1208





The Real Estate Record





December 31,1881





those who can read the future agree in be¬
lieving that two years cannot pass by without
great speculative activity showing itself in
real property.





THE NEW YORK HOUSE OF THE
FUTURE.

Visitors to London and Paris must have
noticed dwellings on the outskirts of these
large cities, which are away from the pub¬
lic road or street and accessible only by lanes
or little side roads. Sometimes several
houses are in the midst of gardens, and all
surrounded by high walls ; then, again, the
backs of the houses are toward the street,
the front being open to gardens on the other
side. The object in every case is to secure
privacy and get rid of tramps, and to live in
a quiet and secluded way.

So far, land has been too valuable to do
this in New York. All our houses front
directly upon the streets or avenues. By
doing this we econoniize space, but resi¬
dences in the city lack variety because of
this uniformity in the way of building. Mr.
Henry Villard, President of the Oregon
Navigation Company, is credited with in¬
tending to take a new departure in this
respect. He is the owner of an unim¬
proved block on Madison avenue. Upon this
block it is reported, he proposes to bmld sev¬
eral houses, but they will not be directly on
the street, but are to be placed amidst gar¬
dens and walls, so as not to front directly
upon the roadway. In the centre of the
block, on Madison avenue, is to be a fine
fountain, one of the ornaments of the city.
Mr. ViUard's own house wiU be on one cor¬
ner, and another upon the other corner, but
neither of them directly upon the avenue.
Mr. Villard is of German extraction. He is
a highly cultured gentleman, and commenc¬
ed life in America as a newspaper correspon¬
dent. By his abdity and organizing talents
he has secured an immense fortune,, and his
choice of a residence shows taste as well as
originality. There ought to be many such
groups of houses built on the northwest side
of this island, as well as in the annexed dis¬
trict. In the roads laid out by the Central
Park in the Twenty-fourth Ward, there are
many blocks of land eighteen and twenty
acres in extent, which wpidd be very attrac¬
tive if houses were built on lots from one to
three acres,, the whole block to be treated as
one parcel, and laid out in accordance with
the best canons of landscape gardening.
People of means could not do better than
attempt an enterprise of this kind, for the,
time must come when the passion for living
in flats will abate, and persons will sigh for
their own quiet, retired homes near the city,

but surrounded by rural sights and scenes.

--------*-------_

Iron shutters naay protect against burgr
lars, and save wooden window frames frorji
afire originating outside of the building; but
they are nuisance when the fire originates^
within the building. This is shown by the,
experience, of the firemen in the South street
fire on Chrismas eve. In the bonded warer
houses there, was great delay caused by the
timg taken up by the firemen breaking open

the shutters,

--------•--------

It seems the general use of electric lights
is regarded with great uneasiness by the fire
insurance companies. It multiplies the
risks of fire in all large cities. Edison's
company is the only one which shows
ordinjiry prudence, for in their case  the





wires are laid underground. We would
not like to do without the electric light for
street illumination, but convenient as it
may be, it would cost too much if it should
burn down any portion of the city. The
demand for this light is enormous, so much
so that the buUders of electrical machinery
cannot ffil their orders. All the centres of
population are demanding the electric
rather than the gas light.





The official record of Conveyances and
Mortgages shows a large falling off this week
as compared with former weeks, but it is the
last week in the year and one day short at
that. Next week will also show few trans¬
actions.

Week   N.Y,    Am't.   No.     No. 33d     Am't.     No.

end    City       in-    Nom-    & •24th         in-      nom-

ing.  Cons,   volved    inal    Wards,     volved.     inal.

Dec                       S                                       35

7      215     3,377,768     64           14           3d,977          0

14      169     4,089.163    51            15           70,!i50          1

21       196     2,b42,;;37     60           26           38,118          7

23      135     2,359,918     47             9           12,365          2

Week Mort-    Am't,      No.      Am't.     No. to    Am't

end-   gag-         in-     Five         in-        T. &        in-

iug.     es.     volved. perct.   volved.  Ins Cos.  volvetl.

