The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1915-03-04
HAVE MILLIONS,
SPEND PENNIES
Wendell Sisters of New York
Most Peculiar Mil
lionaires

New York is never tired of dis
cussing the mystery of the wendeIs
No one has ever suggested an even
probable explanation OF the strangest
family in America.
The four Wendell sisters have &c.,
900, 900.
Three unmarried sisters live on
Fifth avenue in the antique $4,000
house on a lot assessed at $-,87s, 900.
The fourth (Rnarried) lives at Central
Park West.
The four sisters have been enor-
meusly wealthy since birth.
They have never ridden in an auto.
They have never been on a yacht.
They have never attended a thea
tire.
They have not been in church for
| twenty years.
They never wear any articles of
| jewelry.
They have never used a telephone.
They have never used an elevator.
They never give a social entertain
ment or receive callers.
So. far as known, they have never
given money to charity.
Like little grey mice in an ADAM
doned church the three Wendell sis
ters fit about their ugly big house
just opposite the Union League club.
A great department store has reared
itself across the street on one side.
4nSy QWe41 IN WhaC mas just De-
come the heart Of the shopping dis
trict. Before the doors streams the
most magnificent procession of pri-
waite vehicles to he seen anywhere in
the world. What is behind these
doors?
Now and then an old employee of
the great Wendell estate, second in
wealth only to the holdings of the
Astors, passes into a hall, the floor
of which shows bare tiles in geomet-
rica1 patterns without covering The
hall is reached by three sets of doors.
In the rear of the hall is a great
wooden stairway, and from the mas
sive balustrade a ponderous iron gas
jet gives a faint glimmer of light. The
Wendels do not use electricity. Don't
they approve Of it2 Nobody knows.
From the hall open the library, par
1or and dining room, all kept excact-
" as they were when the builder Of
the house, John Wendell, died in 1859.
The floor of co1ored tiles, is scarcely
relieved of it's baroness by the small
rug under the great mahogany table
in the center of the room. The fur
niture is all old and massive. Every
picture on the wall, all throughout
the house. is covered with a white
muslin winter and summer.
Although the building is four sto-
ries and a half high, there is no
elevator or dumbwaiter. Two mid
die aged maids wait on the three
strange sisters. All the sisters are
dresses, cut in the style of two gene
rations back. They make their own
clothes and wear them until slightly
shiny. Their gray hair is drawn tight
ly back from their foreheads.
On two sides Of their house the
Wendell sisters have a yard, encon-
passed by a high wall. This yard is
worth about a million dollars. The
sisters take exercise here, but only IN
the evening, when no one can look
down upon them from abe high build
ings nearby.
The life of the fourth sister, Mrs
Luther A. Swope, is almost replica Of
! her sisters But she does venture
twice a week to the little old fash
toned Wendell office at ITS Broadway
bare of telephone or modern Office fix
ture, where the Wendell estate CEN
tiers its business. She is a slender
square shouldered woman, who dress
/ es in the styles OF 1880 like her sis
ters. But she is not quite so shrink
| ing as they. she has the firm jaw Of
her brother, John o. Wendell, who
died last! December at Santa Monica;
Cal, and to her the three maiden sis
tiers turn over the responsibilities of
the sec, 900, 900 fortune.
Aside from Mrs. Swope's regular
visits to the wendell offices the only
excursion Of the strange quartet into
the light OF day are their spring trips
to their country place at Irvington
on the Hudson and their fall trips back
to New York. The 1rvington estate
is even more sequestered than the
Fifth avenue dwelling There is a
high surrounding wall. Scarcely a
neighbor remembers even seeing one