The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-11
THREE OLD new YORK HOMES
AIONE Nov IN NEEGHBORHOOD IDS
CIPTt RED m TRADE.
ThcY Illustrate the Architecture and tine
NInd ~ Home Favored 10y New Workers
" Past Generations Left Amid
, Strange surroundings ny Fashion.

" Past 0seneratIOns LETT Amid
Strange surroundings ny Fashion.
The houses shown in tho accompany
ing pictures have long been outgrown by
he nciGbborhoods in which they still stand.
lhOy possess this Characteristic in COM
mon IA well AZ tho popularity Of being
grouped to-day by the families for which
,hey were originally built.
Nowadays New York neiRhborhoods
change their character fast. The senti-
mental New Yorker who would cling to his
roof tree often ind himself after a while
among strange ~neighbors. His friends
retreat before the invading vanguard Of
and he soon finds himself sur
rounded by aliens.
II takes courage to cling to the neighbor-
hood once the change has set in. The
houses shown here are left as the only
private dwellings in their neighborhood.
I~cnements and furnished rooms are on
every hand and are occupied by people
that the faithful occupants OF their old
homes never want 10 see.
No European city presents such difficulties
Cor its conservative citizens as New York.
Paris and Berlin. London and Rome allow
IheIr neighborhoods to retain their charac-
t%rTistics. In London there are hotels and
shops near palaces. just az there are in
lierbn small cuisines places near palaces
uf the highest society. Yet these foreign
neighborhoods retain their old aspect.
They continue TO be neighborhoods
suited TO the abode Of the families who
own their homes there. The first APP
pearance OF business does not drive every
thing else out Of the neighborhood. Nor
does this result follow in Paris or Rome,
"a it invariably does here.
Business in New York sets the COM
munity TO moving just an infallibly M il
there were a plague. In New York there il
only one direction in which the town NAV
move. That being northward. the citizens
know that they must get out or he over
whelmed.
The owners OF these houses have cour-
ageously elected TO resist the storm that
ias swept over them. The house Of Miss
Alice keteltas on the northwest corner Of
~. Marks place and Second avenue dates
from the time in which il was thought mat
Second and not Fifth avenue would be the
smart street OF the town. Fast Broadway
with its rows Of handsome residences ended
at Grand street, but there were various
smaller streets occupied by representative
families that served a. arteries up to Hous-
Ton street, whence the broad friendly way
Of Second avenue invited progress to the
northward.
The street became substantial and fash
ionablc from It's most southern junction at
Houston street up past Stuyvesant Square
70 Twenty-third street. But it did not
achieve the brilliant fate prophssied for il.
That went to Fifth avenue.
Fashion chung TO the upper part Of Broad
way, made q detour through West Fourth
street TO Fifth avenue and has ever since
been scurrying northward to keep abe ad Of
trade. The owners of the houses in the
picture looked trade in the face with a cour-
age that the jewellers IN the side streets be-
tween Fourteenth street and T~wenty-third
have never showed.
The entire aspect Of this part Of Fifth
avenue was changed in about five years.
There is still a fourishing residential sec
ton below Fourteenth street. because trade
jumped right over the blocks bet ween
Washington Square and Fourteenth street
and settled in the upper blocks. So the
residential parts of the side streets in this
region have been ablet TO hold until the pres
ent the residential character that the street
further up lost SC suddenly.
But University place is given over TO
trade. The house Of the late Col Richard