The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-02
BROUGHT OVER TWO MILLIONS
ARCHBISHOP CoRRIGAN SELLS
ASYLUM BLOCK ON 9TH AVE.
Next to the Cathedral and Opposite
the Vanderbilt Mansion-Church
Owned It Fifty Years.

The property of the Roman Catholic
Orphan asylum. on Fifth avenue, New
York City. adjoining the cathedral, has
| just been sold for 50, 100000. No real
estate transaction of recent years, per
maps, emphasizes more conclusively the
nortnWard trend of the growth of New
YORK City than the sale of the asylum
FOR nearly half a century this impos-
ing structure has been a conspicuous
ana familiar feature on Fifth avenue.
EARLY in the next century it will be
effaced to make room for taxable prop
erty. The purchase prise is under
stood to be 81. 100000
The sale is to include BoIand Hall,
beautiful fireproof brick and stone
structure, which occupies the entire
Madison avenue front of the asylum
lot. 1t is scarcely five years since B6-
land hall was built at a cost of S11S.-
600. There are the schools, Symna-
Sums and manual training depart
ments in which the boys of the orphan
asylum are taught. 1t has one of the
finest audience halls in the city. This
building together with the asylum,
Will be RACED as soon as the new asy-
lum. now in process of erection at
Fordham, is ready for occupancy. The
contract states it will be habitable next
June.
Boland hall was the outgrowth. of a
legacy of $4,000 left to the asylum by
Mr. Boland a citizen of New York, for
the provision of manual training with
in fifty miles of the city. A tract of
land known as "Boland Farm was
purchased by the authorities near
Peeksl1ill. Its distance from the city
made it impracticable. When brick
earth was subsequently, discovered on
the farm it was sold at a profit of 81
500. And BoIand hall took its present
shape. one of the most substantial and
best equipped schools of the city.
Early in the sos the city gave to the
Catholics the present sfte-bOunded by
Fifth avenue, Fifty-first and Fifty-sec-
the erection of an asylum. At the same
time the EpiscOpalians received the
land long occupied by st. Lukes hos
pital and now the home of the Univer-
sity club. So remote was the waste
land that anyone could have it for till
age. 1t abounded in rocks, goats and
rude shanties. That part of the city
remained for years unsuryeyed. For
a radius of more than half a mile there
was nothing but fields. In 1852 the asy
lum was incorporated and began the
erection of the structure with which all
New York is familiar. Previous to that
the Catholics cared for their orphans in
a little house in Prince street. The
work was instituted by Archbishop
Hughes who put in charge the Sisters
of Charity
Two years after the erection of the
Fifth avenue asylum New York in
dulged in a nine days wonder. Ten
blocks below the asylum, on the south
east corner of Forty-first street and
Fifth avenue, Bryan Lawrence, a we'll
known Irishman of that day. sold to
William FL. Vanderbilt for $1,000 the |
waste land upon which the Vanderbilt !
house was erected. The public thought
young Vanderbilt. then his fathers
pride, crazy to give such a sum for
land so far outside the pale of civiliza- !
ton. while the luck of Lawrence in re-
ceiving so fabulous an amount was the
envy of his contemporaries. The Van
derbilt property on that site today is
worth $4,000 a foot. Its sale was the
foundation of the fortune OF Lawrence,
who died very rich.
When the Vanderbilt mansions oppo-
site the orphan asylum were erected the
head of the family was much distressed
lest the grounds should not be kept in
good order. and thus detract from the
of his view. 1t was rumOr-
ed at one time that he offered the asy-
lum authorities S1,OOO,00O for the |
grounds, and proposed to convert them !
into park Continuous residence, how |
ever, proved to him that the same spir- |
it that has ever animated the monastic |
orders of the old world to make 1.-The !
desert blossom as a rose was the BIRTH |
right of the siSterhOOd Few private |
grounds in the avenue have been more
in sWaTd, tree and flower pot
than those that enclose the home of the
orphans. The Vanderbilts have never
failed to express their appreciation,
and every year they purchased $50
worth of tickets for the annual orphan
benefit, which was established by the
ate Augustin DAILY.
Six months ago the site of the new
asylum was purchased for 100000. 1t
S historic ground. 1t was Washington's
and the mound from
which his staff kept watch ON tbs
movements of the forces in New Jersey
md Long Island will be left intact. The
property adjoins the Webb Home for
Sailors. The new structure, which will
ost when completed 100000 provides
-lso for the girl orphans, who are now
AIRED for in the fine structure cover
ng the east side of Madison avenue.
Fifty-first and Fifty-second
treets. With the passing of the or
han asylum a local bit of coloring to
which the neighborhood has become at
ached will vanish-namely, the long
procession on Sundays and fete days
o and from the asylum and the ca ,
hedral of the supplied boy choir. A
undred strong, in their black, red or
urple cassocks, they lent a. picturesque
olor note to the avenue, as did their
resh young voices volume to the cho-
al responses of the cathedral service.
he choir OF the cathedral is made up
holly of the orphan boys and has
ing been recognized as one of the best