The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-04-25
BUILDING EPIDEMIC
Hotels and Apartment Buildings
Are Going Up To-day. Like
Mushrooms.
JOHN Hays Million Dollar Stone
leigh Court Some Paste
board Boxes Put Up.

Washington, April 25.-The building epi-
demtc RACES in Washington. More peo-
pie want to put up structures Of one sort
and another than can find workmen to
construct them. But there is just now
a particular craze for hotels and apart
nlent buildings. Secretary of State John
Hay semes to have led the movement for
apartments With sonic Pfttsburg CAPT.
tai which is part Of his father-in-law's
estate, he is building "Stoneleigh Court
at a cost Of considerably more than
81, 000, 600. There is every reason to be-
lteve that the claim Of the promoters Will
be made good and that it will be the finest
apartment building in the east outside of
New York. It Is to be rented to selected
tenants on five and ten-year leases; and
the rents run as high as $1,000 year for
a suite of unfinished housekeeping
apartments. There is another apartment
! structure just being finished in the north
west section about a mile from the Write
House on high ground, commanding a.
magnificent view Of the entire city, where
six unfinished rooms can be had on lease
| for $500 a. year. The Hay apartments,
| by the way, are on Connecticut avenue,
| within three minutes walk Of the White
House. .~- = .~.5s 49,
| It will be a shock and pain to people
/ who are familiar with Washington to
hear that an apartment building is to be
put on the site Of the old Corcoran gar
| den. corner of H street and Connecticut
| avenue. Senator Depew has been occu-
plying the Corcoran house for the past
four years. and his garden is a. constant
I delight. It is of the old-fashioned south
ern variety, surrounded with a high brick
wall, and teening with roses, magnolias,
Towering almonds, cherry and holly
] trees A. speculative contractor put up
| an apartment on Farragut square which
he sold for 100000, thereby making a
handsome profit, and he is the buyer Of
the Corcoran garden. $780,. p
| Less pretentious apartment buildings
are being rushed up at an alarming rate.
No fewer than forty have been construct
! ed within the past eighteen months, and
as many more are under way.
The coming of the apartment building
| to Washington, and its sudden popularity
as an institution, have been rather
amusing. Until about three years ago
the city was practically destitute Of
! apartments. Such things were unknown
I heard, in vague way, that in Chicago
and New York there were such struc-
! lures, places, as they conceived, where
! people huddled together in a promiscuous
and rather immoral fashion, and managed
| to exc out an existence. Tenements, they
called them. Apartments, fats and
/ tenements were SYNONYMOUS terms to
the average Washingtonian Never hav-
| ing been out Of Washington, and never
having seen a real apartment, the real
native Of the capital city had a fine con-
tempt for such an institution. Apart
ments, they knew, were not respectable.
How could they be, when there was no
privacy?' How could anyone live re-
\ spectacle messed up with thirty or forty
| families, hearing all the neighbours con-
versation, and having them always run
ming in and out ones front door?
So the native WashinEtonian lived in a
boarding house-four-f1fths Of all Wash
ington'ss houses harbor boarders or room
ers-doing. light housekeeping in the bath
room, cooking over an oil lamp. having
cold rations sent in in a basket, gosstping
and quarreling like respectable rnagpies,
but clinging fondly and tenaciously to a
high-bred southern notion that flats. and
people who dwelt in them, could not be
! nice.
t.: 81: 1t Was a Revelation.
| OF such We're the people Of Washington,
! three years ago.. Then a man who had
explored as far west as Chicago, and as
far north as New York, built an apartment
| building. It was not a good apartment
building as good ones go, but it had the
I general characteristics Of the institution.
It would house about forty families, and
boosted of steam heat and g. janitor. 70
| be sure, the bath room was next to the
front door, and the bed rooms divided by
the kitchen; there were no closets worth
mentioning, and about a: third Of the
rooms were dark. But it was an apart
ment building, and it was revelation 10
| Washington people. It filled up imme-
diately, at very good rents, and soon had
q. waiting list. The natives heard Of it,
and came to see. They renewed old cali
! ing acquaintance in order to see how an
apartment looked on the inside. They
were amazed. They discovered, to their
surprise, that the families who dwelt
therein were more private than they would
be in boarding house. They viewed the
gas range with delight, and wondered at
the working of the dumb-waiter. Almost
! were they persuaded that people could be
moral. and still live in an apartment.
| Then came another apartment building,
and fs was rented before 1t was under roof
| The fame Of this marvel had gone thru
| out the city. The executors Of the John
| Sherman estate saw a chance to get 20 per
cent on their money, and they ran up
three apartment houses in quick success
| sion. It was the same experiences; the
agents rented them from the plans while
| the foundations were being dug. The
building speculator saw his opportunity,
and began putting them up out of paste
board or little better. and selling them
| rented, to capitalists in search Of high
| rate investment And SO they have been
coming, springing up like mushrooms. The
! former jewellers in boarding houses have
found in apartments an escape from con-
ditions which were becoming intolerable.
| but whose intolerableness was scarcely
| appreciated until this relief was presented.
| Small apartments were found to be greatly
| in demand In them the smail-salaried
clerk in the government service finds his
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