Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-09
FIFTH AVENUE PALACES
Houses Costing Over $50, 000,-
600. Soon to Be Built.
A RIVAL TO PiccADILLY
Practically All the Sites Opposite Cen
tral Park Taken.
G0THAM'S GREAT SHOW PLACE
Skyscraper With Forty-one Stories
Will Be Raised at Liberty Street
and Broadway.
aoTHAM's GREAT SHOW PLACE
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

By WILLIAM &. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence Of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
NEW YORK. February 7.-During the
next year or two more than O.0O0, 900
worth of palaces will be erected on upper
9Th avenue facing Central Park. in what Is
now called 1.-THE Billionaire Row." Henry
c. Prick, who now lives in the former resi-
dence of the late William H. Vanderbilt,
has purchased the old Lennon Library,
which is one of the landmarks of New
York, and is having plans made for a
81, 100000 mansion to be built upon its site
that will compare with those of Andrew
Carnegie and Henry Phipps. which are in
the same neighborhood, and cost very near
ly that sum OF money. Senator Clark's pre-
tentious palace cost 100000.
William E. Corey, another of the Carnegie
partners. who is now president of the Steel
Trust recently paid 100000 for lot OPP
posite Mr.. Carnegie's, and will build there
81, 5OOO 600 home for his future bride, Miss
Mabelle Gilman, the variety actress, with
whom he is now summing himself on the
Riviera. You will remember that Mrs.
Corey recently obtained a divorce in Ne
vada and got million dollars alimony.
+ William B. Leeds, formerly of Chicago,
and of the Rock Island railway syndi-
cate, has plans for a two-million-dollar
palace at the corner of seth street, two
blocks from Mr.. Carnegie. William Starr
Miller has plans for a million-dollar house
at seth street; Gen. Lloyd Bryce, who
married a granddaughter of Peter Cooper,
will build at SD street; Benjamin Guggen-
helm Of the remarkable smelter family, one
of the seven millionaire brothers Of that
name, will build 81 100000 house at 10th
street; Edward Hardness of the Standard
Oil Company will occupy one corner of
|, 10Th street, and Miss Grace Rainey, daugh-
ter of the late w. G. Rainey of Cleveland,
sometimes called the Cooke King" will &C.
cupy the other corner. Both of these
| charming people paid in the neighborhood
of $780, 900 for their lots. Howard Gould,
or rather his wife, from whom he is sepa-
rated at present, has plans for a million
dollar house at the corner OF 73d street;
James Stillman of the National City Bank
will occupy the corner of I'D street; 8.
Barton French, who married a daughter Of
Walker Fearn, commissioner of foreign af-
fairs at the Columbian exposition, will
spend q million and half to furnish her
shelter at the corner of list street, and
quite number of other gentlemen of
means are also in consultation with their
architects for similar reasons:
When these houses are completed that part
Of 5th avenue which faces Central Park
will be practically. occupied. Only one or
two inside lots will be left All the corners
are now owned by the gentlemen i have
been living there for some years. Then 5th
avenue from 5Oth to 95th streets will SHOW
the most costly. although they may not be
the most beautiful. human habitations In the
world. It will be the Piccadilly Of New
York and will resemble that most famous
Of London streets. They will not be so In
teresting as those which line the park
front Of Piccadilly, where the Duke Of Well
ington. the Duke of Devonshire. the Mar
quis of Northampton, the Marquis OF
Queensberry, the Earl of Cadogan. Baron
Rothschild. the late Baroness Burdett.
Clarendon and other famous and noble Eng
lish families have resided for two or three
centuries, and doubt If the architecture
will be as noble and impressive, but some
day, perhaps in the course of events. 9th
avenue will be as celebrated as Piccadilly.
and, maybe, when one or two generations of
our plutocratic families squander their
turned into clubs like those along that an
cient London promenade. Even now 9Th
avenue Is quite as fine as Park lane, where
the nouveaux richie Of London have built
similar mansions, facing Hyde Park, and is
quite as pretenstious and much more at
tractive. There are only one or two houses
on Park lane that surpass those On 5th ave-
nue..
The Tall Buildings.
Down town the architects forgetful of the
fate Of those who tried to build the tower
of Babel are raising their roofs to almost
incredible heights, and before another year
there will be at least two structures in New
York taller than the Washington monument,
which is sos feet high. 1t is curious CO.
incidence that the Soldiers Home park at
Washington has 555 acres.
The tallest buildings in New York now,
the American Surety CompaAy's and the
st. Paul buildings, are 3O6 feet high. The
new railroad and iron exchange building
will reach an altitude of 4O4 feet the addi-
ton to the vast marble pile of the Metro
politan Life Insurance Company, now being
erected on the site of. DR.. Parkhurst's
"aIs
Fifth Avenue Hotel will reach 600 feet from
the curb, while the new Singer building, at
the corner of Broadway and Liberty street,
will have forty-one stories and a tower 625
feet high and IS feet square, 70 feet higher
than the Washington monument. Each
story in this tower will be fitted up for
offices and those who lease them will have
the satisfaction of occupying the highest
station ever reached By human ambition.
The Eiffel tower in Paris is more than 300
feet higher, but it is not occupied for Iiv-
ing purposes; it is not inclosed with walls,
but is a skeleton of steel and intended to be
temporary.
The architects have had to solve many
difficult problem in connection with these
lofty structures. 1t is, of course, necessary
to fasten. them down SO firmly that the
wind cannot blow them over. The Singer
building is anchored to the rocks 60 feet
below the surface. while the Metropolitan
Insurance tower will be set 20 feet into the
rock. Such buildings could not be erected
in Chicago, because that city is built on
sand, while Manhattan Island is an eternal
rock. These two tall towers are planned to
| resist a wind blowing at the rate of sixty
miles an hour, which is the maximum
velocity recorded In New York city, and will
sustain a force over their whole surface
equal to 125,O00 tons.
The rents charged for offices of the upper
stories are just the same as those below.
There is no variation, and many people pre-
fer to go as high as they can. Perhaps
they think they will probably never get
as near heaven again, but they also escape
dust and noise. and have all the air and
sunshine there is going. Several of tie
highest floors in the tower Of the Metro
politan building have already been leased
for terms of years.
Adoption Of Concrete Walls
Concrete walls are being adopted quite
generally in New York as a substitute for
brick and stone. You find them being mold
ed in single masses in almost every part of
the city. You can see the men shoveling
cement and sand into narrow wooden molds,
In which skeletons Of steel rods have al
ready been placed. When the wall ID fin
lshed as high as the architect has raised
the steel construction work that is to bear
the weight Of the building. the concrete ID