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Millionaire Homes Vanderbilt Whitney Tiffany Fish
Millionaire Homes Vanderbilt Whitney Tiffany Fish
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Kindle version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1901. Contains lots of great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 110 years.
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There are, however, twelve houses in America which have been selected by architectural critics as the most magnificent of their kind. It would be unfair to say of them that their splendors are of the hodgepodge description; but it is equally true that they are not comfortably "grown into" homes, that their rarities are not the result of slow and casual collection. But their magnificence is never vulgar—which is more than may be said of certain others.
TWELVE TYPICAL AMERICAN PALACES
These twelve are the houses of William C. Whitney, the late Cornelius Vanderbilt, W. D. Sloane, Stuyvesant Fish, John Jacob Astor, John D. Rocke¬feller, Louis Stern, and Louis Tiffany of New York; of Mrs. "Jack" Gard¬iner, of Boston; of George Streator, of Chicago; of Joseph Winterbottom, of San Francisco; and the Breakers, the Vanderbilt house at Newport. Probably Mr. Whitney's house, Mrs. Gardiner's, which is still in process of con-struction, and Mrs. Fish's, which was opened with great éclat last year, are the most remarkable of these.
Mrs. Fish's house at the corner of Madison Avenue and Seventy Eighth Street; is as perfect a reproduction of a Venetian palace as is possible on a dignified, but not over picturesque, New York street. The tall gate that screens the entrance is of Venetian bent iron, and from the very threshold one is carried straight into the realm of the doges, though, except for this gate, the granite exterior promises nothing remarkable.
On the first floor, when one has passed the iron portals, one sees a draw¬ing room, and on the opposite side the dining room. This latter is a faithful copy of the banqueting hall of one of the nobles of Venice when Venice ruled the seas. The lower panels are of dull walnut. Above t hem hang wonderful old tapestries or red and yellow. A dull red marble mantel glows darkly above a fireplace where a brighter color flashes. It is a most imposing room, and it seems to require a regiment of powdered and liveried menials to wait upon a concourse of glittering dames and gallant gentlemen. It would seem a profanity for a solitary diner, for instance, to munch a simple chop in its sumptuous atmosphere. The drawing room, across the hall, is distinctly a room for beauty. Its most conspicuous feature is a mirrored door. It is carpeted in red velvet, and its walls and ceiling are a pale bluish green, while all its furnishings are of the rococo style in yellow.
Read excerpt -
There are, however, twelve houses in America which have been selected by architectural critics as the most magnificent of their kind. It would be unfair to say of them that their splendors are of the hodgepodge description; but it is equally true that they are not comfortably "grown into" homes, that their rarities are not the result of slow and casual collection. But their magnificence is never vulgar—which is more than may be said of certain others.
TWELVE TYPICAL AMERICAN PALACES
These twelve are the houses of William C. Whitney, the late Cornelius Vanderbilt, W. D. Sloane, Stuyvesant Fish, John Jacob Astor, John D. Rocke¬feller, Louis Stern, and Louis Tiffany of New York; of Mrs. "Jack" Gard¬iner, of Boston; of George Streator, of Chicago; of Joseph Winterbottom, of San Francisco; and the Breakers, the Vanderbilt house at Newport. Probably Mr. Whitney's house, Mrs. Gardiner's, which is still in process of con-struction, and Mrs. Fish's, which was opened with great éclat last year, are the most remarkable of these.
Mrs. Fish's house at the corner of Madison Avenue and Seventy Eighth Street; is as perfect a reproduction of a Venetian palace as is possible on a dignified, but not over picturesque, New York street. The tall gate that screens the entrance is of Venetian bent iron, and from the very threshold one is carried straight into the realm of the doges, though, except for this gate, the granite exterior promises nothing remarkable.
On the first floor, when one has passed the iron portals, one sees a draw¬ing room, and on the opposite side the dining room. This latter is a faithful copy of the banqueting hall of one of the nobles of Venice when Venice ruled the seas. The lower panels are of dull walnut. Above t hem hang wonderful old tapestries or red and yellow. A dull red marble mantel glows darkly above a fireplace where a brighter color flashes. It is a most imposing room, and it seems to require a regiment of powdered and liveried menials to wait upon a concourse of glittering dames and gallant gentlemen. It would seem a profanity for a solitary diner, for instance, to munch a simple chop in its sumptuous atmosphere. The drawing room, across the hall, is distinctly a room for beauty. Its most conspicuous feature is a mirrored door. It is carpeted in red velvet, and its walls and ceiling are a pale bluish green, while all its furnishings are of the rococo style in yellow.
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