| Show c m HS OF HIDDEN DEN OF LUXURY AN VICE ble I irefully Hidden Studio in New York I Where Stanford White Entertained I I lid I Men of His Stripe in Ways That I I I k Rivaled Days of Fabled Eastern I Tr Luxury I I lir 4 fas House Within a House Where I gin the Light of Day Never Was Allowed I Al-lowed to PenetrateOnly by SeI HQ cret Passages Could Entrance Be I Gained I YorK Ever since Eve rev 11 Dt n xesblt Thaw told her story e witness stand so that ta the e night judge whether Its tell 1 men ijlat not enough to turn a husband gserenot il j ° Bid icn before that ever since the ten tol shot that killed Stanford White von L < t Jute let loose on the ears of men onSl iintless stories of revel and debauch ill only legions of shameful ghosts erred left to guard the memory of y e dead architect curiosity has been 110 ID Irresistibly to Whites Twenty Jrth street studio It Is the place ay ch II I half the stories told were e White had dedicated to that part stir his life which ultimately led him to Car deaththe place where ho played de with a few depraved companions I ar le to all the rest of the world he cetlp 3 a distinguished and an envied ityll a place which was a heaven of auty and also according to report o helLo sin So other spot In New York has so rred the Imaginations of thousands ether spot has been at once such commonplace of gossip and yet so tinny unknown such a closed my 1 rt to all And today stripped of wch of Its mystery and of all the 1 I c amour and lure of its wonderful asures of art with only the dull ies ter walls left to give mute tesU1 any to the reality of tho wild scenes er once shcltetred It remains with parallel t 1 In the history of this or 10a ij other modern city uly Well Concealed Ju It Is not just a suite of rooms or ie or more doors of a house cleverly was ected from tl e observation or In IF ion of other tenants Still less Is or an ordinary house the windows of lei leh however thickly curtained LU4 screened must still look down on irk ssersby In the street below and ho posed in turn to the curious gaze any and all who cared to raise their adsTon You may have trouble to find this ceWrote Harry Thaw when ho it appealed to Anthony Comstock I d the Society for the Suppression of II ce to put a stop to the Infamous tit s other men he would imd no hint to lead him to that of Stanford White That glided temple of the souses stands apart a house almost within a house inclosed within two rows of other houses with hulk walls on all sides to shut It off from all view and observation It was a place used only In the night time and with no need for the light of day ordinary band b-and their outlook had no place In the designers plan Only a secret passage pas-sage cunningly walled off In the main house fronting on Twentyfourth street could it be cached and only though a secret door which slid open at the touch of a hidden spring could friend or visitor enter that passage Belongs to Other Days The studio is situated III the small open court thnt lies between the tears of the houses on Twentythird and Twent fourth streets As It stands today dismantled and untenanted It would make an Ideal < haunt for kid capers or counterfeiters or any of the other desperate plotters who llgure so largely in romantic novels and for this reason even In Its piesiiit Its most commonplace aspect It seems to belong to medieval days an age younger by centuries than busy practical prac-tical modem New York But as It was when Stanford White was the presiding pre-siding genius there lavishing all the brilliancy of his perverted fancy on nightly enteitalnments so bizarre that no roue was so jaded that he did not eagerly seek an Invitation to attend It belonged to the days of fabled eastern east-ern luxury and splendor the da > s of the Arabian Nights with all their wizardry wiz-ardry of imprisoned genii enchanted palaces and young girls beautiful as the dawn And the site for this lordly pleasure house this secret haunt where the master might hold his visitor prisoner for hours or days this dream house of art and abandon of refinement and revelry was chosen as if In deliberate joy In the contrast in the heurt of the most respectable and commonplace surroundings 1 sat up In the bed and started to 1 dial der r Iasi 1 + a 1I y 1 U I I I d a I I hs L ilat y r I S a a Cl Jdk I y I C J ah 58I I aw va of n J z WyN RVOR1TtdrE0 OTPNDOGRIf NNl5 acUees which he said wore carried ltlthln Its able WUll8 you lIIay have a to find this place < rltlswe11 ueealed Well au knew concealed It is for though a arch street aud number he might his Way all day and never find it going at lust had satlstled the address e Sireet t oas wrong No stranger In f1e1 saw the windows of arord V S la Whites Studio a must IIIlght Le thrulIlh the outer door of the and kin wnlc all through the b thoughrllhouwould 1 and though ho would find i cress to the studios or room of tai scream said EMlyn 1 Thaw before the court as she told of her waking In the mirrors Then I scpain loom of the ed nnd screamed and screamed and he came over and asked mo to please to scream Then I began keep l quiet AH this between more than ever Broadway and Sixth avenue within a stones throw of the humdrum shopping shop-ping district of Twentythird street Commonplace Surroundings the studio backs on One wall of the Eden MUM the delight tno children The tu and simple country vUllor malt of Twcntythlrd street with Its Indolent or hurrying shoppers and their restless humors of the choapjack toys along the sidewalk easily reaches the ear On the Twontyfourth street side the eye sees only an everyday row of monotonous looking house no uglier or shabbier than n hundred rows exactly like them frost which the bright tide of fashion lias drilled away rower if an artist wished to par teal a thlllOulhl commonplace street without a hint of romance or I a touch to lire the Imagination he could find no hotter scene And It VAS Just this setting of almost ostentatious respectability of the staldest and least inviting pioprlety that Stanford tthlte chose tll use 11H a curtnln be hlllll which he umld set his private sage as ho willed could Intoxicate hlnibcir with a Hotous luxury of sen Mini i beauty and extravagant display and leach their sorry parts to the pup pets la Introduced there without fear of Interruption or discovery There vice decked in her hnuest purple and crimson mocked at the print gray form of vlitws grim gown that sheltered