Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-07-30
HOME IS UNIQUE
E. H. Hartman Has Summer
Residence on Ramapo Range
at Arden, N. Y.
BUILT IN FORM OF CROSS
Railway Magnate's Country Estate
Will Be One of Most Remark
able i'm America.

~
by an attorney as skilled in the rules |
Of the game of law as the great trans
portation king is In the complex shift
ing of blocks of bonds and stocks that
represent his title to more miles of
railway than one man ever dominated
before that Mr. Hartman, who is the
president of the Union Pacific railway.
moved on Il plane and In an atmos-
phere so altitudinous that no ordinary
mortal might hope to do more than
contemplate his eminence from afar.
That was true in fgurative sense
perhaps when 1t was announced-at
any rate. the adulatOry attorney ap-
peared to think 1t was-but now ii Is
about to become literally true. so far
as Mr. Harriman's home in the coun-
try Is concerned
His house on the top of one of the
mountains of the Ramapo range at Ar
den. y. Y. is on such n height and sur
rounded by so many leagues of path
less forest that are his by right of pur-
chase that he can dwell there. if he
chooses. i'm an isolation so splendid as
to be incompatible with that enjoyed
| by any other American multimillion-
aire. 1t is doubtful if Mr.. Hartman
in his wanderings over continental Eu-
rope this summer will see any castle
| that can equal his in its majesty OF
view and aloofness from. yet geograph-
ical nearuess to, vast center of popu-
lation
| The Hartman home at Arden has
been building for nearly three years.
and when he went abroad recently he
| left orders that it must be ready for
his occupancy when he returns In the
| early autumn. that no expense was to
| be spared. that the work must be push
cd forward night and day If necessary,
but that it must be finished
/ The Hartman house at Arden con-
| forms to the rules of no style of archi-
| lecture except the rectangular school.
| The dormer windows in the attic roof
are more English in their design than
anything else. That Is the only feature
| to which any architectural nationality
\ can be assigned. 1t looks more like an
| attempt to reproduce in stone on
Il large and modernized scale some old
| New England farmhouse. 1t is I'M
| doubleday eSigned more for use and
comfort than. for anything else. 1t
i contains seventy rooms. and twenty.
| two of these are bathrooms.
Built OF Gray stone.
1t is built of gray stone with trim
mings of sandstone and is in the form
OF a cross The entrance hall is in
the west wing. This hall is thirty feet
wide and fifty feet long. A New York
city lot Is twenty-five feet wide. so
the spaciousncss of this great entrance
hall may be judged by that. Off of
this is the big living room, chamber
so large that 1t could easily contain
the floor space of the average seven
room. two thousand dollar uptown fat
without crowding. The other rooms
are proportionately spacious. The
windows on the first floor especially
are large. some of them exceptionally
so. The last year or two Mr.. Harri-
man has had passion for an abuH-
dance of air and sunlight. and one can
easily imagine him going over the
architects plans and telling him. in
spite of his protests that it would mar
the harmony Of the exterior. that GER
tain windows must be double the
width that he had Indicated in his
drawings.
Set on the apex of one of the high
est and steepest mountains of the
Ramapos. the land originally sloped
abruptly away from the site of the
house The art of the landscape art
lists has broken and softened these
declivities by the formation Of Sc
ries of terraces. Many Of them had to
be blasted out Of solid rock and their
sharp outlines smoothed over with
earth and turf so that now the once
rugged outlines Of the bowlder strewn
hilltop are graceful in their descent to
the edge of the forest. In other places
the terraces rise vertically from the
edge of cliff.
Hard by the house is great swim
ming pool of stone and cement. bath
whose size even Caesar or Caracalla
might have envied had Hartman lived
in Rome in their day and built his pal
4 ace there. About the grounds, too. are
many sunken courts that in summer
will be filed with flowers. Through
the green shrubbery will shine the
Wilderness of marble statuary. and cool
fountains in the courtyards and Ital-
ian gardens will plash and whisper all
night long in midsummer when the cit
les on the lowands toward the sea are
lswathed In torrid. humid air.
Beneath this commonplace looking
mansion Is network of tunnels for
1.-THE passage of servants, the convey
/ ance of everything needed. Some are
1 equipped with little electric tramways
: for the whiskfng of things to and fro.
: Everything contributing to comfort
4 that the skill of the mechanical en-
s ginecr could adapt to use in a dwell
!, ing has been installed. Human hand
service has been supplemented every
where. so far as possible. by steam.
electricity and compressed air. For,
indoor amusement there are billiard
rariors and bowling alleys enough for
toe euserta iment of all the guests the
L.