Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-28
NEW YORK WOMAN IS THE
HEAD OF IT
Mrs. Kate Foster Conducts Forty-eighi
Boarding, Lodging and Apartment
Houses-From Millinery shop
to Profitable Business
speclal TO The Herald.

/
| shrewd business management and eau
| tious investment, has risen from COM
| parative poverty to independent wealth
and whose interests are steadily in
| creaslng.
Modestly. Mrs. Foster, a comely wo-
man of thirty-four years, admits that
she now has forty-eight boarding.
lodging and apartment houses scat
tered through the upper east side, be-
| tween Seventy-second and Ninetieth
| streets; that she is negotiating for
four more; that she is in the business
| to make a fortune and not because 1T
appeals to her; that she has reaped a
handsome profit from her ventures,
which she has managed herself, and
that she intends some day to retire.
The rewards to be had by acquiring
new places and the possibility of ulti-
mately having practically all the
boarding houses under one manage
ment appeal to her, but she will step
aside and let some one else take the
chance.
Suggestions that subsidiary to the
boarding house trust there should be a
hash monopoly, a pie trust, a prune
combination and an Irish stew trust
brought the reply that Mrs. Foster was
opposed to subsidiary companies of all
kinds.
Twelve Years in Business
Light WAS thrown upon the interest
ing career of Mrs Foster and her re-
markable business ventures by persons
who have had dealings with her dur
ing her twelve years experience as a
boarding and lodging house keeper.
Their descriptions place her in the fore
front of American business women.
Wealthy once through inheritance,
she lost her money in speculation and
after living humbly for a few years
.l1. 1AA1 sw.1.1 t.. e..
| through her own efforts. Her success
dates from the day she close up her
small dressmaking shop, where she
| had slaVed for meager reward, and
opened rooming house In the resi-
dental section of old Yorkville.
Year after year her business grew
until now she has, in addition to pri-
vate houses, apartment houses leased
but furnished at her own expense,
some of which have more than $50
rooms. Mrs. Foster gives evidence of
the fact, which she reluctantly admits,
that ner family was one Of Importance
in Germany.
I'm not proud of what I've DONE"
she said to Herald reporter. "And
anyhow it is nothing. 1 shall retire
some day and the sooner that day
comes the better shall like it,
A Real Business Woman
| Oue was Sedleu III Her ONCE on Ine
ground floor Of the five-story apart
ment house at 1885 Lexington avenue,
which she leased five years ago and in
which she lives. Clad in a neat fitting
suit of black-her husband died a few
months ago-and with sleeves cut short,
and seated at a desk on which were
many letters and other documents, she
looked the part of the real business
woman, and moment later this inn
preston was heightened when, address
ing sort of general supervisor who
had been summoned, she said;
Have the plumbing fixed in the -
apartment at - East Eighty-second
street; have the paper changed at once
| in fiat No. in - East Seventy-eighth
street; see that the people in fiat No. s,
- East Ninetieth street, are out by
Monday; have a gas jet fixed in the
kitchen of fiat No. z at - Eighty
fourth street"
More than a score or orders were
given to the supervisor, who gladly took
memorandum which Mrs. Foster had
prepared with the various addresses
written down. Her orders were ratified
off with the precision and sternness Of
mill boss, and she demonstrated that
she has every detail of her executive
business at her fingers ends. Her
home on the ground floor Of 1885 Lex
ington avenue is only comfortably fur
nished; luxury Is sacrificed for business.
In the Yorkville section Mrs. Foster
owns several private houses and leases
still others, but she prefers to live in
an apartment and will make her home
in a beautifully furnished house in
Madison avenue which she now uses
as fashionable rooming house.
Mrs. Foster explained, when asked
for an interview, that she dislikes pub
licity and prefers to live her own life
without taking her neighbors or the
great public into her confidence
You KNOW" she said, that it some
times happens we do not get into the
business we most prefer, but, through
misfortune or other things, are forced
to do things we dislike. That is my
case am not proud that I am a.
boarding and rooming house keeper 1t
is true, as all real estate dealers will
tell you, that have always maintained
high standard in every boarding or
rooming house L have conducted, but
even so, do not care for the business
and will some day get out of it.
But hasn't it made you fortune?"
was asked.
Made Much Money
"Oh, yes, have made great deal of
money. could retire tomorrow II II
wished. have my automobiles and never
do another thing. There is much money
to be made in this business if one con-
ducts 1T properly and on strictly busi-
ness basis, but it keeps me too busy
and l hardly think shall continue the
plans 1 once made, to expand until
controlled rooming and boarding houses
all over the city"
Gould you extend your interests until
you had a monopoly on the boarding
houses of New York;" was asked.
"Oh, 1 have quite few now, haven't
n" she rejoined, proudly. "One could
get Just as many as he could get good
houselkeepers to look after. 1 was a
dressmaker not so many years ago, II
hadn't cent Then / decided to start
a rooming house for aristocratic people.
got a little money and started. I'll
paid splendidly and l started second
one. That paid and l looked around
and started a third. That paid and l
looked around and started a fourth.
That paid also. and thus 1t continued.
Now have several houses like this
five and slx-story apartment houses.
/ lease them, but furnish them myself
and rent out the rooms. 1t Is a good
paying business. Altogether / have
fortv-eight houses and hundreds of