Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-07-15
HARTMAN $N[WB)k[
FEATURES OF MOUNTAIN MAN.
SION ON RAMAPo RANGE At
ARDEN, N. Y.
HOUSE IN FORM OF CROSS;
THREE YEARS IN BUILDING
Railway Masnate's Country Estate
Will Be Que Of the Most Remarkable
In North Observation-Disclosures viii
Contain Seventy Rooms.


1t was once said Of e. FL. Hartman
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 a plane and i'll an atmos-
phere soialtitudinous that no ordinary
mortal might hope to do more than
contemplate his eminence from afar.
That was true in a fgurative sense
perhaps when it was announced-at
any rate, the adulatory attorney ap-
peared to. think it was-but now it is
about to become literally true. so far
as MFR. Harrlman'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, N. Y, Is on such 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, in an isolation so splendid as
to be Incompatible with that enjoyed
by any other American multimillion-
aire. 1t is doubtful II Mr.. Hartman
in his wanderfngs over continental Eu-
rope this summer will see any castle
that can equal his in its majesty of
view and aloofness from, yet geograph-
zeal nearness to, vast center Of popp-
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
ed 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 a
large and modernized scale some old
New England farmhouse. 1t is I'M
doubtedly designed more for use and
comfort than for anything else. 1t
contains seventy rooms, and twenty
two OF these are bathrooms.
It Is built of gray stone with trim
mings Of sandstone and is in the form
of 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 spaciousness Of this great entrance
hall may be Judged by that. OF Of
this is the big living room, chamber
so large that it could easily contain
the floor space Of the average seven
room, two thousand dollar uptown fiat
without crowding. The other rooms
are proportionately spacious. The
windows on the first floor especially
are large, some of them exceptionally
80. The last year or two Mr.. Harri-
man has had passion for an abun-
dance Of air and sunlight, and one can
easily imagine him going over the
architects plans and telling him, in
spite of hissprotests 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 a 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 q great swim
ming pool Of stone and cement, bath
whose size even Caesar OF Caracalla
might have envied had Hartman lived
tnaRome in their, day and built his pal
ace there. About the grounds, too, are
many sunken courts that in summer
will be sfllled with flowers. Through
the green sshrubbery will shine. the
wilderness Of marble statuary, and cool
fountains in the courtyards and Ital-
Ian gardens Will plash and whisper all
might long in midsummer when the cit
- onsthe iowlands toward the sea are
Iswathed In torrid, humid air..
sBeneath this commonplace looking
mansion is a, network of tunnels for
the Spaekdge OF servants. the convey
.anee. Of everything needed. Some are
!eqgsppeos with little electric tramways
FOR thesw hisking Of things to and fro.
Everything contributing to comfort
that the skilT$ of the mechanical en-
,gineer could. adapt to use in dwell
ing has been installed. Human hand
service has been supplemented every
whore, SO far as possible, by steam,
electricity and compressed air.. For
Indoor amusement there are billiard
parlors and bowling alleys enough for
The entertainment Of all the guests the
house can Nhold.
1t las been the contention Of poeh
a