Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-30
NOTED WASHINGTON HOUSES.
Millionalres and Statesmen Who Have Erected
Elegant Residences at the CanitaI

| inlAiio"AAoe anu statesmen W no Have Erected
| Elegant Residences at the Capital.
A Washington correspondent of the
Boston Journal writes: The old proverb.
/ "When the house is finished death enters -
has received in various forms a mournful
| sign1tigcance here in Washington. There
are grear many of the noted houses here
whose owners never occupy them, or who
lived IN them but a short time. The great
house of Don Cameron was purchased by
Morgan, the wealthy New York stock
broker, for $4,000 in cash, about two
months only before he died, and the fam
lily IS now scattered. Across the street
from this house stands the great house
which Mr.. Window, ex-senator or ex-sec-
rotary OF the treasury, had hardly finished
when he was forced to retire from public
life. This house is now occupied by Mr..
Warden, the rich manufacturer of Ohio,
who is building on K street, near Arlington,
one of the most costly houses in the city.
Within stones throw of both these houses
stands the palace which Lieut.. Brodhead,
the husband of one of the Willis girls,
built, but he occupied it only q short time,
and it is new the property of Alexander
Graham Bell. Further along Massachusetts,
avenue, toward the east, little to the left,
stands the great house which formerly be-
longed to Thomas B. Bryan, of Chicago.
which was purchased by Theodore Lyman,
of Boston, for $4,000, and which was oc-
cupied by him but two winters, when he,
too, was retired from politics. A few doors
to the west Of Senator WINDOWS house
stands one of the largest and finest houses
on this broad avenue, the owner of which
strangers are scarcely ever able to ascGr-
tain. 1t is the house which belongs to the
estate of the lawyer here who made very
considerable fortune out of the Ivanhoe
mine, property the value of which was
probably always mythical, and who died
after having occupied the house but a few
months. A few rods farther to the west
stands the famous Castle Stewart, the first
monument of the early real-estate specu-
lation fever in this section, begun at the
time when Alexander Shepherds District
ring was so widely extending its borders.
! The house at that tim0 was known as
"Stewart's Folly Mr.. Stewart had oc-
eupied it but winter or two before finan-
cial disaster overlook him and political
reverses drove him from the senate. The
house has since had very varied fortune,
but it is understood to be still owned by
Mrs. Stewart. At present it is occupied
|
Nevada is that Mr.. Stewart, who is one of
the most successful mining lawyers on the
Pacific coast, has regained the fortune
which he has lost two or three times, and
added to it very greatly, and is very likely
to be returned to the senate to succeed
| Mr.. Fair, as he is a favorite of Mackey
| and of the faction that was recently sue
cessful in the politics of Nevada. In that
case, undoubtedly, the Chinese would have
| to go from Mr.. Stewards house, because
the representative of the honest miners
camps of the Pacific coast would hardly
permit the Chinese ambassador to be his
| tenant. Across the street, too, from that
! house is the palace of Mr.. Blaine, which
was occupied by the latter but a short
time when Guiteau's bullet put an end to
the Garfield administration and drove Mr..
Blaine from the state department.. This
house is now occupied by Mr. Letter, a
rich and retired merchant of Chicago,
whose lease is still said to run three years.
A few rods farther, fronting ON Dupont
circle, is the house which sunset Cox,
ex-minister to turkey, had bat just finish
ed according to his taste when, tempted
! by handsome offer, he sold it to the rich
| young man who married the daughter of
Col. Albert G. Ordway, who went to the
war with one of the Massachusetts regi-
ments. A couple of blocks farther south
| stands the great house which Mr.. Williams,
when attorney general, had but just COM
pleted when the story of the landaulet
was sprung on him, a circumstance which
undoubtedly had much to do with his fail
ure to be confirmed chief Justice of the
supreme court of the United States. When
the ture history of that portion of Gen
n i
it will be found that Atty. Gen. Williams
was no more responsible for the pur-
chase of that landaulet than Gen. Belknap,
secretary of war, WAS responsible for the
extraordinary misfortunes which overlook
him. The landaulet was originally pur-
chased as vehicle in which to convey the
officers of the department of Justice and
! the books of the department of the su-
preme court of the United States and to
the court of claims, the latter then being
also located in the capital building, and
! the fact that an expensive landaUlet was
purchased instead of a common and
ancient broken-down carryaIl, for which
it was a substitute, is not properly charge
able to atty. General Williams. This pur-
chase was made as a matter of routine
business by the under officers of the de-
partment, without at first consulting the
| attorney general, and former. official of
the department of justice, and now resi-
dent in Boston, could If he would, explain
the circumstances. Three squares farther
south stands the great house which belong
ed to Hutchinson, of the Alaska Fur Seal
company, He had just secured the plans
for the erection of one of the grandest
houses IN Washington on this most eligible
site when he died.