Dec.                  '  S                         S                         S

7'     232     2,351,983     53        609,258      56        922,450

14      178     2.368,864     27        628.500      40        961.300

21      2U     1,991,965     28        240,583      35        704,333

23      153     2,618,885     24        379,500      40        386,421





THE HARDWARE CENTRE.
It would seem as if the neighborhood of Cham¬
bers street, east of Broadway, was destined to
become, if indeed it is nofc already, the head¬
quarters of the hardware interest in this city.
The localization of the various leading commer¬
cial interests of New York is steadily going on.
Merchants find it far easier to go directly to the
neighborhood where the line of goods they need
can be found ratlier than run all over town picking
up their stock first in one place and then in another.
Among the firms in Chambers street which trans¬
act a large hardware business is that of Sar¬
gent & Co., Russell & Erwin M'fg Co., and the
John Russell Cutlery Company, No. ^^5 Chambers
street. This latter building, by the way, is about
to be improved. It runs through to Reade street,
and two new stories are to be added to it. The
tendency in this hardware trade, as in others, is
to do business by sample instead of keeping heavy
stocks on hand. Hence business offices are grow¬
ing in favor with investors in real estate. Apart¬
ment houses and Paris flats are very profitable,
but it is hard to satisfy the average American
woman; she is always worrying the landlord to
make improvements and repairs. The plumbing
needs fixing, the walls patching up and the paint¬
ing is never done. Not so with the down-town
business office. The American broker or mer¬
chant is generally too busy and preoccupied to
care how his office looks, so long as he can trans¬
act business without positive discomfort. The
deimand for offices is no longer confined to the
neighborhood of the Stock, Mining, Cotton and
Produce Exchanges. All the great industries
which are represented in New York are using
offices instead of stores, and these last are very
profitable. Eugene Kelly paid $350,000 for two
lots on the corner of Nassau and Beekman streets.
The building be erected thereon is a very costly
one, yet ifc is said it will net him a profit of '4O
per cent, per annum. We may expect, therefore,
that while profits such as these can be secured
that high buildings containing offices will con¬
tinue to be erected. The city has been an excel¬
lent customer for down-town offices, indeed; the
building No. 31 Chambers street Is now occupied
by the Department of Public Works, and there is
some talk of the reconstructed building No. 25
Chambers street being rented for municipal pur¬
poses. But in any event this locality is available
for the hardware trade.





New.York will have a new theatre in the one
which Mr. Wallack is to open next Wednesday
night in Broadway. II; is an admirably planned
buildiiig iii every respect.   One important iiuio-





vation is in the construction of a higher roof for
the stage than for the building, so that, in the
event of a fire, the draught wiU be up toward the
skylights aud the stage, instead of out in the
auditorium. There is to be an iron curtain bet¬
ween the stage and the audience, while the dress¬
ing rooms of the actors are in another building
away from the theatre. On the whole, our New
York theatres are reasonably secured against
fire.





MINING INFORMATION.

The Standard mine of Bodie has lately been
weak, selling down to $17. It was put upon this
market in 1S7S at $20 and $22.50. It has been to
$33 a share in price, but the present are the low¬
est figures at wliich it has ever been sold. The
Standard commenced paying dividends Septem¬
ber, 1877, which it has continued every month,
including this December. The mine has pro¬
duced about $7,100,000, and has paid out in divi¬
dends $3,300,000. The insiders say that the mine
is good for several years yet, and that, as devel¬
opments are far ahead of the workings, the divi¬
dends may continue for some time yet. But the
Standard has been a great mine as the product
proves; what it will be, time alone can deter¬
mine. A mine, unlike a factory or a raih-oad, is
not reproductive, it does not renew its riches.
The wealth taken out can never be put back into
it again; some time or other there will be a
period of exhaustion, how soon no one can tell.

There seems to be something wrong about
Bodie. The insiders are probably letting the
stock drop in order to purchase. There is un¬
questionably a great deal of splendid ore in the
Bodie mine, but the management is crooked and
the shareholders are at the mercy of the manipu¬
lators of the stock. The Cook Brothers, who have
had the management of the Standard, ought to
be kept in office. Certainly, so far as that mine
is concerned, the shareholders have no Itnown
cause of complaint. Bulwer has declared a sec¬
ond dividend of ten cents, and this dividend will
probably be kept up for a year to come. For a
long turn Oro and the Noondays, as well as Mono
and Bodie, look quite cheap.

Robinson has been vigorously kicked about
during the past week, the columns of the Tribune
being again used to unreasonably depress the
stock. The mine cannot all of a sudden have be¬
come worthless. Grood ore has been taken out of
it for a long time and there is doubtless some left;
besides Robinson includes eight promising claims.
There is some encouragement from Big Pitts¬
burg. Highland Chief is looking better, while
there is enough ore insight in Iron Silver to keep
up the present dividends for a year.

The news we hear from the Great Horn Silver
mine is mainly favorable. After many serious
blunders the management has finally succeeded
in getting a smelter who understands his busi¬
ness, and who will do the work economically. It
is a mine of wonderful richness, but contains
such a variety of ore that careful manipulation
is required to insure a profit.

There is some deviltry up in Silver Cliff. Dis¬
charged workmen say there was no reason for
the mill being shut down. It was part of a. game
to get people short of the stock, upon which the
mine was to be reopened, good results to be
brought out and the short interest twisted. This,
has been given out as a poiut in many offices.
The manipulators of Silver Chff are a set of first-
class rascals. Some of them have been imported
f rom^ CaHf ornia, but the rogues in the stock that
hail from Colorado and ;New York are about as
smart and quite as good at swindling as their
Pacific coast associates. People with money they
can't aflEord to lose should let the stock severely
alone.

That suit about the Dunderberg Company
tells the story. The persons who got up this deal
did not come from the Pacific Coast, nor did they
learn their business in Colorado. They were
bankers and retired merchants, who were repiited
to.bf high-tonedi and above suspicion. But see
what they did,; The insiders; purchased certain
milling  properties  for  |242,000,      They   then