St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-23
is THE QUEER HOUSE BUILT BY
mildly MORGAN ON STATEN
ISLAND.
1T HAS ONLY ONE DOOR.
MISS JANE MORGAN STILL LIVES
IN THE QUAINT OLD STRUC-
TURE.
mildly MoRGAN,s STRANGE LIFE.
Though Wealthy, She Drudged
for Twenty Years in Stables
and on Race Courses.

At Livingston, Staten Island, about
a mile from the railway station, is
the house which was the home of
two most remarkable, talented, YER
satile and eccentric women, the Nor
gan sisters. Miss Jane Morgan still
lives there. The house is peculiarly
constructed of brick and gray gran
lite, and is surrounded by porch.
There is, strange to say, only one
door. This is on the side, and is
consequently the front door, the back
door, side door and cellar door. The
door is made Of solid oak, with
a heavy iron frame, swinging out
ward, like the door of a safe, and
strong enough to resist a siege.
There is a sliding panel in the mid
die of the door, through which to OBJ
serve visitors before welcoming
them. The structure seems built
especially to resist intruders or in.
vaders. The frames of the windows
are iron, and the whole structure is
built something on the plan of a
prison or fortress.
The grounds about the house are
by no means extensive Part of the
ground being marshy, the sisters
had filled it in with ashes and rub
bish which they swept up from the
rest of the ground, including dead
leaves and household refuse About
the porch are groups of barrels, in
which are gathered broken twigs
from q
used as fuel.
The garden is exceedingly pro-
ductive. Under the careful training
of Miss Jane Morgan there is
plentiful supply of early vegetables.
She rises at 5 o'clock each morning
to water and tend her vegetables.
Although the grounds are not in
closed, no one ever intrudes.
A HANDSOME BATH ROOM.
When one is admitted, after the
preliminary scrutiny through the
panel, he finds himself in a spacious
apartment, with broad chimney
and great fireplace, ornamented with
tiles of pale blue and dark, oaken
carvings. There are two more
rooms on this fioor-the kitchen din
ing room and a large bath room,
walled with white marble and red
glazed tiles, and lighted from above.
There is a plunge of crystal water,
six feet deep and about eight or ten
feet in diameter. The basin is of
marble, while there is also a large
marble slab for massage or shower.
This bath room is certainly one of
the finest private baths in this coun-
try. 1t is Oriental in it's splendor
and luxury. 1t was designed by
Miss Jane Morgan for her sister,
Miss Mildly who died without be-
ing able to enjoy one immersion.
Emerging from the bath room to
enter the greater apartment, one
comes near the mysterious entrance
upon a spiral iron staircase, which
leads to the second floor and to the
roof. The room into which it as
cends is kind of boudoir, and with
the adjoining one has paneled walls,
floors and ceilings of hard wood,
carved and inlaid with various fig
ures, notices and designs, present
ing in all about five hundred pat
terms. All is the work of Miss Jane
Morgan.
The library adjoining is a most in
geniouS apartment. The bookcases,
of antique oak, laden with rare and
valuable books, form a dado round
the room. This is ornamented with
vertebrae and hoofs of animals. A
broad frieZe decorates the upper
part of the room, made of the horns
OF the Rocky mountain goat, buffalo,
elk, reindeer and various other ami
mails, most wonderfully and artisti-
cally arranged. The ceiling is a
perfect mosaic of pigs hoofs and
the vertebrae and ribs of various
animals. The walls are paneled
with COW horns upon rosettes of
pigs toenailS. OK tail bones beau
tifully inlaid upon wood form the
window frames. Horns, surmount-
ed with iron fretwork, form the
bowls for lamps, while horns dropped
by chains made from the vertebrae
of animals are used as vases for
flowers and plants.
The chimney is of red brick, with old
fashioned open fireplace, ornamented
with horseshoes gathered from various
race tracks in Europe and America. A
splendid mirror adorns the manteI-
shelf, framed in broad oak inlaid with
bones and horseshoes. The windows
of the quaint library have shades OF
variegated glass, which illumine the
uncanny decorations with beautiful
light and shade.
STUDIO OF MISS MORGAN.