservatory, and
one to the court through great bronz
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JVLLL -JiOQrl
" it ' ' '
gates in the rear. A carriage on enter- tains the famous Astor collection of
ing discharges its passengers in the J paintings and also serves as a ball
middle of the house at the main hall i room. When either Mrs. Astor enter-
door, goes on through the court past the
marble fountains, and turning three sides
of a square passes out into the street
again by the big gate. A large auto
mobile storage-room connects with this
interior driveway. The faience gallery
has an entrance from the court in the
rear so that the public may enter with
out disturbing the household.
The second floor Is the glory of this
new world palace. Ascending the marble
staircase one reaches a long hall of
Maryland marble, with panels of (splendid
1
in
old tapestries under ceilings of white
Caen stone. This leads to the grand
saloon facing Fifth avenue in Louis XVI
style. All - the woodwork- was stripped
from an old French palace and brought
here. The walls are grey and gold, with
gilded pilasters and magnificently painted
panels. Adjoining is an elliptical saloon
taken bodily from the Hotel Soubise, In
Paris. Behind this Is a beautifuL morning-room
furnished with four superb
tapestries by Benchor typifying Earth,
Fire and Water.
Under the tower is the circular sculp
ture hall with a dometf ceilinjf. all in
ivory marble, with supporting pillars.
Next the conservatory in pink marble.
The dining-room is of English oak with
an elaborately-carved stone frieze repre
senting hunting and sporting scenes. The
ceiling is also of oak, gilded.
The principal art gallery has a wain
scot of Istrian marble with a carved oak
ceiling supported by 12 pillars of polished
Cipolino - marble. Upstairs are the
living rooms, all wonders of luxury and
magnificence. There is a secondary
staircase, in Caen stone from top to
bottom. Thirty bathrooms are part of
the palace's equipment. And a great
swimming jjool in . the basement lined
with Carrara glass. The ceilings are of
mosaic and the floor of marble.
The main elevator is fitted up as a
huge Sedan chair of the Louis XVI
period. Besides, there is an elaborate
system of dumb waiters connecting the
kitchen and service-room with all the
floors.
There is an electric light plant with
power for 8500 bulbs, big: and little; a
laundry run by electricity, storage and
packing-room for objects of art; refrig
erating plant, wine cellars, safe-deposit
vault, and two roof gardens.
No Emperor - of bygone days ever
dreamed of such luxury! 1
Charles M. Schwab has today the
largest single, home site in New York
City. He owns the entire block bound
ed by West End avenue. Riverside
Drive, Seventy-third and Seventy
fourth streets, and on this great plot
he has erected a. splendid $2,500,000
turreted chateau in the renaissance
style, which looks out upon the lordly
Hudson. There he dwells for ' brief
periods of the year in lonesome isola
tion, for the Schwabs have no children.
It is understood that at their death the
great place will be turned into an in
stitution housing: some charity.
Where the Astors Ijlve.
tains the homes are thrown into one.
This can be easily done, because both
houses open into the great gallery.
These dwellings typify quiet ele
gance and the possession of wealth for
generations. The main halls in stone
are two stories high, surrounded with
galleries. Heavy rugs and tapestries
take away the chill of the stone.
Lrawing rooms and dining car are
rich, but in the perfect taste for which
the Astors are noted.
The great brownstone at- Fifth ave-
nue and Sixtyeighth street, which now
belongs to James henry Smith's widow,
lias had many vicissitudes. It v. as
originally built by llobcrt I... Stuart,
but was sold by him to Amzi L. Kar
ber in IS 95, before it was completed.
Two years later William C. Whitney
bought it for $650,000. . The late Stan
ford White, for whose death Harry K.
Thaw is now in Matteawan Asylum for
the Criminal Insane, put his senilis
i.ito the house and Mr.' Whitney ex
pended $3,500,000. Kvery toom rvHs
treated according: to a single idea. lOu
rope was ransacked for its choicest
treasures. Famous old churches, cas
tles, pa'aces and monasteries contrib
uted to the interior.
Art lovers say the main entrance hall
is the noblest picture in New York. Kn
t ranee is through great iron and bronze
gates from the Doria Palace in llaly
Another old stone gateway comes from
Florence. At the head of the hall is a
heavily carved mantel from a Florentine
palace and in front of, it stands a huge
black oak table, which for centuries
stood in an Italian monastery. The mas
sive marble staircase came bodily from
a. Venetian palace; the entire carved
wooden ceiling from a Genoese palace,
where it had been placed centuries be
fore. . t
As one stands in the hall and looks
back on the entrance, staircase and
balustrade, he faces a colonnade of
Ievantine marble, tho Italian . marbln
doorways and a beautiful arrangement of
stained glass which forms the front of
the room. This was once a part of a
chapel in the palace of the "Viscount
Sauze In the South of France.
At the .head of the massive staircase is
the grand hall 36 by 35 feet, the floor of
mosaic made of marble brought from
Greece, Italy and Africa. Some 10,ion
pieces of brass were used in laying this
floor alone. The walls are of Istrian
marble; the ceiling of carved Florentine
woodwork.
From the grand hall a corridor leads
to a great music room.. 60 feet long and
30 feet high. Once it was a room in the,
castle of Phoehus d'Albert. Baron " or
Tours, a chevalier in the time of Louis
XIV. From the castle the room was
transported bodily to Paris in the time
of Iouis Philippe: Then Mr. Whitney
bought it and again it was removed. The
room is of richly carved panels of oak
gilt; thetceillng is decorated with a huge
painting and splendid tapestries hang the
waMs. Library, salon and diningroom
are similarly treated, all fitted with dec
orations which once were in houses
abroad.
Ir. Whitney died soon after his home
was finished and Mr. Smith bought it,
only to die while in Japan on his honey
moon, fiow it . is said that Harry Payne
Wrhitney wants to buy back the home hia
father loved so well.
Carnegie's Homelike Home.
Three-quarters of a mile up Fifth ave
nue past the more modest marble or
stone homes of men who can only reckon
their millions in one figure, one pauses
with a start at the block between Nine
tieth and Ninety-first streets, guarded
fence of Iron palings and brick columns,
surmounted with great stone urns. Set
in gardens decked with flowers, lawns,
terraces, shrubbery and trees it is a
country estate on a city street the hum
of Andrew Carnegie, and a wondrous
place it is. It is in the Isth century
English style, built of red brick and In
dian limestone. It is stc 'es high,
70 feet wide and ISO feet deep. It is the
most "homey" looking millionaires house
in all New York. And what is quite re
markable, it hasn't any ballroom!
"This will be a home, not a show place."
were Mr. Carnegie's orders to his archi
tects, so there isn't any ballroom ur
private theater or any other apartments
for social functions and the drawing-
(Concluded on Pag, 11.)