This Day in History: 1888-08-24
W. A. Darling was reported in the Bergen County Democrat to be building the “most expensive house in the County” on his Darlington property. It was estimated to cost $100,000. The house was to be 100 feet long, made of pressed brick, and to have a Queen Anne style roof “now so popular throughout the country”. The next week the Democrat apologized. It was not Mr. Darling who was building a new house, it was Mr. Havermeyer. The paper could not resist the temptation to take a few swipes at the sugar king, however. The building of a palatial house was one more evidence, the paper insisted, “that trusts have been robbing the people of this country out of millions of dollars yearly”. The paper promised that Cleveland and “the Democracy” would “put a quietus on” Blaine and the Republicans in the fall election. (Bristow)