Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-28

same monarch in the National Gallery in
London. He had another Van Dyck, a
portrait of the Duke of VillierS. Vscount
Grandson, for which he paid large
price.
The dining-room is 40 feet square,
while besides the grand library, salon,
billiard room and music rooms, the house
contains fourteen bedrooms and twenty
two servants rooms. More than five
years were spent in completing it. Mr..
Whitney went there to live in the winter
of 1900, and January 4, 1901, it was
formally opened by a ball, one of the
most brilliant social affairs ever given in
New York.
In 1904, after his death, the house was
sold to the late James Henry Smith. the
new owner seldom occupied it, although,
after his marriage in 1906, to Mrs. Rhen-
lander Stewart, society looked forward
to brilliant social entertainments. This,
however, never came to pass because Of
the death of MIR. Smith in Japan. in
March, 1907, while on a honeymoon trip
around the world.
In Mr.. Smiths will his 9TH avenue home
was left to his nephew, George Grant
Mason. who lives at Tuxedo. 1t has not
been occupied since. although corps OF
servants kept it in perfect readiness for
immediate occupancy. Mr.. Mason never
lived there, and a few months ago an
nounced his intention of selling the house
and all of its furnishings at auction.
Plans for the auction had progrC ssed so
far that the sale had been publicly an
nounced TO begin January Is, and con-
tlnue for five days. A catalogue de luxe
OF the paintings, tapestries, carved man
ties and elegant old furniture had been
issued, and the rooms were to have been
thrown open for inspection, when young
Mr.. Whitney interviewed to stop the sale
and purchased the entire property for a
lump sum. He seems to have been ac-
tuated very largely by sentiment to pre-
vent the dispersal of the art treasures
which had belonged to his father, be-
cause he and his wife, who was Hiss
Gertrude Vanderbilt, daughter of the late
Cornelius Vanderbilt, already have a
sumptuous home at the corner of 9th
avenue and 9th street, in which his
father and mother lived for many years
Mr. Whitney has not made known his
plans concerning the new purchase.
Rapid Rise in Value.
| Last spring Burton Brothers, cotton
goods merchants. bought the house No.
432, at the northeast corner of 2sth street
| and 9th avenue, from Miss Sarah
Switzer for $95O,OOO. The lot is $50 by
III feet in size and is occupied by an
old-fashioned English basement dwelling.
The property formerly belonged to the
| father of Burton Brothers who sold it in
| 1862 for $4,000. and after two or three
intervening transfers Miss Switzer ac-
| quiled 1t for $4,000 from Austin Corbin
in 1887.
| The Burton Brothers own that entire
| block with the exception of one old
| fashioned dwelling on the 39th street
| corner, and have refused an offer of
| $1.Ho,oUO for the property.
Mr.. Fred Vanderbilt, who owns the
| former home of his father, the late Will
liam II. Vanderbilt, at the corner of 9Th
| avenue and 10th street, adjoining the
| Union League Club. has been offered
S2,Oco,O0o for his holdings, 100 feet on 9TH
| avenue and 40 feet on 10th street, which
Is about $'25 a square foot.
The finest unoccupied residential block
| in New York extends from 9TH avenue
/ to Madison avenue, between 10th and
James Lennox to a board of trustees for
| the public, together with library build
| ing. but will be abandoned during the
| next two years when the Lennox Library
| will be merged with the Astor Library
| and the Tilden Library, the New York
| Public Library building at the corner of
| 9Th avenue and 10th street, and the prop
| court and an act of the Legislature in
| the winter of 1907 to Henry &. Prick, the
| Pittsburg coke and iron master Mr.
Tricks purchase included the entire 9Th
avenue front, running back 11J feet. The
price he paid has never been disclosed
| but soon after his purchase Otto H.
Kahn bought a frontage of seventy five
| feet adjoining on list street for $1,000
| front foot. At that rate Mr.. F'rick's
| 100000.
1t is understood that MIR. Prick intends
| to build a palace on this property as soon
| as he can get possession, similar to those
| of his former partners, Mr.. Andrew
Carnegie and Mr.. Henry Phrps who