Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1881-11-03
NEW VANDERBILT MANSIONS.

NEW VANDERBILT MANSIONS.
PALACES COVERED WITH CARVING
AND A STABLE FITTED WITH CARPETS.
The palaces that are building for
the Vanderbilts along Fifth avenue,
between Fifty-frst and Fifty
eighth streets, do not appear to be
much nearer completion than they
were year ago, but that is because
so much work has been required
upon them that twelve months of
steady application by the wcrkmen
has altered their external appear
ance but little. Cornelius Wander
bilt's magnificent stable in Fifty
eighth street, near Madison avenue,
is finished and in use. 1t breaks u
long BLOCK Of handsome residences.
Although the interior is like gor
geous temple in which the galleries
are used as hay lofts, and the stalls
are where tie beat pews might
have been, tie front is the front Of
a stable. Soft, fringed curtains
and stained glass panes darken the
stable-Ear's epa:tGcepts on the
second story, and above are huga
terra Gotta figures by Kemeys. the
PARTISAN sculptor. The hinge head
of the Siberian bloodhound is III
the center, and the mastiff and
bulldog eye, it from tie sides. Five
magnificent horses were brought to
the stable yesterday morning, and
the workmen paving the street in
front of the building informed the
Sans reporter that they reached
their stalls upon strips of carpet
laid to protect TIC newly vanished
floor.
ca the corner of Fifth avenue
aud Fifty seventh street IS Corne-
lius Vandcrbiitfs Ear8ion of caryed
marble. a dozen scElptors are yet
ct work carving the floral orn;.-
ments aud fignres that almost Gov
er the exterior walls. AS soon az
the liltle conservatory of iron and
glass in the rear IS finished, the
substantial marble railing around
the house is all in its place, the
windows and doors are put in, and
the carvers have done what little
remains of thoir work, the exterior
will be completed. In the great
rooms that can be seen from the
street are piles of bricks, tiers OF
barrels and stacks of lumber. The
| tire-proot focrs and ceiling are
nearly completed. Yesterday the
workinen were slowly setting a
fag-stone twenty-five feet long and
fifteen and half feet wide in front
of the main entrance on Ffty-sev-
en1h street. No such fagstone, ex-
cept the one in front of William Ii.
Vanderbilt's mansion, was every
quarried in this country.
] William X. Vanderbilts enor-
mons dwelling on the corner of
Fifoy-second street and Fifth ave-
nue. is equally far advanced. The
fact that ils style ct architecture is
sin the form that marked the tran
sition between Gothic aud Renais-
sance' but feebly characterizes its
appearance. 1t is an immense, tall, :,
yet we'll proportional structure,
bristling with gargoyles, turrcse
and gables, ard Etered ever with
grotesque figures aas. fanciful pic
lures in stone. Cats with bowed
backs, dogs with obtrusive vertc-
br@, dimpled babes, sleepy owls
and hideous satyrs perch on tiny
pinnacles, protrude from cornice
joints or iut from chimney sides.
High above all the lfe-size figure
Of a sculptor, na,let in hand and
wearing his white apron, sits in
dizzy solitude looking down upon
this triumph of his ait. The most
enjoyable of all the bits of carving,
perhaps because it is nearest to the
spectator from the street, is the
panel piece called 'The Enjoyment
of Life in which chubby urcLins
portray the delights of food aud
drink and music under the semi
circular bay window on the side
tstreet. Some of the windows are
in place; the marble railing, cary
ed like the house, is going Ep, and
a heap of great boxes marked
Fragile and From Paris lying in
the street suggest what is to come
bnt the same heaps of brick ano
stacks of barrels, and the scaffold;
sof The masons show that the inte-
rior is yet all confusion.
In the Siamese joint that COM