Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-07
WASHINGTON HOUSES
Grand Dwellings in Which Society
Will Shine This Season.
PRETENTIOUS ONES DO NOT SELL.
Houses That Have Figured in History and
Some That Are New.
PROPERTY OF SOME WEALTHY WOMEN

CORRESPONDENCE oF THE DISPATCH
WAsHIN GToN, Dec. GAIL of the noted
Washington houses are now open for the
winter, and great preparations are being
made for the social season, which begins
with January 1. The number of people
owning their own houses steadily increases,
and the homes of our statesmen grow more
magnificent and more luxurious from year
to year. was told yesterday by one of the
Washington architects that there are dozen
bathrooms in this city which have cost all
the way from $1,000 to $4,000 apiece, and
one Senator's home has nine bathrooms, all
of which are finished in mahogany.
The finest house in Washington to-day is
that which is being built by Mrs. Zach
Chandler. 1t is on the corner of Sixteenth
and K streets. and it must contain about 80
rooms. 1t is great square structure, of
Milwaukee brick, trimmed with a drab
sandstone, and its architecture partakes of
the Grecian order. Here Mrs. Senator
Hale and her husband will live, and many
fine entertainments will be given.
HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLAR HOMES.
In sight of this house of Mrs. Chaudler's
there are half dozen and more mansions,
none OF which cost less than 500, 900 to
build, and some of the most noted men and
women of the country will be her neigh
bors. Just across the street lives Senator
Evarts in big red brick and block away
is the great mansion of Colonel John Hay
who, with his accomplished wife, Amasa
Stones daughter, spends small fortune
every year in Washington entertain ments.
The Hay house is one of the finest here. It
has dining-room finished in South Ameri-
can mahogany. and the great library has
ceiling of panelled oak, the grain OF which
has been busted with gold.
A few doors from Colonel Hay, and be-
tween him and Mrs. Chandler, is the palace
of Justice Gray. which is so severely plain
that it looks like prisIon. Here the fat,
round Justice entertains his select crowd OF
friends in company with his wife who was,
it will be remembered, the daughter OF
Stanley Matthews, and who is popular in
Washington society. A little further down
K street is the house of Colonel Jerome
Boneparte and on another corner is big
red brick which Colonel Nick Anderson, of
Cincinnati, built for himself few years ago
at the cost of about $50, 900.
THE sTANFoRDs ARE RENTERS.
A block further over is the white stone
house in which Mrs. Senator Stanford will
give her magnificent entertainments this
winter. 1t is the house which she and the
Senator have occupied since they have lived
in Washington, and which, / am told, they
rent, though the Senator is the richest man
in Congress. The only building that Stan
ford owns here is his stable, which, by the
way, cost him about So, 200, and which is
the most comfortable of the stables at the
capital.
The Stanford house is elegantly furnished.
Mrs. Stanford has picked up the most
magnificent embroideries that the world can
furnish, and she has these scattered here
and there in all sorts of shapes and in all
sorts of places throughout the house. Her
house is not gaudy, though it is rich, and it
is a most comfortable home as we'll as
magnificent place for entertaining. Sena-
tor Stanford has dope wisely in not buying
a house in Washington. The mansions of
millionaires do not sell very well here, and
there are several now on the market
THE MANSIONS DON'T SELL.
Senator Palmer's big brown stone house
which faces Mcpherson Square can be
bought for $4,000. 1t cost him Ss5, 900 to
build it, and the ground is easily worth the
difference. Still it has been for sale for
more than year, and he is losing at least
$500 month in the interest on the money
tied up in the investment right along. E1-
Secretary of the Navy Robeson's house on
the corner of Sixteenth and o streets is still
for sale, and the price is, think, $50, ,0O0
1t is covered with mortgages foot deep,
and, though the land is increasing in value,
the house will not bring what it cost.
The Chinese Legation still occupy Sena-
tor Stewart's castle on Dupont's Circle.
They pay good rent, but Stewart will be
o1o IL
property at that, but there are no takers.
The residence of the late General Bob
Schenck is for sale, and there are homes of
all sorts to be bought here for a consdera-
ton. Houses from $1,000 to $50, 900 sell
readily, and $40. 900 and 900 houses are
sold every day. tits only the big houses
that remain on the market.
HOUSES OF HISTORY.
understand, by the way, that Admiral
Porter is offering his house for sale. 1t is
big piece of property in the most fashionable
part OF the city, and it has been his home tor
long time. 1t is one of the old houses of
Washington and like many of the others of
our statesmen's homes, its occupants have
made it historic. Blaine, for instance, lives
in a house which has entertained statesmen
for two generations. In it Admiral Rogers
lived, Secretary Seward occupied it when he
was at the head of the State Department,
and Clay, Calhoun and Webster have all
taken dinner inside its walls.
1t is a big house within a stones throw of
the White House, and it will eventually be
very valuable as business properly. Blaine
rented it, am told, with the option of buy
ing it any time within a certain period at
$40 square foot and this would be very
cheap for the ground if there was nothing
on it. Just next door to Blaine is the old
mansion now owned by Don Cameron and
which cost him $4,000 1t was the old
Taylor mansion and is an English base
ment house of three stories and attic. Mrs.
Cameron has her parlors on the second floor
and the Senator uses the first floor az his
offices.
MADE FORTUNES IN REALTY.