Hi--

This is not New York, but my father born in 1900, and living in the
State of Washington, learned to drive a car at age seven and his older
brother also did.  They were not in the economic class with Frick and
Washington was not as urban as New York City.  But my guess is that Frick
would have owned a car.




On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, David Minor wrote:

> I know that in the small city of Batavia, NY, stables were located in the
> industrial section of the downtown area, near the factories and
> boilerworks. You probably made your way (few servants here) the few blocks
> and picked up your buggy/sleigh and horse, returning it them you were done.
>
> David
>
> >I will give this question a shot.  The AIA Guide to NYC says the Frick mansion
> >was built in 1914 but the NYC Encyclopedia says that Frick moved to NYC in
> >1900 and immediately set up building his mansion.  In the period when the
> >designs were drawn for this building cars were a novelty.  In 1911 Encarta
> >estimates there were 600,000 cars in America.  Fords model T wasn't introduced
> >until about 1913.  So we may conclude that because cars were not yet an
> >accepted mode of transportation that Frick didn't plan on owning one, hence no
> >garage.
> >
> >So how did he travel?  Carriage, of course.  And probably a magnificent one at
> >that with a beautiful team of horses to pull it.  And where was the stable?  I
> >have seen other areas where the stables were far away from the homes cause
> >they stank and if you are a millionaire the last thing you want to do is live
> >next to your horses.  The stables may have been a few blocks away.  When they
> >wanted the carriage a stable boy would be sent to get the carriage and the
> >drivers and bring them around to the mansion.  But this is just my guess.
> >
> >Jim Maguire
> >[log in to unmask]
>
>
> David Minor
> Eagles Byte Historical Research
> Pittsford, New York
> 716 264-0423
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> http://home.eznet.net/~dminor
>
> includes NYNY, a series of timelines covering New York City and State, from
> approximately 450,000,000 BC to 1990 AD.
>