Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-07
CUSTOM HOUSE AT BALTIMORE, Md

of Pennsylvania avenue and 18th street for
the equivalent of $685. per front foot, and
when the Stone homestead opposite the
Ebbitt House at the corner of 14th and r
streets brought the equivalent of So, 7s5 per
front foot.
Twenty-Five hundred dollars a front foot
is considered a high price for property in
the center of the business section Of Balti-
more and $1,000 front foot will buy the
choicest lots in the gilt-edged residence
section. Well-built. well-located residences
Of fourteen and sixteen rooms can be
bought for $4,000 and upward, while rents
are from 80 to 40 per cent less than for
similar property in Washington. Baltimore
Is probably as economical a place to live
In as any city In the country. 1t may also
be said that no other city takes care Of
its working classes SO comfortably. There
are few large tenements, but acres upon
acres. blocks after blocks of well-con-
structed two-story sfx-room brick dwell
tngs, with bath rooms, ranges, running
water and oil other modern conveniences
which may be rented at reasonable rates.
Washington Is also being well supplied
with similar dwellings. but the rentals are
80 and 40 per cent higher than in Baltimore.
The low price Of property explains why
rents are SO cheap and why the twenty-six
banks and other institutions can afford the
luxury Of exclusive buildings. Once rents
are also comparatively low. Real estate
owners say that Office buildings do not pay.
That Is the reason why Johns Hopkins Uni
versity remains in the business section of
the city instead Of erecting new buildings
upon the beautiful estate in the suburbs
which was beQueathed to it several years
ago. The architectural plans are all ready,
having been accepted from Messrs. Parker
& Thomas of Boston in competition with
seven competitors, and the trustees have
expected to sell the old buildings now oc-
cupied for money enough to build new ones.
But they have been disappointed, and are
now awaiting a favorable opportunity to
raise building fund.
The nobility md artrfncracv nf baltimore
live near the business section of the city.
The centers of civilization are Mount YER
non Square and Monument Square, just a
step from the shopping centers on one side
and the brokers' offices on the other Mon
ument Square possesses the first monument
that was ever erected in honor Of George
Washington. 1t dates from 1902 and Is a
Doric column Of white marble 100 feet high,
rising from a base thirty--ive feet high and
fifty feet square, and is surmounted by a
colossal figure Of him who was first in war.
first in peace and first in the hearts of the
people of Baltimore.
An apartment house recently invaded this
aristocratic section, but it is unobjection-
able because of its architectural beauty.
The New Custom House.
There are many beautiful buildings in
new Baltimore. stately structure of
white Maryland granite, designed after the
Italian renaissance by Hornblower and
Marshall of Washington In competition with
nine other architects, is now nearly COM
pleted. 1t was erected by the government
of the United States for the purpose c. ex-
hibiting collection Of paintings by Francis
Davis Millet, a famous and conscientious
American artist. When finished this art
gallery will contain the largest oil painting
In the United States, one that will be larger
than Michael Angeles 81 asst Judgment" in
the Sistine Chapel Of the Vatican at Rome,
and almost as large as Signor Tintoretto's
famous representation of paradise in the
doge's palace at Venice. Mr.. Mllet is very
much mortified because Signor Tintoretto
beat him, but 1t Is really not his fault. He
would have made the picture bigger If there
had been more room on the wall The space
was limited to thirty by ninety feet, and
upon that surface he is now portraying the
history of commerce.
His picture shows all the different kinds