Arizona republican., 1921-02-17
Back to the East Side
By FREDERIC J. HASkIN

NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 12.-The re- cent news that Mrs. William K. Van derbiIt has sold her Fifth Avenue home and intends to move to faded, lit- tie, old Sutton Place along the banks of the East river has caused a great deal of consternation in New York. New Workers, on the whole. are not inclined to sympathize with the move. Those who take great civic pride in the appearance of Fifth avenue hate to see. the Vanderbilt home demol- ished, as it probably will be, and those who live in the neighborhood of Sut- ton Place are indignant for quite an- other reason.
 Among the latter is T small artist colony. which has been extremely comfortable in this district for a num-
 Der of years and which greatly resents the intrusion of the wealthy.
 Tt just means that We will have to move again." complained one such dis
 turbed artist the other evening, as he
 slipped a teacupful of very fair chiann
 in a small East Side cafe. Rents
 have already doubled on our street. In another month. if Mrs. Vanderbilt
 brings the usual retinue of satellites with her, they will be trebled and no artist will be able to afford to live
 there. It's simply beastly the way
 these people are running the East Sde. ] The dear old place is breaking out like chickenDox with fashionable col onies everywhere"
 The artist then went on to explain
 that the housing situation was prac- tfcaIly driving art out of New York.
 In few more years, he declared, bit terly, it would be pushed out into the
 suburbs, because it has become abso- lutely impossible to establish and keep
 an exclusive artists colony anywhere
 within the city limits.
 You see, we're part of a vicious
 cycle" he said. ''We find a nice, quiet place. with a good landscape or sky scrape, and just ge- comfortably set l tied when along come some fashion able ladies who immediately decide that they want II. They in turn have been busted out of their ravorite spot by the invasion of shopkeepers and hotels, who have moved uptown to escape the factories and warehouses. There is a movement to keep the fac tories in their place, you know. but nothing has yet been done to keep the retailers where they belong, or to make the aristocracy stay put"
 And what about you artists?" we suggested. Aren't you poachers. too? For you come along and drive the proletariat out of their homes. You said just a few minutes ago that you live in a house formerly occupied by a family of nine Italian immigrants" ''Yes, agreed the artist pensively. T wonder where the immigrants move to-"
 Although the various changes which are rapidly taking place in New Yorlk's | residential districts may not be due entirely to our friends cycle, it is true l that there is a strong Back the ! East Side movement among fashion able New Workers. IL is becoming quite the proper thing to live in ob- scure and dingy neighborhoods lying 1 between Third avenue and the East river. Mrs. Nanderbilts proposed mi grafton to this district is only one of many that have occurred in society i circles during the past two years. ! Several exclusive colonies of fashion l able folk are already flourishing on sites but recently supporting tene- ments, and gradually the East Side is
 taking on new personality. Whole l streets are shedding their dingy pow erty like cloak and emerging in lus- ] troUs. modern raiment, remodeled from the tatters of their glorious early
 years.
 For, long ago before the proletariat ! took complete possession of it. the ! East Side was a fashionable suburb, scattered with large country estates, with splendid race course running down the center of Third avenue, where ! the steel girders of the elevated are
 now planted. Even nows the casual ! pedestrian, wandering about the re- 1 zion, finds many distinct traces of its 1 ,eristocratic, rural past.
 Among these is picturesque old 1 stone house bearing on one of it's | gabled wings the erection date of 1799 ] in large brick letters. This was built l by a dashinE colonel named William ! stephens Smith who was chiefly ia . nous because he married Abigail Ad-
 5ms the only daughter of President John Adams. Colonel Smith. having ! served on Washington's staff in the Revolutionary war, was appointed ' surveyor of the Port of New York dur ing the administration of the rirst ! president, at which time he bought a tract of land along the East river
 and built himself a spacious frame house. The present stone house was
 eriginally the stable Of this dwelling
 smith, however soon fell into finau-