Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-11-07

SIanlpSt mousse warnings lIldl New
York has ever seen will ta'lie place,
when the new AStor palace, on upper
Fifth avenue, is formally taken pos
session Of by the family-or families,
for it is practically two houses, one
Of which Will be occupied by Mrs.
i William Aslor, and the other by Mr..
and Ms. john Jacob .\Stor, her son
and daughter-tnIaW.
1t is not us imposing as the vast
struc.1re which Cornelius Vanderbilt
calls his town house, but, aside from
this, there is no other home in the
city which compares with the Aston
palace. Society folks are very anN-
ious to see the interior, as the work Of
building and decorating the palace
has been carried on with strict Sc
crccy, and very little is known of the
house which is destined to be the cen
ter Of many festivities, just as the
Old house at the corner of Thirty
fourth street and Fifth avenue was
the pivot around which the rest of
/ the social world revoNed.
| On Oct. l the palace was turned
over by the architects and decorators
to the owners, and since then the
work of furnishing has been pushed
along steadily. 1t would be supposed
that the beautiful belongings of the
old house would do for the new, but
very little of them will be seen when
the palace is thrown open to the
friends Of the family. The wonder
full decorations of the new house
makes it necessary to have furnish
ings of an entirely different charac-
ter, though, of course, the priceless
paintings, tapestries, rugs and Statu-
airy which gave the Thirty-fourth
street home 80 much fame, can never
be out of place and will be given due
prominence in the new house.
AS the embargo has been lifted from
the tongues of the men engaged in
constructing the palace, it is now pos
sible to give a faithful description of
the interior. INTELLECTUALLY, it is of
the modern style of renaissance. 1t
looks very much like a small Tuiler-
les, manSard roof and all, but is more
of Catherine de Medici. which was
burned by the commune. mis- elab-
Grafton of detail is carried into the or
namCntation Of the house proper
Some of the rooms are so profllSely
ornamentcd as to seem almost heavy.
Mrs. William AStOrS house is the
northern one. That occupied by John
l., Ia to 81, Al
corner of SiXty-tifth street. Ulti.
matcly. at Mrs. William AStur's death,
the house will be thrown into one AS
it is, some of the rooms are equally
divided. This is the case with the
ballroom, which occupies the center
of the house, at the rear. otherwise,
Mrs AStOr has suites of apartments
which are almost precisely of the
same size as those the younger cou-
pie occupy on the southern end.
The grand central hall is G4X55 feet
In size Through the center runs a
partition, on each side of which there
is a Crane staircase leading to the
second story This staircase, and in
fact the entire finishing of the hall,
is built of Caen stone, beautiful ma
teraI of a creamy tint, brought from
Cacn, France, which has been used
IN nearly every one OF the recently
built houses of American millionairc$.
Both staircase and hall are hcauti-
fully decorated with artistic carvings
and with full-sizcd female figures in
half length, modelled from life by
Carl Bitter. Their graceful lines
show to excellent advantage in the
spacious hall. Opening from the hall
are doors leading to the reception
rooms, salons or drawing and
dining rooms Of both the north and
south houses. At the rear other doors
icad to the picture gallery from both
houses. The picture gallery promises
to rank as the finest single apartment
in the country. On festive occasions
it will be used as ballroom, and all
the scene of the architects art was
brought into play to make the COM
bination of picture gallery and ball
room 4 success. 1t is fifty by sixty
feet in size and in daytime the sun
stained-giaSs dome forty feet above
the floor. The immense height Of the
ceiling gives the apartment a dignity
which is lacking in the rooms OF other
fine New York houses.
Here, as in the grand hall, the COM
handing genius and exquisite taste of
Carl Bitter has been called upon in
the modelling of figure pieces. Per.
hapS the most notable pieces of tg-
ure work which adorn this apartment
are eight caryatdeS of heroic size
modelled direct from Sandow, the
strong man. These figures stand upon
the cornice twenty feet from the floor
aud support the rotunda No two
figures are alike, but all are in stoop-
ing posture. as II actually bearing a
great weight. Shadows massive ti--
ule with its swelling muscles and
tendonS. has lent itself admirably to
the purpose, and there is no doubt /.