Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-23

Down at Forty-third street and Viz
cenneS avenue, i'll a little grove O
stunted oak trees, lies a pile of whit
marble and brick which spreads owe
the space of an acre, says the Chicag
Tribune. All day long the men clambe
over the pile, dislodging a piece her
and there, which they drag to othe
smaller piles in front of excavations OF
Vernon and VincenneS avenues. A row
OF new White-flDnt houses on Vernon
avenue, and two others on Vincennel
tell where some of the marble has gone
There aT'd eight or nine houses alto
gether. They are larger than the av
erage. Although nealy all of the ma
terial in these structures has CONS
from the big pile which the houses
/ overlook, that has not Shrunk much
| Neither will it have diminished quite
one-half from it's original proportions
when the building operations now con
| templa Ted into which it's components
; enter shall be finished There will be
stuff enough left to build thirty more
houses when the twenty now planned
are completed.
This big Pile of sculptured marble
and brick is the ruins of the mansion
started by Wilbur f. Storey. Back in
the early SOS it was the show house on
Grand boulevard. The editor of the
Times owned four and a half acres run
ming along Forty-third street from the
Grand boulevard back to Vincennes
avenue His great mansion stood at the
northeastern corner of the plat ON
slightly rising ground. 1t was an i'm
posing mansion, four or five stories
high, built Of Vermont marble that
shone in the sunlight. There was no
house in Chicago so pretentious. al
though nowadays there are numbers on
the swell of the three divisions of the
0ty which may be compared to the
Storey Castle" as it was called. The
mansion was never completed. A tenn
porary roof was put on, and work was
suspended several years before Mr..
Stoey death.
After that event the property was
divided among four heirs. All the efforts
that sharp real estate men knew how to
make were directed toward the sale of
the great house. Nobody could be-
found. however, who wanted it, and
finally it was decided that the mansion
must be RACED. What was to be done
with the marble, brick, and iron that
composed it? The iron Orders and
beams might be sold, but to peddle the
brick and stone for hauling was likely
to be a veXattous and Improbable Job.
Why not build houses with it? was the
suggestion made to the owners. The
latter grabbed at the idea. They con-
suited architects, who made measure
ments, drawings, and plans, and ac-
cOmpanied them with a report that
promised such 4 satisfactory result the
owners were convinced the idea was
feasible and profitable. The money
was found, working plans We're got
ready and operations were begun. That
was months ago. Since then people
who live il a radius of three miles from
the place have walked over and watch
ed new houses go up ON the plat, while
the pile Of material of which they are
built has hardly lessened They have
wondered how many houses can be
built before the pile will vanish. III. w.
Christian, of George NJ. Bogue & Co.,
who handle the property, says fifty
houses can be built before that happens.
Vernon avenue was cut through the
original plat, thus dividing it into two
parts. On the west side Of Vernon ave-
nue. a row of seven houses has been
erected. They are nearly finished On
VtncenneS avenue are two more, not so
far along. They are all built ON practi-
cally the same plan Of interior arrange
ment. They are twenty-five feet wide,
two stories high, and contain ten rooms
each, all finished in hardwood and
handsomely fitted. The fronts of the
houses dicer. Some have swell fronts.
Others have square windows, and
others have four small windows in a
row on the upper story. There are
window castings of rounded marble,
pSdiments, and ornaments such as are
generally seen on houses of the highest
class. All of these ornament were cary
ed years ago. The plans of the new
houses We're so drawn as to use the
carved marble Of the Storey
house just as it appeared in that edi-
fee.
To casual observers the great heap
which marks the site of the Storey
house is i'm confusion But it isn't
All Of the stones have been classified
and set apart carefully, though the di-
vision lines are so narrow that all ap
as part of q mass. When a window
ledge of coping or a supporting pillar
Is wanted the wprkmen know just
where to go to find it. No time is lost.
At the side of the heap Of stone is a
broad, solid pile of brick. This is used
to build the walls of the new houses.
There We're 100000 brick in the pile
at first.
Mr.. Storey's house cost him between
100000 and S25O,OOO," said Mr.. Chris
tan. $50 the heirs claim, at least. We
sold 400 tons of iron beams I'd girders.
The other material taken out is worth
at least $4,000 1t would have cost us
twice as much had we bought it at first
hands and hauled it there. Vermont
marble is pretty expensive stone. The
plans accepted provide for twenty
houses on the streets running north and
south. Nothing but the material for
the inner fittings VIII be purchased, and
there will be material enough for thirty
houses left. There will also be a four
story fat building with stores be-
meath on Forty third street. There
will be at least one fiat. Whether more
will be erected will depend upon the