Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/331

 Fifth Avenue Hotel.

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��FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL.

��During the siirainer last passed, while at Boar's Head hotel, we were informed by Gen. Edward F. Noyes, ex-governor of Ohio, and late U. S. minister to France, that the Fifth Avenue hotel of New York city was in all respects the leading hotel in the world. His extensive acquain- tance, not only with this country' but with the cities of Europe, gives to his opinion great authority.

The name of no street in New York is better known than Fifth avenue — not even Broadway. Where Fifth avenue and Broadway intersect is about the centre of population in the metropolis, and at the intersec- tion stands the Fifth Avenue hotel. The location of this house is the finest in the great metropolis, and is sira- pW perfect. It is on the Fifth avenue side of the beautiful Madison square, between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets, and is so cen- tral and convenient that every person visiting the cit}' must go to it or pass \>y it, whether out for pleasure or for iDusiness. It is the central point whence one can easily turn to elegant homes, churches, galleries, theatres, shoi)s, and all places of interest in the city.

When the Fifth Avenue hotel was started in 1859 it was regarded as a •doubtful venture, because it was so far up town, and then out of the way of the throng of travel and traffic. It is now the very focus of a living maelstrom, and the central jewel of a ■cluster of great hotels, which have sprung up above, below, and all around. Of necessity it will always <be near the centre of business in

��New York, and its location gives it command of rapid transit in all di- rections to the most remote sections of the city. Now, as when this grand hotel was opened to the public, the style of the firm is Hitchcock, Darling «fe Company. Mr. A. B. Dar- ling is a native of Burke, Vt. He is prominent in New York, and has a fine country seat at Darlington, N. J. Mr. Hiram Hitchcock is a native of Clareraont. His hospitable summer residence is at Hanover, and he takes great interest in New Hampshire mat- ters in general, and in the affairs of Dartmouth college in particular.

During a late visit to New York we had the pleasure of inspecting a part of this great hotel. The build- ing is of white marble, and is a plain and simple but impressive Corinthian structure, designed b}' the late Mr. Thomas. The interior is of a more ornate character of Corinthian archi- tecture, and was most admirably and effectively designed and arranged hy that veteran architect, William Wash- burn, Esq., of Boston, cooperating with the late Col. Paran Stevens. Mr. Washburn gave his personal at- tention to the convenient arrange- ment of apartments, to the deafening of all floors from one sub-divison wall to another, making the building prac- tically fire-proof, to the ventilation, plumbing, and drainage of the entire house, resulting in what the public have long considered the safest, most healthy, and most comfortable hotel in the world.

" Entering the main hall, the ceil- ing is in carton piei're, a composition which is fire and water proof. The

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