Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-04-24
Bob Ingersoll's Palace.
The Cabin Home I'm New Mexico Tina,
Dorsey Builds.

Bob Ingersoll's Palace.
The Cabin Home I'm New Mexico That
Dorsey Builds.
fRaton N. NY Letter to Denver opinion.l
This however, has all been preliminary to
a description of Ingersoll's log cabin in New
Mexico, which Dorsey is building for him
The situation is one of the most beautiful in
nature. Colfax county, in northeastern New
Mexico, is an elevated plateau almost identi-
cal in area with the State of Massachusetts.
The Pslo Alto estate commonly called Dor
sey's ranch) Is situated almost exactly in the
middle OF it. The whole country is one
boundless and unbroken meadow. The es
tate proper consists of about "a 600 acres, in
springs that control the pasturage of more
than million acres, Dorseys home rancho
(his private property and not included in the
Palo Alto estate) called Ojo del Monte
mountain sprins-is situated on an elevation
commanding view of almost the whole
county. 1t is next to impossible to convey
the proper notion of western scenery to
people unfamiliar with the optical effects of
our rarified atmosphere To say that when
the air is warmed by the sun, between the
hours of and COW four miles distant
will look larger, though the outline of form
will be indefinite, than one ten PAGES off, is
to assert that eastern people Gave perhaps a
few on the coast) have not the data in their
experience to verify. It seems impossible.
To state that one can stand upon the veranda
of Dorssys residence in the balmy morning
and gaze across endless meadows, upon
mountain ranges $50 miles away, and see the
peaks towering-into the clouds, is to endanger
your credibility by an assertion that almost
makes imagination faint. l. such country,
in the midst of such scenes, in an elevated
position, yet sheltered by solemn pines and
gnarled and twisted cedars will be situated
the summer home of Ingersoll He has lately
become part owner of the Palo Alto estate,
which, with its 45, 600 head OF grade CATTLE is
valued at So 600, 600. The house will be near
Ojo del Monte-that is, a few miles away.
Everything is ''near" in country where
the natural roads are ss smooth as race-tracks
and horses are as plentiful as chickens.
The building-or let us say buildings, for
1t is great cluster-Rill be something unique
in architecture, and shall be greatly disap-
pointed if the general plan is not soon extsn
sively copied in New England, where the
material abounds in profusion and where
feneiful things in architecture are now the
rage. Nothing more perfectly delightful for
a seaside residence could be devised, especisl-
Iy for spots where land is cheap It's size
will be commensurate with the generous pro-
portions of the man and the beundless kospi-
tally for which his hearth has always b5en
famous.
Ingersoll's immediate family consists of but
four persons, wife and two daughters, but
l am told that he rarely sits down to a meal
with less than dozen about his table, and
frequently that number is doubled. His New
Mexico residence will accommodate thirty
persons, exclusive of servants, without
E4o T r1r1a ND tn
occupy it from June to NoNember of each
year, and it is his purpose to withdraw him
self SO far from legal practice as to be able to
devote that much of each year to the prepara-
tioR of some books on religious and philoso-
phical topics which he as long contemplated.
Learning that Mir A. Fl. Young of Ration,
was the architect in charge, called on him
to obtain some facts for publication and was
permitted to take draft of the plan, which
I send for reproduction in Opinion. To get
the proportions right make the distance
around the vsrands $40 feat Formed into
one rectangular building, this would make
house 800 feet long by $50 feet vide, about
You viii thus bs enabled to judge of the
amount of space under roof
'tWhen do you expect to have Col. Inger-
soils house ready for occupancy" inquired
of the architect
by the LIST of July"
"TelI me how it will be fnished-tell me
all about it."
swell, it will be built of logs entirely, on
q stone foundation, and it will take twenty
five workpaen from now till the time men
toned to finish it. Every log will have the
bark scraped nearly smooth, but left on, and
then the whole will be oiled. The rustic eff
fects will be carried out by making even the
window frames of slabs, with the bark on,
and slI the doors will be of unique pattern
AS for the windo VS. they will be of all shapes
and sizes, these in no two rooms being alike,
and stained glass will be iberally used. The
floors and such of the rooms as are not lathed
and plastered, will be done in mountain ma
hogany and hard pine, two kinds of timber
growing in the vicinity. No paint whatever
will be used about the building, but all the
woodwork will be treated with hot oil. The
chimnsYs, of which there will be many, both
in groups AID scattered, will be of stone and
red brick. Some will be inside and others
entirely outside the house, as may best serve
effects In the general lsg-cabin design of the
buildings. Every large room-and you see
how numerous they will be-has spacious
fireplace for wood. With the exception of
the octagonal room, which will be thirty feet
high and have an observatory above all the
buildings 6 on perceive 1t Is not one building,
but numerous and grotesque jumbls, all
connected) will be but one story high The
roofs will be steep, seni-Gothic, painted
guile red, which think, with all the cluster
ing gables and the chimney groups, will make
a charming ensemble there among the green
cedars and pines. I am very enthusiastic
about it, for you see all the gentlemen of the
county are proud to have the Colonel for a
neighbor, and with the hests of eastern vis-
itors he will have my work is sure to be ap-
preciated.'
''Whst will the whole affair cost2"
''Well, the contract price for the house
alone is $40, ,0o0, but the stable, fences. put
ting In the fountain lyon see the spring
above throws the water 30 feet high at the |
house, will probably run the whole expense
up to $l5, 600, and you are to take into ac-
count that much of theumaterial costs moth |
ing out there bat the dressing
As for society, Col. IngersoH will not find |
himself among the barbarians in Oolfsx |
county. There is probably not another sec |
ton in the whole Rocky Mountain region |
which contains q greater number of cultivated |
people than this