Evening star., 1901-11-16
Life in New York's Finest Apart
ment Houses.
FOR MILLI0NhIRES And JANIfORS
All the Modem Comforts and
Conyeniences.
HOUSEKEEPING MADE EASY

Written for The Evening Star.
The increase in size and number of apart
ment houses In large cities of late has been
beyond all precedent. A single apartment
house is being built in New York at a cost
of s5,OO0,OO0. which will contain 1.s00 rooms.
1t is possible to secure rooms on the same
plane suited to every purpose Of house
keeping. from a kitchen to ball room.
The various apartments are so arranged
that any number Of rooms can be thrown
into a single suite, the position of the
rooms being left to the tenant The
rentals for single fats or apartments in
this modern habitat vary from 5000 to
$50, 600 yearly
Now, these rentals are much higher than
those of most private houses I'm New
York. The conventional four-story brown
stone front on or near 5th avenue. for ex-
ample rents for from 5000 to 5000 a
year. The preference for fats or apart
ments even at increased rentals. is due
doubtless to the protection of arrangements
of the suites and their greater convenience
for purposes of housekeeping Every room
and hall space to be found in the finest
dwellings is duplicated in these apartments,
with the important exception of the stairs.
The suites vary in size from six to thirty
rooms. The best apartments contain from
two to five bath rooms, with special quar-
tiers for servants. The rooms are heated
in winter with hot air and cooled in sum-
mer with refrigerated draughts. Hot or
cold or iced water, each carefully filtered,
Is supplied to every room. By living in an
up to-date apartment, in short. house
keeper can save everything but money.
Not only does the economy of labor in
housekeeping attract residents, but the
apartment houses, by their architectural
pretension and the lavish decorations of
their entrances and public halls, draw many
to them. Some of the apartments are veri-
fnt,T 1>oth
'fatters" form sort of community Of in
terests, since all contribute to purchase or
lease luxuries which are shared in COM
non The architecture of these great build
iDgS their entrances and halls is far
| more elaborate than any single tenant could
afford in house of his own. In other
wcrds a man who pays $4,000 a year for
fiat has the satisfaction of entering
hallway as elaborate as that of many Eu-
ropean palaces. Several of the apartment
houses in New York, for instance, have
plate glass doors covered with bronze scroll
work valued at 5000 panel The nall
way of one apartment house contains sew
erai ornate lounges costing 81 400 each. And
the liveried flunky who opens the door is
quite as brilliant as to livery and obsequi-
Gus as to manner any servant who waits
upon royalty.
Mechanical COnveniences.
Perhaps the most important feature of
this modern form of living is the economy
of time and patience which has been made
possible in housekeeping. A good one-thrd
of the drudgery of house care is performed |
by machinery. The heat. which most
housekepers must coax from reluctant
fires, is supplied from some mysterious eel
lar, and can be regulated automatically to
the fraction of degree. The foods are
preserved in porcelain refrigerators cooled
by cold brine, which can be turned on or
off by an ordinary spigot. If ice be desired
the cold brine is merely turned on full head
for few minutes and zero weather is pro-
duced though it be the hottest OF summer
days. Electricity has entirely superseded
gas for illumination. Each apartment has
besides telephone of its own. and the
hostess talks with her cook from any room
or with a friend thousand miles distant
with equal facility.
of one of these mammoth apartment houses
is the cellar. 1t is here that the greater
part of the housekeeping is performed.
These cellars resemble nothing much as
the hold of an ocean liner. They are crowd
ed with complicated machinery. attended
by score of engineers and electricians. 1t
must be remembered that the heat. light
and general convenience. of hundreds of
living rooms are controlled from this center.
And tenants who pay thousands a year for
their suites are very intolerant of any
neglect
The bulkiest equipment of these cellars
is the complicated system of pumps and
engines used for forcing the water of
various temperatures to the apartments.
lar is supplied with enormous filters, which
clarity all the water used throughout the
building. The water is then heated or
cooled, as the case may be, before passing
to the pumps. There are house pumps for
the ordinary hot and cold water: brine
pumps for the freezing apparatus and still
others for the ice water and the very hot
water which heats the great buildings
The temperature of all these systems Of
piping must be controlled to the fraction
OF degree. or endless Inconvenience will
fn11nr
dents overhead. Each cellar has besides
two complete electric plants with compli-
Gated switchboards and buzzing dynamos-
one for lighting the house, the other for
animating the miles of call bell wires ex-
tending to every room In the building,
Wonderful Cellars.
The cellar proper has. besides number
Of brick-walled rooms, one corresponding
to each fiat where the tenants may store
bicycles, trunks, baby carriages and simi-
lar accumulations. These individual cellars
are firepreof and are lighted by electricity.
Still another feature of the newer apart
ment houses is the public laundries. Each
tenant has stationary tub In the cellar
with an approved rack for Clothes which
are dried by hot-air blasts The cellar door
is the back door of the apartments The
servants and tradespeople first enter the
by special freight elevators. In some apart
ment houses the freight elevators are so
large that loaded furniture van may be
hoisted to the upper floors intact, there to
be unIoaded
Fireproof arrangements are as complete
as 1t is possible to make them. The floors
and walls throughout are built OF brick and
cement. The stafrcases and elevator shafts
are constructed entirely Of metal and stone
or cement. The floors OF the rooms are
merely covered with thin layers of wood
AS an additional precaution a complete set
of piping to be used In case OF fire extends
to every hallway Ia the building. Should a
fire break out In any suite 1t could at most
do no more harm than to burn up the furni-
ture in one or two rooms. The adjoining
apartments would probably not even suffer
Inconvenience from the smoke.
Everything Up to Date.
The day OF the bell rope and speaking
tube is passed. The best apartments are
provided with individual telephone systems
connecting the various rooms one with an
other. 1t has been found that speaking
tubes frequently allow the fumes Of cooking
to spread from the kitchen to the rest of
the house. or they enable servants to over
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