The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-11
HE LOVED HIS KIND.
But Peter Cooper Never Realized His
Pet Project to Help the Poor.

New York Mail and Express.)
Artists studios and skylights fill n
good part of the top floor of Cooper
Union, and there is no immediate pros
pect of any changes being made. Ed
ward Cooper, son and heir of the man
whose fortune flaneed the Atlantic
cable in its dark days of struggling for
existence. has spent about 100000 in
getting things there into their present
practical working order.
Things as they are" are admirable,
and it is not likely that even by the
twentieth anniversary of the death of
Peter Cooper, two years hence, flowers
will bloom and music play on the roof
of the building that was as dear to
him as another child. But that picture
was always his dream; there was al
ways in the old gentleman'S mind a
vision of d roof garden, where happy
families could bTeathe the air and DEE
the sky and feel an ownership in the
boundiess upper outlook, while the band
played.
Rossiter w. Raymond was intimately
associated with Mr.. Cooper during the
last decade of the philanthropiSt life
as a professional advisor. He was un
til five years ago manager of a depart
ment at Cooper Union, and was con-
sulting engineer of the firm of Cooper
& Hewitt. He was wisely chosen by
the family to write the biography of
Riverside series.
Mir. Raymond says that Mr.. Cooper
gave up his original ideas of a museum,
a cyclorama and conversation parlOrs
for the free reading rooms class rooms,
lecture rooms, and laboratories, being
reconciled to these by the conclusive
arguments of their results, proof that
they would give to the people that
which they most needed and desired.
Now and then, however, a sigh would
escape him for the dream of his youth.
He had lived for fifty years with the
idea shat when he had built his great
building, free for all who would benefit
by it, that something would be done
with its roof besides abandoning it to
the weather.
/ companied him to the roof of the build
/ ing" says Mr.. Raymond. Some new
construction was going on which he
/ wished TO inspect The old man stood
! for some time adfniring the view in all
/ directions, and at last, recalled how
/ he had once imagined happy crowds
enjoying the delights of the garden he
had planned there, and casting a
mOurnful glance at the central spot
where the band was to have been, he
said: Sometimes L think my first plan
was best ("
So his thought remains, and perhaps
it may yet be fruitful. Peter Cooper S
thoughts had a way of budding, bios
ana bearing LTulI, lOT ne never
/ gave up his best ones. Mr.. Raymond
| says that there may have been more
than a sentimental regret in his mind
at that time, for his inventive intui-
ton had grasped an idea half cen
! fury before il reached others-the plan
of utilizing roofs to give to all classes
an ownership of free air and far dis
! lance and boundlesS sky.
Mr.. Cooper looked down upon the
vast wilderness of roofs and thought
of the multitude labOring beneath them
or trudging through the streets cur
one canyon and down another" as ole
Jim Bridger, the scout, said in st
Louis), ignorant of the upper sphere
within reach, he might well have fell
that one part of his original scheme
would still be a physical and mora
boon to the metropolis. In fact, the
disappearance of the vacant lots, 81
numerous in his youth, and so freely
available as informal parks and play
grounds, had created new necessit!
for air and space.
Probably Bible reading helped to fl
Mr. Cooper's ideal in regard to joys t,
be gained from going up on the roo
in the cool of the day The fat roof
of Syria and the hanging gardens o
Babylon doubtless had their part il