Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-04-25
ASTOR'S NEW PALACE
n s QUITE PLAIN, BUT IT COST
 A MILLION.
MT. AstOr, His Wife and His Mother All Had n Hand In the Duilding-The Great Structure Described For the First Time. The Homo of a Cresus.
Special Correspondence.l

ISpeClal NoTrtSpOnUenCt.I
 NEW YORK, April 23.-Whcn young Mir. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor return from this years Newport season, they will drivc from the railroad station direct to their new homo on upper Fifth avcnuc-a homo which will have cost $l, ,OOO, GOO, and which will probably be one of the most artistic dwellings in New York. And the day they step foot into their palace for the first time aS n home they will find it as com plctcly established and as well ordered as If they had been living there for years and years. Thrrc will be no odor of new paint, no unfurnishcd or half compi ted rooms, no awkwardness on the part of the scrv- ants, no hitch of any sort in that great house to indicate that it is brand new, and that tho finishing touches within wcrc completed only n few days before This is part of tho luxury of having one of the largest private fortunes in tho world.
 When MT. AstOr first bade his architect build him n town house. hc stipulated $500, 900 as the maximum cost. But after the outer walls wcre up and the process of interior decoration began the architect. with tho usual gracious condcScension of his kind, notified MT. Astor that moro money would be needed, for young Astor had said, Mako it tho plaincSt house in
 
 is often the best, and the best costs the most money. So another SlO0, GOO was forthcoming and yet another and another till today the estimated cost will be fully q, ,O00, 900.
 Two Ton Bathtub.
 And yet of all the new and great palaces in the neighborhOOd this one of Astor's Is the plainest. In style it appears to be of the French renaissance without tho usual architectural 'flxin's." Only n balcony or O window hero and thcrc has been carved q general plainness characteriZing all the outer walls. They arc of Indiana lime stone entirely barren of trimmings But without and within everything seems du- rable and suGbtantial without being heavy. The girders arc all of iron, and Mir. Astor can keep an iron safe in every room in that house without fear of too much floor pres sure. The heaviest single piece of furnit urr now in the house Is young Mrs. AStors bathtub. Made out of ono solid block of marble, said my guide hc hit the tub a resounding whaCk, it weighs two tons, and it's one of the very few tubs of its kind in tho country"
 Mir. AStOr can enter tho house hy either of two different cntranccs-that is, by tho grand entrance on Fifth avenue or by the | stable, which is connected directly with the | house on tho Sixty fifth street side. It seems queer thing for a man to enter his house in New York by way of his stable, but all things considered 1t is very proba- | blc that both MT. and Mrs. Astur will en- l ter thcir homo most of the timc by way of the stable This arrangement has been l made principally SD that in bad weather a | carriage can be driven dirVctly into tho | carriage house, whCrc the occupants can | step out upon marble doorstep and cntcr | at oncc by n private stairway tO the main | house. 1 noticed that tho door between he | stable and the house Is n massive iron | door such as ono sIN'S at the entrance of | safe deposit vaults. MorrovCr, this door has n combination lock, probably for tho | additional safety of MT. AStur'S domestic | hearth tho iron door being thrrc to guard | against fire and the combination lock to | keep out burglars or trampS in search of a comfortable bed. But as this entrance will bo reserved exclusively for the lord of the l palace the visitor must nCCrSSslrily enter | by the main entrance on Fifth avenue. If | you arc fortunate to hc provided with n | permit from Mir. Astor the visitor uf to- | day having passed the watchful guard at the door. will lind himself immediately in the grand central hall, some 60 feet square. | Running up ono side of this hall is a rath- CT narrow staircase, which, however, is | CdlItN llc kTiLnu StAlTCSlSc ltslulnE 10 tne second story. Both the staircaSc and the hall arc of Caen stone, which is of n beau tiful crcam tint, brought from Cacn. | Franco, and which has been used of late by all American millionaircs building new | houses.
 White, Gold and Red.
 The hall and StairCasC arc decorated with artistic carvings and full sized female fig urcs in half length, the latter having been modelled from life by Mir. Carl Bitter The panels between these figures will bc filled in with beautiful tapestries wherein rcd will he the prevailing color, so that the effect in the grand hall, and, in fact, in all | the moro public parts of the house will he white and gold and rrd. Of course all the doors about the grand hall open into rc- | caption rooms, drawing rnOmS and dining l rOOmS l learned that wOrkmCn have been | labOring upon each individual carved fig | ure in tho hall for six months, and n fair idea of the amount of the carved and cut stone work already in position in the | house may bc obtained from the fact that 10 carvcrS, goo cutters, 100 pUlishCrs and 75 helpers, besides many machines have bCrn employed constantly upon the work for six months, and thCr, is murc tu fol low.
 | must explain, however, that this new | uOuSt bl [ASlpT S lS III TNStlllN lMN houSrs-a big one and a little one. though | the littlc ono k itS,'lf twice Inc Sizr uf any ordinary city dwelling In the main house on tho corner young Mir. and Mrs. AStnI will live, while in the other hOusc Mrs
 Astor, tho qucS'n of all New York S,ricty,
 will dwell. To the ordinary observer with
 in donrs the Cntirc building appears to he | only one house, for indeed thCr,' k nc | exact division made other than that
 brought about by separate kitchens and
 separate dining rooms. This arrangement
 has been made so that If ntr,.SSlry bath | Mrs. Astur and her daughter iII law CslI
 givC dinner parties on tho same night iu
 the snme house and yet be quite as much
 separated as If they were in two houses
 After dinner, however, the guests of both
 hostesses can gather in tho ballrOom, which
 Is also the picture gallery, common | meeting room on formal occasions for all
 guests of the Astors.
 This picture gallery Is indeed n noble
 apartment, though 1t Is by no means as
 largo as rooms of tho same kind in other | New York houses recently completed. Ii
 Is only half us largo aS MT Vanderbilt :
 new ballroom and not any larger than tho ballroOms in tho houses of Mir. Gerry. the , late Mrs. Stevens or of MT. Whitney, but
 if the ballroom Is wanting in generosity Ot | space 1t Is by no means lacking in beauty. . The prevailing genius in the decoration oi | lhiS room, as in other parts of tho house