, 1886-04-06
A CURIOUS VILLAGE.
DiLAPiDATED sHANTIEs OF ONE OF
GOTHAM's QUEER SUBURBS.

+" shantytown and Its Queer Inhabit-
Ants-Adaptatioa of Means 10 an End.
As shown In Cabin NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ing Materi.l-SatioaAI Featr rec.
When Vanderbilt erected lis famous
houses on the corner of Fifth Lyenuc and
Fifty-iirst street, II was thought hat New
York would not extend much beyond that
quarter Of the city for years TO come. To-
day, however, the Vanderbilt mansions
are barely removed from the shops Of tail
ors and picture dealers that have crept
into the avenue, and every year the streets
fncing and extending from Central park
are becoming more popular with the in
habitants OF the costliest residences. But
there is still one district. facing this pleas-
ure ground Of New Yorkers-this magnin-
cent park, with its drives, its museum, its
hikes and monuments-which has not yet
been obliterated, but which remains to in
terest all whV are curious enough to visit
It, 1t Is needless, perhaps, to declare that
his quaint region OF classic New York is
known ms @Shantytown.r
ruD OF s~HANTYrowN.
Whoever is acquainted with the city is
more or less familiar with the peculiari-
ties Of this congregation OF dilapidated
sbanties, poster-eating goats, crooked
chlmneys, spiked fences and German and
Irish families. A few years ago Shanty-
town was bounded on the south by Sixty
fifth street, and on the north by Eighty
fifth. But now the southern limit Is much
nearer the northern end than n short time
ago, and surely, as well as rapidly. the
%curiously fashioned hutS are being
destroyed. Shantytown is doomed. The
land its houses occupy is wanted New
streets are being cut through the rocky
hills upon whose quick slopes and pointed
SUBMITS the huts used to stand, and cabin
after cabin Is being replaced by brown
stone houses, into which there will soon
move aristocratic tenants and owners. In
some OF the new streets the modern build
ings and the squnlid huts stand side by
side-the one costly and stately, the other
representing an outlay OF a few dollars.
and as rude, crude m quaint MS the hab-
~itations of all squatter colonies are apt
to be.
Some one who once made n careful
study OF Shantytown declared that a rep
resentative cabin is the most wonderful
instance Of perfect adaptation of means to
an end in the whole range of modern archi-
lecture. Nothing is prepared for it.
neither ground nor material. Its builders
have but an empirical knowledge of the
craft they practice. They scorn a model,
and they work with whatever comes to
hand" As nature created it, the ground
upon which Shantytown stands was
vastly uneven Hily, rocky, and crossed
by narrow, deep r~avines, it offered any
thing but a desirable location for houses
OF any description, but the squatters were
persevering and were little troubled.
They took the ground as they found it and
I..f1e tL-a. El....- - l..e 49, =.
a result, IL is not unusual to find a shanty
climbing tenaciously up the steep side Of a
rock, aud with its front door at the very
summit; thence its other rooms slipping
of Mt lower levels, Stairways being i'm
possible, these lower apartments are
reached by trap-doors in their roofs,
which are on an exact level with the
kitchen 40 IT.
BUILDING MATERIAL FROM EVERYWHERE.
As to the material used, 1t is collected
from every where. There is wood from the
docks and from the country, strips Of tin
roofing, bits OF canvas, pieces Of tarred
paper, bricks and stone. Some of the
houses are PAINTED in various colors. others
are blackensd by age, and still others are
coated with whitewash. Where the room
for building has been li~mited-and there
seems rarely to have been ground enough
for all who come-the roof of one house
has been made the foundation of another,
and a single cliff or hill or rock has been
covered with cabins Of every shape, size
and color. When viewed from a distance,
this careless grouping Is not without some
picturesqueness, but that feature vanishes
utterly when one draws nearer and gains
an intimate conception Of the style and
general arrangement OF the colony. No
one race has settled at Shantytown.
There are Germans, Irish and Italians,
and the people have each their own
way Of living, The Irish predominate,
and 1t is they who W the goats one
sees feeding on tomato-can labels and bits
of refuse. The Germans raise geese and
ducks, and hocks of the noisy, wind-lap-
ping birds are always waddling about the
settlement or with the goats enjoying free
access to the huts, into which they wander
with edatc assurance whenever the door
is left conveniently open.
As for the children OF Shantytown, they
arc rs numerous as the architecture OF the
cabins is varied, and do much TO increase
the general confusion that exists. The
gardens OF Shantytown supply many of
the vegetables hat are used in New York.
In former years these cultivated patches
were much more numerous thar they are
at present, but even now there are many
of them left, and In summer they give a
freshness to the settlement that in winter
Is entirely lost. The owners Of Shnnty,
town cabins are a quiet, well behaved
people, and the settlement has long en-
joyed a reputation for order and sobriety.
The land is leased at a merely
nominal figure. and election is made at
the pleasure OF the owner.-Edwards
Roberts in San Francisco Chronicle.