The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-08
THE STORY OF HUNTINGTON

This fnanciering was bitterly opposed
by the people of California, as Hunt
ingtOn had a monopoly of a most
sweeping character. The governments
was dragged through congress for
years. Now the Central Pacific is leased
to the Southern Pacific, and Uncle Sam,
as usual, got the worst of it.
The Southern Pacific. which is Mr.
Huntington's great legacy to the rail-
road world and of which he was pres
ident at the time of his death, has lines
from Oregon to Mexico and to Guate-
mala, and from New Orleans to the Pa
cific coast. In the aggregate it has
more than 1000 miles of railway and
$500 miles of steamship routes. All
this property came originally from the
fnanciering of the Central Pacific, and
Mr. HUntingtOn's reputation as an or
ganizer made il easy for him to swing
his later projects
In more recent years Mr.. Huntington
turned his attention to the east and
resurrected the Chesapeake & Ohio
railroad For tidewater terminals he
built the city of Newport News, Va.
and erected ShipyardS there.
Mr.. Huntington took keen pleasure in
real estate speculatiOnS in New York.
He was not an investor in New York
real estate, but bought to sell, and was
lions. II is said that he never bought
a parcel of land in New York that did
not bring him profit.
This, of course, does not apply to his
mansion on Fifth avenue and Fifty
seventh street. which cost Mr.. Hunt
ington, including the site, fully S. 000,-
Geo. The building has an onyx and
statuaTy marble staircase that cost
$4,000. d grand ball room, large
plunge. wrought iron art work gates
to porte cochere. an interior court
with dome, and other costly features.
It was announced in November 1897,
that Mr. Huntington intended to make
his nome in San Francisco and would
sell his New York real estate Soon
afterward he sold three blocks of land
fronting on St AIMS avenue, from the
north side of One Hundred and Thir-
ty-eighth street to the south side of
One Hundred and Forty-first street, for
$400, 600.
Next he sold twenty-five-foot lot
avenue, to Oliver G. Jennings This
was a part of a 81, coo, 900 property be-
longing to Mr.. Huntington. Last year
he sold a 100000 property in Central
park, west, north of Sixty-seventh
street. Later the balance of the Fifth
avenue and Seventy-second street plot
was purchased by James Stillman
president of the National City bank
Very likely Mr. Huntington's sales
of real estate in the last two and a half
years aggregated fully s., 800 goo.
Mr.. Huntington at the time of his
death owned a brown stone house ad-
joining his mansion at East Fifty
seventh street; a double house at Park
avenue and Thirty-eighth street and
a fifty-foot lot and stable in Thirty
eighth nearby; a s225 600 block fronting
on Riverside drive, between One Hun
dred and Eleventh and One Hundred
and Twelfth, next to the Astors
place at Throg'S Neck that he bought
for $500 600 from Frederick Havemeyer
and the Beldon Point property of six
acres at City Island.
i fair estimate of the value of Hunt
ington's holdings in New York and vi
cinity at the time of his death would be
s2,50O,000.
For a long time after his New York
mansion was completed the millionaire
declined to move into it from a super
StltlOn that death would follow Tt
took all his wife's persuasion to get him
to occupy it at all, and it was known
that the house was for sale at one time.
The marriage of Mr.. Huntington's
adopted daughter. Clara Elizabeth, to
Prince Hatfield in 1883, was the occa-
sion of much establishment as it was
against all the teachings of the self
made man. Miss Huntington was trav-
cling in Spain with Mrs. John Sherwood
when she met the prince. They fell in
love with each other and were married
in London the same year.
Mr. Huntington was opposed to the
match and announced that he would
give his daughter no dowry, but he re-
Tented and settled $1,000, 600 on her. She
is a beautiful woman.
The prince is a man with a ,,ict,,r-
esque European reputation. said TO be
very much attached TO roulette. and
has the record of betting the highest
amount known on the turn of card
Although a member of numerous
clubs and art societies, Mr. Hunting
p. n seldom visited them but could
er be found at his home or at his
ice He wanted to retire from bust
ness and spend his last years among
his books in country residence
Among his desires was TO take a long
vacation in Africa