Broken Ground

Otto H. Kahn, famed financier, patron of music, disembarked from his yacht, The Dolphin, at Stony Point, a notch in the blade of the Hudson River, 35 miles from Manhattan. Attired in a light overcoat, a grey hat caressed with pearl at the brim, he trudged up a hill to a meadow.

A spade was given him. He set his foot upon its heel, drove it deep into the sod. A short time later, a chorus of 35 singers burst into song nearby.

Thus the ground was broken for the Lillian Nordica Memorial Dormitory, to be erected by the American Institute of Operatic Arts, as a hospice and training school for young operatic stage designers, singers, dancers--for all neophytes, in short, whose aspiration is at once artistic and operatic. "The initial impulse was not mine," said Mr. Kahn, "but I am glad to help along."

In the little gathering that witnessed the ceremony was a group of business men who announced they had purchased 10,000 acres surrounding the site of the institute for development into a $20,000,000 suburban residence project, from which half the profits, estimated at $10,000,000, would be presented to the Institute.