The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-06-24
HOMES OF STATESMEN.
SENATORIAL MANSIONS AND CON-
GRESSIoNAL PALACES.
Dwellings Inhabited by the Notables Of
the CapitaI-value OF the Various
MansiOns-Homes Of Jour
naIistic individuals.
washington Letter

becoming the custom for public man to
own his own house in Washington One
of the leading real estate agents here Is
my authority for the following estimate of
the homes of some of the leading men of
the nation: "Blaine's house cost 500. 600,
and it rents for 10 per cent on $3.50, coo;
Don Cameron's big house on Scott circle
Is worth $50, 600, and it is one of the finest
finished houses in Washington; WINDOWS
house, just across the way, which cost
him his place in the senate, is worth $780,
900, and ought to rent for good interest
on that amount Pendleton's house
just above Cameron's cost $40, 900 to
build, and is now worth $50, 600, and the
big brick Of Secretary Robson which adj
joins 1t is valued at twice this sum. Bell,
the telephone man, also lives on Scott
circle He paid $115, 600 for his house
and stable, and it is one of the most valu-
able properties in Washington. Omar D.
Conger has a house on M street, Just off
of Thomas circle, which Mrs. Conger
bought at a bargain. She gave $50, 600
for It. 1t was built by pawnbroker, and
1t is, I should say, worth twice as much
as it cost. Mrs Dahlgren, the wife of
the admiral. has mansion looking out
toward the Thomas statue worth $50, 600,
and just across the way, in a brown stone
house, on the corner, which is certainly
worth $35, 900, lives Poker Bob Schenck
Sheridan's house is worth about $50. 900.
Sunset Cox has the prettiest little house in
Washington, made of green stone and
this his wife bought for $4,000; and Sen
ator Allison, of Iowa, has brick, painted
white. just opposite the Portland fats,
which will bring any day S15 600 under
the hammer. John Sherman's house on
K street is worth at least $50, 000 He
bought the ground for song when Frank
lin park, which il faces was cow pas-
ture and background, and his friends
laughed at the idea of il ever being worth
q great amount. Now I suppose you
could not buy vacant ground there, if
there were any, for less than so a square
foot, and the best houses of the capital are
all around it. "
Nv. w. Corcoran's house lies Just
across from the White House,
and includes g whole square Of
ground It could not be brought at
any price, but I suppose it to be worth
$3.50. 900 at least A little further up on
II street Bancroft, the old historian, lives
IN $50, 900 house of painted brick, and
catacOrnered across the way is the home
of John McLean's father-in-Iaw. Gen.
Beale, worth, l should say, $4,000 The
McLeans own great deal of Washington
real estate Washington Mclean, Johns
father, owns a house on one of the
best corners Of l street worth sew
eral times the salary of the chief
justice of the United States and
he has just bought Dan Sickles old
house near the White House. for, think
9S7, 900. Speaking of the supreme court,
the real estate man continued, Waite
owns house on III street worth $35, 900,
Miller's house is worth $40, 900, Matthews
had home on the corner of and Eight
zenith streets, which is @sthetically built
and would bring, / should say, $50, 900.
It is in the heart of the best section of the
capital. and its back windows look into
the reception-rooms OF the British legation
mansion. Judge Field has big brick
across from the capitol which used TO be
prison, and this is worth about $40, 600. :"
Across the capital plateau from Fields
Is Ben Buffers big stone mansion. which
ought to be worth as much as Blaine's,
and which, it is said, is mortgaged for
$50, 600. This has four great divisions,
and is enough to accommodate four
eminent and part to private parties.
Senator Palmer, of Michigan, is build
ing house on Z street, facing McPher-
son square, on ground that is worth per
haps 50 a square foot The house is an
immense brown-stone as big as a college,
and it has a stable built on to its back
end Just next to it on the corner is the
mansion of Judge Lowry, of New Eng
land, a man who is related in some way to
Levy Woodbury.. At the side of his house
he has beautiful lawn, and Palmer III
building his house expected to have the
benefit Of this for his back windows, in
Guiding his dining-room, etc. With this
in view he finished this part of his house
in pressed brisk and put up a beautiful
bay-window on the Fifteenth street side
of It. Lowry asked Palmer as a special
favor TO put his stable somewhere else
than on the back OF the house. saying ii
would be offensive to him and would in
iure his view and lot Palmer, however,
the story goes, refused to pay any atten-
ton to his wishes, and made the stable
wing Of his mansion. Now Lowry to
Offset this has built up q pressed brick
wall on the back of his lot as high, al
most, as Fslmer's second story, com
pletely shutting off the view from Pal
mer's dining-room and doing more injury
to his property than the value of ten
stables.
The houses belonging to members of
congress are few. Perry Belmont has one
for which he paid $25, 900, William Wal
ter Phelps has invested some of his mil
lions in Washington real estate, though /
believe he now lives in a rented house
Sam Randall has home on Capitol hill
worth perhaps 81, 900, and Hit, of Illinois,
has also a good residence Judge Law
renee, of Ohio. has house on Iowa circle
worth $40, 900, and it is one of those,
think, which Grant built. Senator Bruce
owns house on NJ street worth &c. O0
Fred Douglass estate at Uniontown, com.
prising the house and part of the planta-
ton of the negro-hater Van Hook, is
worth SIC. 600, and negroes own land all
over Washington worth from cent to So
per square foot
Some of the newspaper men also own
good houses here Gen Boynton, of The
Ci1cinnati Commercial Gazette, has a
home worth about $14, 900; Scott Smith,
Of The New York Commercial Advertiser,
has house at Ledroit park worth little
more, and Mckee, of the Associated
Press, has a mansion on Connecticut
avenue. which is as fine as any one owned
by q senator Mcbride, of The Cincinnati
Enquirer, has a house on @ street worth
$4,000; Jim Young, another newspaper
man, has one of the same value next door,
and Charley Murray's house, which was
lately photographed in Harper's Maya
zine as one of the aesthetic homes of the
capital, is worth $13, 900, and will rent
for the interest on SIS, 00O
Philip Gilbert Hamerton: There are
men whose whole art of living consists in
passing from one conventionalism 10 an
other, as a traveller changes his train.
Such men may be envied for the skill
with which they avoid the difficulties of
life