St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-04
IDEAL SUMMER HOME.
The Beautiful Estate DIR. Webb
Has Purchased on Lake Cham


Has Purchased on Lake Cham
plain.
DR.. Seward Webb, president of the
Wagner Palace Car company, is fitting
up park after the English fashion at
Shelburn, VT, on Lake Champlain. He
has bought the miles of farms along the
borders of the lake that formerly consti-
tuted the village of SheIburn, and is
Sparing neither time nor expense in
fitting up the place in manner that
will render it one of the most artistic
T spots on the continent.
The place is still in an unfinished
condition, owing to the fact that with
true Yankee ShreWdneSS and an eve to
business the ShelburniteS put the price
of land at maryelously high figures just
as sooll as DR.. Webb's intention 10 pur-
chase the place was known to be a
surety. Old tumble down farm houses
became as valuable as the new cottages
in the vicinity. and it took DR.. Webb a
long time to settle the affixed values
and the affectionate memories of old
! hOmeSteads OH modern cash basis. for
even after this the possessors of said
homesteadS and memories were reluc-
ant to Yacate. 1t is safe to say that DR..
Webb has paid well for his property.
Three hundred men are now employed
on the place-Yankees, Canadians and
Swedes. Seventy-fve are carpenters,
forty are masonS and forty-fve are team
srers with horses and carts; then there
are twelve cOtterS with their families,
who live on the place; there are clerks,
OverSeerS, servants and labOrerS among
the number.
At the entrance Of this park, which
DR.. Webb has called Shelburn Farms,
stands gatekeeper's lodge of rough
hewn stone. The roads are graveled,
smooth and hard about the place, and
the wide lawns are dotted here and
there by gothic and queerly gabled
dwellings and other buildings.
The first large building that one no
tees is large square barn with court
in the center, and high turret, in
which large clock is placed at one cor
ner. This court barn will accommodate
barns a short distance away in round,
square and oval shapes, each allotted to
horses, cattle and fowls. A large breed
ing barn contains $50 horses of all sorts,
from ''blue blooded'' animals to Eng
lsh hackneyS. Dr. Webb recently i'm
ported forty of the finest French stocks.
In other barns are $50 COttonwools, $50
SouthdoWns and HampShiredownS, Is
Jersey COWS and 400 brown Leghorns.
A short distance from the barns DR..
Webb's private Office is situated. 1t is
a gray stone building in which clerks
and the principal overseers, Mr.. Tay-
lor and ]. K. Weed, assist DR.. Webb is
transacting the business affairs of the
place. DR.. Webb's room in this place
is very unique in its furnishing. The
four windows in the room are hung with
red silk curtains and outer curtains Of
Madras, suspended from four odd cur
tain poles, one pole being large hay
and the fourth pitchfork. The cell
ing, walls and fnishingS are of polished
oak; an old-fashioned brick fireplace.
dark green carpet with oak chairs and
desk complete the furnishings of the
place.
On high point of land that juts out
into the lake is the temporary dwelling
of DR.. Webb and family. It is gray
stone, spacious cottage, fashioned after
the Queen Anne design, with wide
yeranda at the south side oyerlookthe
the lake. The veranda is furnished
with heavy rugs, hammocks, comfort
able chairs and large tab es. The cot
tage halls are finished in oak, with
huge vases of grasses and ferns about
the sides. and the whole house is fur
nished with choicest domestic furniture
comfortably and luXuriously rustic.
This is only temporary dwelling, for
during the coming year DR.. Webb will
build a handsome residence Oh this
site.
A small stone chapel is here also, in
which the Episcopal services are con-
Quoted each Sabbath. 1t was in this
chapel DR.. Webb's niece was married
last September, the wedding prepare
tons having been personally supervised
by Mrs. Webb and her mother, Mrs. w.
FL. Vanderbilt.
On the estate are flower beds in pic
turesque designs. one in particular be-
ing fashioned after the Maze at Hamp-
ton Court on the Thames. After leaving
the lawns, one meets the hay fields that
yielded 1000 tons of hay last season.
Then there are orchards of sugar ma
pie, meadows, woodlands, forests, gar
dens and lighthouses filed with choice
flowers.
Down below on the shore of the lake
a boat house is built, beside which a
long wooden pier extends out into the
water. Numerous small boats and a
white-winged yacht fleck the waters,
and beyond the lake the Adirondack
mountains, green with needles of the
spruce and pine, with here and there
dot of color made by the fading leaves
of a mountain maple, forms an undulat-
ing earth wall behind which the sun sets.