How Jay Gould Lives
Mr. Jay Gould’s mansion on the northeast corner of Fifth avenue and Forty-Seventh street is a plain-looking double brown-stone house, the interior of which is literally palatial. There are half a million of dollars’ worth of paintings on the walls, and the furnishing and decorations are of the costliest description.
The suite on the second floor, occupied by the heads of the family, consists of bed-room, boudoir, dressing room and bathroom, decorated chiefly in pale blue and silver. Across the hall, Miss Nellie, the only daughter, has a similar suite in pink and white. On the third floor there is a study and a large nursery for the three small boys, Edward, Frank and Harold, whose tutors are paid $2,000, $4,000 and $1,800 a year respectively.
George Gould’s apartments are on the same floor, while the servants occupy the floor above. The butler receives $1,000; butler’s assistant, $400; Mr. Gould’s valet, $600; head cook and assistant, $1,500, and two housekeepers, $1,000 a year. Two laundresses, two chambermaids, a parlor maid, waiting maids, two lady’s maids, and two kitchen girls, are paid from $15 to $20 per month each. The food in the servants’ hall is entirely different from the family table.
Mrs. Gould spends two hours a day with her younger boys, and they read only what has been inspected by her. Since she joined the Forty-Second street Presbyterian Church several years ago, she has been liberal in religious benefactions. Miss Nellie, a graduate of Mme. Reed’s famous school, is perfecting herself in music at a cost of $20 per lesson. She has an allowance of $5,000 a year for her wardrobe.
The Gould stable, of Forty-Fourth street, is a handsome building of brick, with brown-stone trimmings and plate glass windows. Six horses are kept in it during the Winter, and a closed carriage, a landau and two coupes. The staff consists of a coachman, two footmen, two grooms and two stablemen, and their wages range from $45 a month down. The expense of keeping up the stable is $6,000 a year.
Mr. Gould’s country seat at Irvington was considered by its original owner, George Dawson Merritt, the most elegant, attractive and thoroughly equipped Summer residence in the country. Mr. Gould paid $200,000 for the property in 1880, and it is now worth $1,000,000 at a low estimate. The house is Gothic in style and is 3,000 feet from the Hudson river, commanding a magnificent view. It has twenty rooms above the basement. On the second floor is a fine art gallery, extending the entire depth of the house.
Mangold, the steward at Irvington, has been in Mr. Gould’s employ over twenty years, and receives a salary of $2,000. The lawn in front of the house is ninety five acres in extent and the macadamized road leading to the entrance is a quarter of a mile long. There are in the estate 510 acres, 200 of which is woodland. The live stock consists of twenty horses, as many cows, a drove of Southdown sheep and a lot of blooded fowls. Eighteen men are on the place constantly and in Summer the number is nearly a hundred. The hot houses and conservatory cover a space of 900 feet long and 450 feet wide, and with their contents are valued al $250,000. At a fair estimate it costs Mr. Gould $550 a day to keep up his Irvington place. The taxes on it amount to $220 a month.
Mr. Gould paid $100,000 for his steam yacht Atlanta, and io run the same costs him $750 a month for wages, $250 a month for coal, repairs, etc..., and $800 a month for general expenses when he is aboard with his family. Besides the fifteen sailors and live officers, forming the crew, there are four cooks and a baker at $40 a month each, with two waits, a valet, a lady’s maid and a parlor maid. There are separate dining rooms in the yacht for the family, the officers and the servants and sailors Breakfast is served from 6 to 11, luncheon at 2, tea and ices at 4 and dinner at 8. George Gould’s allowance before he attained the dignity of partnership with his father was $10,000 a year. His young brothers have $5 a week apiece for pocket money. – Ventura Weekly Democrat, 1886
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