Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-02
PARTIES ON ROOF S
Kousetop Festivities for stay-at-Home
New Yorkers.
Distinct Innovation Practicable for
Every Householder to Enjoy - On
Hotels and Business Buildings.
From the New York World.

I From the New York World.
| Roof parties are the very latest social
| function among New Workers in town for
the summer. The public roof gardens
where the balladist Marbles "Only One Girl
in the World for Me-" and the danseuse
! eccentric seeks to touch with ner toe tip
| the lower left-hand corner of the crescent
moon. are no longer monopolists of the
| upper air.
The possibilities of the housetcps have
] been discovered by the summer girl from
| tho Battery to Harlem, and any hot sum-
| mer night the stretch of city roofs is
dotted here. there and yonder with minia-
! ture fairylands of colored lanterns and
| shadowy palms, while the tinkle of man.
do!in or the PUNK PUNK OF banjo steals
across the vistas of the chimney world.
! The handsomest private roof garden In
| New York is that of a prominent hotel at
! Sth avenue and 72d street, overlooking
| Central Park This Is one of the man.
| moth apartment palaces of the West Side
| with stories that have climbed like Jacks
| beanstalk to the sky. It's family patronag a
| is large, as the hotel is designed in spa
| cious suites. with elaborate private recep-
| ton rooms for the convenience of guests
! who do much entertaining. Among its
|
are number of society people, who were
| driven back to town from mountain and
seaskore by the unwelcome cool wea Their
! early in the season, ard on the coming of
| not weather decided that New York and
| its roof gardens discounted the out-of- town
resorts
| For Hotel Residents.
This hotel roof garden was a happy
! thought. and so popular have sky par,or
receptions become among the guests that
! in few weeks the roof VIII be inciosed
with glass and steampipes fitted. in prepa-
! ration for winter garden" When the
fall begins.
! The roof garden covers 23o93 square feet
| of space. The roof garden has a floor of
! concrete and is surrounded by brick
| wall. insuriug absolute safety. In the
! center of the immense housetop is a wooden
platform raised ten feet above the roofs
| level and reached by broad steps The
| platform IS as large an ordinary ball
| room floor. 1t has a rustic railing ard a
| rustic Enclosure for the orchestra Rustic
| chairs and tables and rustic arbors dot the
| rooftop and palms, trailing vines tropical
verdure and potted plants cover the brick
! walls and infringing parapets and make
| shadoWy corners for charming tete-a-tetes
Electric lights twinkle through colored
| buibS III outlining rows on platform and
aihor the wall, and in the evening it is
| IKE carnival of the frefies. An Enclosed
bar and buffet is also feature Of the roof
Every evening now the orchestra plays on
the roof from to II O'clock and after din
ner. when the flight is hot and no wind
stirs in the stfe9ts and the mosquitoes
never in the PARKS, the dwellers IN the hotel
take the elevators to cloudlard and stroll
among the shrubbery, where no mosquitoes
Turk. and watch the lighted panorama of
| the outspread city's streets.
| A hotel at the corner of Amsterdam ave-
nue. and 6ith street has another idyllic pri-
vate roof garden. This. however, il: only on
the second iloor. the roof of the oak room"
ma%niticent aitsftment lighted by a dome
of glass. and intended as a winter apart
nent chiefly. hs,woof is in the center of
the building. whose windows overlook the
garden. and is a vertablc surprise OF green
ness in the midst of city walls. The glass
dome is an ornamental Centerpece, with
green earlands of zines; ported plants ole
anderS in tubs spreading palms and rubber
plants border the walls. awnings are spread
for pretty noCks and clusters of white
tables and chairs invite the guests to q hi.
of lunch al fresco. or q hot noontide or To
the c!inl> of glasses and the pop OF corks
on summer evening.
The Ca:nfnrt Of Home.
There are scores of private houses where
the evening On the roof is made a matter of
considerable festivity though the roof gar
den is merely temporary affair of ham
nociSs, rugs and Chinese lanterns. One of
| these is on 3sth street within blinking dis
near Broadway is another pleasant roof
garden. where the patcrfamilas smokes his
after-dinner cigar and talks politics with
his friends and the materfamilias is at
home to her guests,
A fashionable boarding house near Stuy-
Vesant Square has transferred the evening
reception room to the roof with most pic
tEfeStitle results. and dazzling view of the
East river may be had Some of the large
apartment houses have utilized their roof
tops after shutdown for these cloudland func-
items and often dancing is the order of the
evening when the roof is sufficiently smooth
to allow of it
Another feature of roofIand is in the big
downtown buildings. Very often the japitor
and frequently some important functionary,
chief engineer or superintendent of the
building. lives on the roof and conducts
quiet little menage with a maid and several
babies and a matron who naturally must
entertain her guests midway between
heaven and earth and IN sight of the man
in the moon.
Such a roof garden is in the skyscrapng
t. wer of the big produce exchange building.
In this high tower. near the big clock,
stories above the roof. live the chief engi-
neer and his family in very pleasant apart
nents which overlook all New York and the
harbor Mrs. Chief Engineer has flower
garGen on her roof balcony, and in the sum-
mer evenings there is no prettier place in
range of city walls.
The roof gardens are by no means con-
fl .ed to the uptown fashionable apartment
houses the residential districts and the
downtown buildings. There are roof gar
dens on the east-side tenemehts
To be sure, they are sometimes utilized as
dcrmitories on hot nights, and many
mother walks the roof all night with her
sick baby for a breath of fresh air. but be-
you'd this the tenement roofs provide mag
nificent place for .'mixed-ale" parties, and
when there is banjo and an accordion in
the rarty or merely a harmonicon and a
Jew harp, 1t becomes very festive &C.
casion. especially when the Mays and An
mes send their voices across the housetops
and echoing down the chimneys in the
strains of "Her Golden Hair Was Hanging
Down Her Back"