Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-18
Written for The ESESTSs STAR
CONSERVATORIES OF THE RICH.
Beautiful Flower Rooms Arranged for
Decorative Purposes.

WI. yASDERBuT's CoSsERvAToRY-FLowERs
AND PLANTS IN The MARQUASD HoUsE-TRo-
PIcAL FOLIAGE THE RAGE-RESTINs FLOWERS.
In the play at the Madison Square theater
applause inevitably greets the rise of the cur
tain on the third act. This popular favor is de-
served. The stage setting is a conservatory
and is not only an instance Of fine stage effect,
but it exemplfies for our purposes the conser-
vatory in its latest aspect, which is as a decora-
tive feature Of interior, and not place to cul-
tivate flowers even as anelegant Accomplishment.
The conservatory is composed of indented
arches arranged in a semicircle making small
alcoves. In the center is one still more re-
cessed, where stands diminutive goddess,
before whom a yelled light burns as before
shrine. There are no flowers. but the
scene painter has admirably simulated in each
OF the small alcoves palms, India-rubber plants
and other tropical foliage. The tiled center is
left free. Here are wicker chairs, lounge and
table 1t is place for quiet companionships
cigars, coffee and comfort, and in the purposes
Of the play serves exactly the same mission as
IN private life.
ANOTHER EXAMPLE
In kind has been too prominently exploited in
the newspapers to have escaped notice. The
description will bear retelling. The green
trees of the floor were painted with rank
growth of grasses and ferns Through the
palms and tropical shrubs that crowded the
conservatory glared the wild beasts of far-off
jungles marvelously stuffed and poised. The
walls were forgotten behind tapestry of reeds
and birds of the orient. In one corner was a
fountain Stimulating a pool and on its surface
foated the pink, fragrant lilies that lie on
eastern lakes" The prominence which has
been given to this conservatory was due to its
supposed exaggeration and was intended to in
dictate the writer's unhridled imagination. but
the illustration was badly chosen. As a whole
it is exaggerated. but the details, barring the
stuffed beasts and painted floor. can be found
in one or another of the different conservatories
ID town.
IN A CITY HOUSE.
The conservatory as a detail in a city house
IL always attempt to render a certain decor
alive effect, not, to be sure, in every case so
fierce and tropical as that described but hav-
ing some relation to the rest of the house It
belongs to the ensemble. and Is ordered with
reference to the rooms with which it is in rela-
ton. The most artistic purpose of the con-
servatory is the perfection and elimination of
vista To counterfeit, to simulate space in
city house is the desire of every architect and
every owner. To do this has taxed their re-
sources and their ingenuity. Nothing well
serves their purpose as the conservatory, for
the eye loses IN the foliage massed at the back.
which may extend. the mind lending to the
illusion. to unknown depths. To this some
such scenic effect as the drop curtain of the
Madison Square theater may even be called in.
IN Mr.. yASDERBLT's HOME
the conservatory is Immediately back of the
main gallery and is entered at the side from
the second gallery. The main gallery connects
through the open passage that serves for water
colors with the square central hall. This in
turn connects with the drawing-room. Here.
from drawing-rocm to the conservatory is the
vista OF 200 feet. proportions in a New
York house which are truly magnificent. and
which enriched by superb draperies
columns of marble. carvings. color and works
of art The conservatory Is serni-circular. The
floor Is mosaic, and the walls paneled in cream
enameled tiles. There no shelves.
for there is no floral cultivation Gil
gantic palms, ferns, all manner of
broad leaved, curious. bizarre. gro
tesque plants with impossible names stand
round in pots and jars that are grouped to per-
feet the view from the vantage point of the dis
tant dyawing-roOm. These pots and jars are in
themselves works of art: majolca, Spanish
lustra. Japanese brOnzes. old terra Gotta.
museum spOils. all are none too good for the
beautiful scene. Here and there hang orchids.
and before the sheet of plate glass that makes
the sliding door into the art gallery. hangs an
orchid like a tassel. This delicately guards the
unbroken sheet, which gives little evidence
OF being a barrier that otherwise 1t would be in
constant danger.
MR.. MARQUASDs CONSERVATORY.
terminates another superb vista of at least Us
feet through dining room, Japanese room and
the Louis XVI drawing room. and connecting.
on the Madison avenue side. with the
Moorish room. Mr.. Marquands con-
seryatory has an eastern exposure filling
the angle at the southwest corner of the house,
where Mr.. NanderbIlfs has only the western
sun. The curious and inexplicable stained
glass has puzzled many a passer by. From
within it resolves itself into Vatican scene
rustic arbors. distant SKY. figures disporting in
French fashions. This glass is from Paris and
is intended to carry out in landscape the effect
of the conversatOry within: According to the
same idea but in different way. and with diff
ferent results than did the tapestried back
ground of reeds completing Hernio Suvdam's
jungle. Mr.. Marquand's conversatory has a
very pretty feature copied from the Alhambra
This is gutter cut in the marble floor and
along the sides of the conservatory, with here
and there openings through which Jets of water
play These are not only charming detail
but keep the atmosphere Of the conservatory
desirably moist
PART OF THE DTSING-RooM
Where the vista Is impossible, the next desira-
BILE position of the conservatory is attached to.
and part of, the dining-room Sometimes
both OF these ends are accomplished as in Mr.
A. j. Whites house on upper 9TH avenue This
house is the splendid monument OF an enter
prise that. 1t is said, began in a wash-bowl and
Is so curious. interesting and typical that it
tempts depression.
The drawing-room is Japanese and opens
into Renaissance MUSHROOM. which is the
expansion OF the hall and receives the magnifi-
cent stairway. This leads into the dining-room
beautiful with carved wainscotting and marbles
and opening into the conservatory This sue
cesslon affords ope of the most superb coup
d. cell in town. The conservatory in itself Is
beautiful with carvings and marbles The floor
Is OF marble. In the center is a large marble
fountain The sides below the glass are wains-
cotted with tawny-baed Numidian marble
brass-bound. On the side walls is a frieze
richly modelled, the motives being birds and
flowers and other significant attributes of
sylvan scene. Such is the background and
against il massed and grouped with proper
effect are the broad-leaved tropical foliage
plants that for the most part compose the con-
servatories in town.
SOME EFFECTIVE CoNsERvAToRIEs.
In Nr. Cornelius vanderbilts house the con-
servatory juts out to 57th street and opens into
the dining-room which have before described.
This. as the other conseryatories is a mass of
tropical greenery which can be discerned from
the Moorish smoking room through the lovely
Italian corridor that intervenes Mr. jaw
Goulds town conservatory is attached to his
dinlng-room but has no prominence aside from
the resuul effect OF a mass of green. One of
the Prettest conservatory effects in town is in
the house of a Mrs. Fogg, ON upper 5th avenue.
The conservatory opens out Of the dining room.
which Is leather hung. brass-studded room