The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-04
BRlDGEPORTERS AND SIMEON FORD JOIN
 IN GENUINE GRIEF
Grand Union Hotel In New York
 Is Closed Permanently


 Bridgeporters. moro particularly those of the travelling public in the older days, are grieving today over the closing Of the old Grand Union hotel in New York city. For two dec- ades, this hostelry has been the pop ular stopping place of men from this city F. 2. Barnum was frequently a guest of the house and the old regis- tens show the names of many others, past and present, who have made his tory for the Park City.
 S Commenting on the closing of the Grand Union, the New York Tribune says:
 SIMEON FORD SAID
 Simeon Ford. the only humorous ho- tel keeper in captivity on either side of the Atlantic. is homeless.
 At midnight Saturday, the Grand Union hotel which he has managed in partnership with G. T. West when he was not composing funny speeches, will close it's doors forevers thanks to having decided to take the site for subway purposes
 MT. Ford was the chief mourner at the wake but 1t is expected that he will have recovered sufficiently by May 12 to attend a dinner in his honor which the hotel men of greater New ork assisted by others from near and
 
 Sunday the hundred or more oil paintings which MT. West has in the hotel were transferred to his home and to ths SaImagunei club of which he is vice president. MT. Ford's cost ly collection of old prints and engrav- ings Of New York will be sent to the Public Library as loan exhibition Later the contents of the Eotel will be sold at auction.
 NOT GOING ON STAGE.
 For the future MT Ford has no plans completed. If he were mer- eenary he might book for ssforty weeks solid" on ssthe big tinae'' with some of his justly famous mono- logues, but he is not.
 bread line now, despite the efforts of charitably Inclined hote1keepers like mystelf.r 2 says MT. Ford, ..to think of taking the bread out of any poor fel- lows mouth. Now if were yo1nger-'.
 But every one in this city has heard Mr. Ford's dream of a 4sgiortfed ho- teI,'' in which the man of modest means might ..obtaIn a sanitary cell for s1 a. night, with the restaurant privilege leased for cent year. to the proprietors of the Gates des Enfants, to wish to hear it again.
 As nearly as he can now tell, he will rest for while at his Rye estate. and | see if the foreign hotelkeepers have devised any new means of separating American tourists from their cash and to brush up on his French. Next to MT. Ford's French, the saddest thing to be encountered in Europe this summer will be the sight Of Mr. Ford as he views the we'll trained foreign servitors extort the tips from his fellow coun- trymen.
 HOTEL ssJUST GREN.' .'s
 After that 1t is among the possFbiI- ities that he will start another hotel With all his jokes MT. Ford has been thrifty, and by some. who profess to know, is declared to be in the mil- lionaire class MT. West, his part ner, will devote his time to extensive real estate and other interests. The Grand Union enjoyed many dis tinctions, not the least known of which was that it was not built, but like Topsy; it just grew. The prop erty as it stands today was originally thirteen separate and distinct dwell ings, acquired from time to time by the simple expedient of knocking holes through the walls and made part Of the hotel building.
 The hotel began sts existence as the Westchester House, when a New York CT, thinking of going to 42d street, made his will and arranged for the dispersal or ms IaVorIte pipes Tn the event of his not returning in safety. At that time when the cook or the bartender needed more milk or eggs a small boy was sent across the street | to some farmhouse and the COWS milk ed or the hennery searched while the l hungry and thirsty waited. OWNED HOTEL SINCE 1876. ! In 1876 it became the Grand Union, l and then Simeon Ford decided to be- come its owner. He did not take MT West, father of his present partner and the then owner of the property linto his full confidence, but he has since confessed that was his plan. \ s.The boss thought that as the Lort