Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1914 — JOHN D. HAS GROTTO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

JOHN D. HAS GROTTO

i— .i • * . 7 Mr. Rockefeller’s Unique Refuge From Summer Heat

Some of the Features of the Subterranean Chamber at Pocantico Hills Is the Work of a Young American Sculptor..

New York. —When the breeze ceases to blow next summer: and the sun beats hotly down on Pocantico hills, making his great house too warm for human comfort, John D. Rockefeller can retire into the heart of the mountain, where the mercury always stays in the lower end of the thermometer and where the sound of water softly splashing over the rocks can still further add to the illusion that all is well with the weather outside. Mr. Rockefeller has had constructed for himself a grotto, It is a real grotto, reaching back into the mountain, and one of Its most realistic features is its stalactites, formed by waters slowly dripping for centuries and depositing in the form of icicles and, mineral matter contained in them. These stalactites were not formed at Pocantico hills, however, or anywhere else in the Catskills. They come from Italy and are older than the oldest of the Romans. They were stalactites when Romulus subsisted on the milk of the she wolf. They have been taken from real grottoes In the mountains of Italy and transplanted to Mr. Rockefeller’s man made grotto. There was no trace of a cave when Mr. Rockefeller decided that he wanted one. The idea came in coa-junction with that fefr the little " Temple of Love, on the side of the mountain at the end of Mr.. Rockefeller’s Venetian garden. It is under the temple which was copied from the one at Versailles, that the grotto has been constructed. When the days are sultry and disagreeable and the Venetian garden, itself is uncomfortable Mr. Rockefeller can seek comfort in his grotto without going out of doors. Although it is nearly 300 feet from the house, there is an underground passage lead- ■ ing to it from the sub-basement, an ornamental passage running under the edge of the mountain, with easy chairs and tables scattered along at convenient distances, The grotto itself has its cozy nooks, where easy chairs wovfen of willows invite the explorer to sit and take his ease in the coolness of the cave.

The grotto is octagonal in shape and is about forty feet from wall to wall. The ceiling is very high, rising in the shape of an irregular dome and giving a feeling of great spaciousness and mystery in the chamber. The feature, however, that distinguishes this grotto from all other

grottoes, either natural or artificial, is the interesting company which the mortal entering it must keep. It is a chamber of the gods. Here the deities of ancient Greece, banished from their native land long ages ago andwandering lost and disconsolate about the universe ever since, have found a welcome lodgment. They made themselves very cosily at home. They peep from the walls at the beholder, and having lost their ancient terrors, make quite a Jovial company. _ At the top of a rough column of masonry Jupiter looks majestically, but in a fatherly manner, at the visitor. Mars Is there, blit his warlike mien Is softened. Mercury, god of flight, has settled down for keeps; Neptune looks loagingly at the water in the fountain and Vulcan wears a contented air. Mischievous Cupid and austere Diana surmount other columns. The eighth figure Is the most interesting of all, because the scupltor, Emil Sieburn, had refused to tell Mr. Rockefeller its name, and he is known at Pocantico hills simply by the designation of “the mysterious one.” Some day when Mr. Rockefeller Is alone in the chamber and feeling in a receptive mood this god may tell his name and all about himself, but until then the mystery will be unsolved, for the sculptor Is Inexorable in his refusal to tell tales. One of the finest features of the grotto- is Hiebern’s fountain, “The Spirit of Joy,” a male figure standing in a ditch Against a background of gray stalactites. The attitude Is that of a trance. The figure holds a cymbal in either hand. An ornamental archway surmounted by an elephant’s head surrounds the niche, and In front of the foiintaln is a space paved with white and black pebbles. At other corners of the chamber are reclining figures of nymphs on stony conches.

John D. Rockefeller.