her and let hoi live It was as If a dancing hall ftom Paris should be found hidden aiming ho elms In the rhmelivnid of some little New Eng land village Entrance to the Glided Den Here Is Evelyn Thaws description of her first visit to tho place We slopped at a dingy lodging house and as wo passed inside the n worked wltb the architect tot a sohd week on the fnlrytnle scheme It cannot bo done was his own appalled objection when tho plan first was unfolded un-folded Wo will do It said Stanford White and no conception proved too novel no price too high for his fancy and genius to overcome It was In this room that the great white bearskin bear-skin was spiead on which Evelyn Nes bit posed for some ot her best known pictures and here teem gorgeous root Dn Barry portieres curiously carved pieces of teakwood and Japanese furniture rare Inco curtains screens Inlaid with Ivory and huge old cedar chests carved deep with elephants heads with Ivory tusks sot In li Ice less rugs were on the floor from Khornssan and Serrebend from Hok hara and Tabriz and on the walls were paintings by Uubens and Geromo and Mllluls and Uourgtono Whites Most Private Studio On the floor above was a smaller studio fitted up with the same royal magnificence This was tho room with the red velvet swing and the big Japanese Japa-nese umbrella In the celling through which the feet of tho swinger crashed when strong arms pushed her high Here White had his ordinary living rooms bedtooms and dressingrooms On the floor above reached by a tiny back stairway of which few indeed knew the secret was a studio almost a boudoir smaller and daintier still Hack of this separated by curtains of henv > gold crusled tapestries was the l i 1 I r f I 1 d I THRWR I s ALLECEJTNRT I WHTEDRUCCEDI HER 1 lllf 7ZLk R f j J FL Z L 4 i I udr tai r Ji id I f Il R 5ECRET 1 PAS5RCEWAY n nl door opened No one touched It but it opened of itself We went through that door and along a passage and up some steps and then another door opened in the same way Wo went up home more steps and when we were half way up I stopped and asKed where we were going and a voice called down but I could not see who it wn Then another voice called a mans and we went on up the stairs till we came Into a loom magnificently furnished with velvets and satins with all kinds of beautiful things standing around and paintings on the walls and Interesting cabinets and bronze and marble statuettes and shaded lights There are three floors to the studio not including a kind of basement which was given over entirely to the kitchens 1 pantries and servants quarters quar-ters and a peculiar feature of the whole building Is the fact that Instead of one main staircase running straight up through the house the different floois ore leached by an arrangement of separate staircase each of which gives access only I to one particular floor or set of looms Thus Whites friends passed up a staircase which gave them no hint that there were any rooms on the basement floor at all I I and by closing a door hero and opening open-ing another theie all the doors being I operated by a system of secret springs which could be worked from keyboards key-boards on each floor known practically to White alone the visitor could be led straight to any part ot the house White wished without being taken through any other part Hut for general gen-eral purposes It was the first floor the one above the basement that was used as tho main reception room and for the big supper parties like that In I which the Pie Girl figured Here Luxury Unrestrained Hero the artist was in his own kingdom king-dom here was luxury unrestrained There were glowing antiques In bronze and marble tapestries In wonderful subdued tones softened by centuries one White had pillaged himself from an Italian shrine by paying an enormous enor-mous bribe to the grayhaired priest who burned candles before It Jeweled chandeliers hung from the painted color blended celling a wild riot of with consummate IIrtand electrical devices that startled and enchanted aitd chaimed the rye The electrician who furnished the house tells how IIR lSCHARG DTHHT KEPT SOMDOP SfifWKf CtfSrS PiP CWER5 FOR PAYS N THE I1YSTERIOIs NsE exquisitely furnished little bedroom where they toll champagne was poured for those whom the king of this palace of art most delighted to honor with ruin Few Knew of the Place Very few persons ever dreamed of the existence of this rwent fourth street studio Some of these were workmen who constructed it under the architects own direction others those In his service who from time to time would carry there his choicest art treasures One at least a well known fire Insurance man must have known Itfor the house and its contents con-tents wero Insured for thousands of dollars Others who entered there were club men like himself Apostles of the Unusual Un-usual ever seeking a new sensation young women of pleasure flattered by the notice of one In tho front ranks of wealth and fashion little country mice like 16year old Evelyn Nesbit whoso fresh beauty gratified him In the splendid betting provided and whose senses were Immediately dazed by the unwonted oriental luxury Most of the visits there were made at night Many of the guests would have been unable afterward to find their way there Enough it was Stanford Whites domain held beneath the spell of his genius How he first conceived It bought It built It threw his thick mantle of secrecy over It nobody knew Just why the house came to be dismantled dis-mantled and when remains a mystery mys-tery Dinners were given there up to within a very tell weeks before the night of June 2C Perhaps some rumor reached the ownerwho knows Se ciocy Is ever on its guard to be investigated in-vestigated most trying to the artistic nature Whatever the motives dismantled dis-mantled It now Is The great mirrors rudely torn from their fixtures tho priceless Bokhara rugs bundled up In a hurry and smuggled away The occupants oc-cupants of the adjoining houses continue con-tinue to go and come on their dally rounds with little thought of the grew some house In their rear What IB likely 1 to become of It Is hard to predict pre-dict Stanford White Is dead and the veil of secrecy he drew over this his pet haunt has been rent from end to end 15it the house Is still there and still his No other occupant seems likely to hold It It remains a moan tncnt to the Genius Art and Huthleis meal of one man |
