Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-11-23
GOSSIP.

r
Of and additions to Willards Hotel constitute
the most important and extensive private i'm
proyement ever made in the District Of Colum-
bia in a single season, and have Involved SO
heavy an outlay of money az to have rendered
them o matter of business interest 10 all our
fsllow-citilens who directly Or indirsctly psrti
cipate in the advantages ef expenditures on
such account in their midst: That is, indepsnd-
emit Of the advantage to accrue to all in trade
in the District from the existence Of such
house in Washington inducing, as it must, the
sojourn here of considerable increase Of money
spending strangers. !
Apart from these substantial reasons for pub
lie interest in the recent improvement OF this
heretofore celebrated house, the manner in
which it has been executed from beginning to
end renders it work in which all who COM
prehend the Importance of progress in mechan-
ical and artistic methods and modes cannotfai
to be greatly interested; insomuch as there is
now probably no other public or other house on
either side of the Atlantic, wherein the me-
chanical arrangements to save labor and ex-
pense in the conduct Of domestic affairs are 20
complete and effective.
As the house now stands, it fronts 3l3 feeton
Pennsylvania avenue, 500 feet on Fourteenth
street, and 46 feet on f street. The main ad-
dition Of the season has been on Fourteenth
and streets, where the old and new buildings
have been raised to seven stories, and the old
buildings made almost entirely new, with the
exception Of the outer walls. Most Of the inte-
rior spaee-the Enclosure between the fronts
mentioned above-ar covered with a vast
seven story interior building, amply lighted by
sky-lights, and ventilated thoroughly with i'm
proved iues Of huge dimensions, seventy feet
high. These are devoted to various purposes
incident to the business of the house-the kitch-
On, bakery, engine room, boiler room, wash
room, store rooms, &C., &c, all of which are con-
structed on such scale as that each shall do
its share in the proper accommodation of the
one thousand guests at time, the proprietors
OF Willards' Hotel will shortly be ready to en-
terrain with as much facility as last season they
| entertained some three or four hundred.
Among the most important of their new ad-
juncts is a beautiful little oscillating steam
engine, of seven-hOrse power, which labors
away from morn till night, accomplishing won
dsrs, while making no more noise in so doing,
if as much, as the ticking of a two dollar Yam
kes clock. Its province is to pump hot and
cold water into all parts Of the establishment
including the attic floors, three hundred feet
away; also to lift all the coal and wood, and
anything else necessary to any Of the floors; to
drive the ironing and mangling machinery,
and to saw all the wood required in keeping
up the hundreds of fires about the house The
reader will therefore perceive that its employ
ment in such an establishment actually saves
the labor Of at least one hundred servants for
were all such work done "by hand" instead,
one hundred men, women, boys and girls more
than will now be necessary, would be required
to do it chat work. as well. Adjoining the
little basement closet in which this engine
works, is large room in which the saving for
the day is.done, and on the other side another
large room wherein there are three huge boil
ers to generate the steam necessary to run the
engine and for heating the whole house by
means Of iron pipes penetrating everywhere
These boilers also furnish the hot water for the
washing, and for the supply of every portion
OF the vast pile, from cellar to roof
Yesterday, We saw with pleasure the trial
of one Of these boilers, of fifty horse power,
(patented and erected by our fellow citizens,
VIM. NJ. Ellis Bro.,) for heating the build
ing, washing, &c. Some idea of its efficiency
as steam generator may be had from the fact
that steam was raised in it to so lbs. pressure,
from cold water, in 80 minutes after kindlipy
the IRE. This boiler is the same in its ar
rangement, by the by, as the one used on the
canal steamer Jas. L. Cathcart the success os
which boat consists, it is believed, as much in
the capacity Of her boiler for enerating steam
as from any other cause
The kitchen IS the most complete one we ever
saw. 1t is 46 by % feet, and is Is feet high 1t
Is lighted by glass roof It's arrangements
are the complctest conceivable, and were de-
signed tor the most part by the Brothers Will
lard. In it are three huge ranges-one for boil.
ing and baking; another, Plant Balls we'll
known hotel range, for miscellaneous cooking.
IL feet long, set in the centre of the room. So
that battalion CT cooks may operate around it;
and third, quite as large, for cooking vege-
tables by steam. The second range we here
mention sends its smoke under the floor. to a
three-feet fue, seventy feet tall, SO we'll that,
with every one of its CRATES at q red heat.
neither gas nor smoke escapes from it into the
body OF the kitchen. The room is ventilated
by another three-feet fue, running clear to the
top Of the roof, through which the aroma or
smell of the viands being cooked escapes, with
out penetrating elsewhere.
Hard by the kitchen is the bakery with brick
and cast-iron ovens sufficient for tho hahn,
necessary for little family of twelve or thir.
teen hundred persons. Like the kitchen, and
indeed, all the res, Of the house, it is amply
supplied with hot and cold water, from the
pump and boiler room before mentioned. Near
at hand is the huge dumb-waiter on which the
meals Of the employees Of the establishment are
hoistcd to their dining room, just overhead.
The wash room is On the same (ground) floor.
Its machinery is 50 arranged that with its help
three women can wash and wiring out 5000
pieces per diem. Hot and cold water cocks
supply each of its huge troughs or tubs, and
escape cocks and pipes instantly convey off the
water that has been used, as required.
The doors Of all these rooms, and, indeed, Of