The morning call., 1891-08-07
PALATIAL COUNTRY HOMES.

The prospect that Mrs. Hopkins-Searles'
palaces, which have swallowed up some
millions, may shortly come into the mar
ket, attracts attention to the palatial busi-
ness in this country. 1t is business which
Is comparatively new. Before the war and
the days Of railroads there were hardly any
country houses in the United States which
compared with the baronial castles of
Europe. When Barreda, who was Minister
from Peru and millionaire, built his cot
tage" at Newport with fifty bedrooms In it,
people went to Newport to see so astouud-
ing an example of splendor and osten-
tation. The richest men of those days,
Astor, and GOelet, and Morris, and Aiken &,
and the others, lived in houses not so fine as
some of the residences in the Western Ad-
dition in this city. In Europe the nobility
generally managed to get grants of old con-
vents and mOnaSteTies, which were of vast
size, if not comfortable. BY repairing these
and supplying them with modern conven-
fences, the English, French, Italian and
Spanish nobility managed to establish
baronial homes. Our early settlers had no
such reserve TO draw upon. Commodore
Vanderbilt lived to the day Of his death in
a plain double house in an questionable
GbultTY
house on Staten Island which probably cost
$1,000 10 build, and which he never in
habited.
After the war the accumulation of wealth
led to the development of some ambition in
the palatial direction. Americans who
visited English baronial castles were seized
with a desire 20 emulate them in this
country. One after another, fine palaces
began TO spring up. Half a dozen houses
have been lately built at Newport which
cost over a million each, and contain
accommodations for large party of guests.
William &. Vanderbilt owns one of these,
which must have cost considerably over a
million. This is mere cottage in COM
parison with the palace which his brother.
George Vanderbilt, has erected in North
Carolina. 1t cost some three millions, and
resembles great watering place hotel
Mrs. HOpkiDs-Searles' mansion at Barring
ton consumed more money than any one
knows, and yet it is no finer than a number
of similar edifces which have lately been
built at Lenox, Stock bridge and other popu-
lar spots in Berkshire County. On Otsego
Lake, in New York, Mr.. Clark. who made
twenty or thirty millions out Of the tele-
phone, has really baronial place, where a
lew weeks ago he gave an entertainment to
his tenants and neighbOrs On the occasion
OF his sons coming Of age. Everything was
done in the old English style-oxen roasted
whole, beer barrels preached, speeches
made, and so forth. Other rich men have
built them palatial country houses on the
islands in the sound. Dana of the Sun has
one OF these, and the Forbes brothers oil
Boston have another, whereon they have
built three lordly mansions. The island
has been left in its primitive condition, and
every year the Forbes fill their houses with
people Of fashion, and have deer hunts and
fox hunts. Perhaps score or more of such
grand country houses in the East might be
enumerated.
In this State there are no fine country
houses. A few large land owners have
built comfortable dwellings; most of them,
though rich enough in land if not in money,
inhabit frame houses of small architectural
pretensions. There is probably not single
house in the State in which party of fifty
guests, with their wives and their servants,
could be agreeably accommodated. That
may come by and by. 1t will be some time,
however, before we have any such places as
Chatsworth in England or Ferriere in
France. Sites abound for mansions as
splendid as any of those which the members
Of the House Of Lords throw open to their
friends in the hunting season; the climate
is all that could be desired; nor does il
seem that there is any lack of money for os-
tentation.