Summer Abodes of Society July 10, 1910 (1)

Social Register Gives Seashore and Inland Addresses of 9,000.

A great similarity of taste in choice of Summer residences is indicated in the Summer Social Register, issued the past week. This edition of the Social Register is limited to the country and foreign addresses of those who have communicated them and those whose addresses are not indicated appear to have retained their city residences as their Post Office addresses.

More than 9,000 families and individuals belonging to New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburg, Providence, Oakland, Baltimore, Buffalo, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and the Southern cities, and also Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton, these last three being the additions for the year, are located as follows: 6,311 are inland and 2,828 are at the seashore.

Nine hundred and fifty-eight families have gone to Europe and 812 foreign bankers' addresses are furnished. Since the 1st of April 296 families have arrived from abroad.

Fewer are spending the Summer on their yachts this year, there being 139 families instead of the 150 of 1900. The names and descriptions of 662 yachts are opposite their owners' names and are also to be found in the yacht index at the end of the register. Of these, 262 are sloops, 323 are steamers, and 78 are schooners.

Since April 1, 1909, 711 persons have married, and 160 men and 144 women have died, as compared with the deaths of 177 men and 166 women for the corresponding period of the previous year.

Of the 6,311 inland residences, 61 are at Lenox, as compared to 71 last year. One hundred and ninety-one families are at Bernardsville, Morristown, and Short Hills, N.J. Last year there were 264 at these places. In the Adirondacks there are 113, whereas last year there were 199. Canada about holds its own, with 177 this year, for last Summer there were 184. Of other families, 5,769 are scattered at various inland places.

Of the seaside residences Bar Harbor shows 67, while last year there were 174, and 835 are scattered on the upper New England coast. Newport and Narragansett show 361 this season, as against 378 in 1909.

Society Gains At Seashore July 1, 1914 (2)

An increase of 25 per cent. in the number of families residing by the seashore is shown by this year's Summer Social Register, which has just been issued, in comparison with that of last year. There has been a decrease of families going abroad since April 1, and a slight decrease in the number of persons married since that time, as compared with last year's statistics.

Of the families at inland resorts there are 5,691 located inland. The New England Coast resorts lead, with 1,582 families; 60 are found at Lenox, 229 at Bernardsville, Morristown, and Short Hills, N.J.: 133 in the Adirondacks, 101 at Bar Harbor, 400 at Newport and Narragansett Pier, a marked increase over last year, and 1,273 on Long Island, with 514 families on the Jersey Coast.

The cities of Seattle and Portland, Los Angeles and Pasadena have been added this year to the list of cities covered by the Social Register.

War's Effect on Society June 30, 1915 (3)

Great changes have been brought about by the European war in the residential addresses of American families as shown by the statistics of the Summer Social Register of 1915, just issued. This is really the first time that the effect of the war on society, owing to the cessation of European travel, has been shown by actual figures.

In comparison with last season there has been a reduction of 75 per cent. in foreign residences or banking addresses abroad of Americans. Last year 878 families were to be found in Europe, and this year there are only 208.

The cessation of travel is very pronounced. Last year, after April 1, when the exodus to Europe was at its height, 852 families went abroad. This year the departures of only 44 families are recorded, and foreign arrivals have dwindled from 237 to 27.

The new Summer Register contains the changes and Summer address of 12,024 families, twenty-six of the larger cities being included. The residences inland have increased and there is a slight reduction in the number of families at the seashore over last year. As the result of the expositions at San Francisco and San Diego, 84 families this year are recorded at country residences on the Pacific coast. This season 142 families are summering on their yachts.

Cupid seems to have been a busy little fellow, as there has been an increase of more than 25 per cent. of marriages in society since April 1, 1914. The marriages of 830 people are noted as compared with 650 of the previous year. On the other hand, the mortality has increased. A larger percentage of men in society die during the course of a year than women. This year the deaths of 220 men and 181 women are noted.

Social Centre Goes North December 8, 1915 (4)

1916 Register Gives it in Fifth Avenue Between 66th and 67th Streets.

The new Social Register for 1916, just issued, gives some interesting data in regard to the trend of the centre of population of the prominent families in New York. This year it is to be found half way in the Fifth Avenue block between Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Streets. Two years ago it was at Madison Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street.

The northward trend has been on an average of some 250 feet per annum since 1891, when the centre of the social population was at Thirty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue. In 1905 it was at Fifty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue.

This year Park Avenue leads with 702 families, as compared with 438 in Fifth Avenue and 330 in Madison Avenue. The visiting index shows that of the 702 Park Avenue families, 606 are housed in fifty apartment houses, probably at rentals much greater than were formerly paid for private houses.

In spite of the war, 241 families are in Paris and 189 in London, and there are 110 families wintering in Washington, D.C., and eighty-nine in California.

Washington Square and Gramercy Park, strange to say, show no diminution, and each seems to have settled down as an oasis. In 1888, as shown by the first Social Register issued, the most populous apartment house then was the old Hanover, at 2 East Fifteenth Street. No one lived at that time on the west side above Seventy-third Street, and only two families were marooned on the east side above Seventy-fifth Street.

There is little variation shown in the marriage and vital statistics. Last year 703 persons were married, as compared with a total of 706 this year.

Country Life Trend Grows December 13, 1916 (5)

The Social Register for 1917, just issued, shows some interesting facts in the matter of social statistics.

The trend to country life is growing more rapidly in New York than in other cities, and 25 per cent. of the prominent families now reside in the country, as against 15 per cent. In 1901, Philadelphia, however, is still the leader in its fondness for outdoor life, for a little more than 50 per cent. of its families reside in the country.

The gaps caused by this drift to the country seem to be filling up rapidly by the marked increase in the number of wealthy families of other cities who have removed to New York. At present there are 582 families of other cities giving New York addresses.

The register shows many more living abroad than last year, and also that hundreds have given up dwellings for apartment house life. More than 2,000 prominent families are now condensed in the modern east side apartments, bounded by Fiftieth Street, Fifth Avenue, and Lexington Avenue. A large per cent. of these bear Park Avenue addresses. There has been a slight increase in the number of marriages and practically no variation in the mortality.