496





The Record and Guide.





May 10, 1884





every department of business are all agreed on one point, tbat
New York real estate not only offers a safe but an at tractive field for
money investments. The rich and all who are luxuriously inclined,
from every part of the Union, find tbeir way to New York. Our
places of amusement are equal to the best iu London and Paris.
Our city has become attractive from every point of view. It is tho
great summer watering place as well as the choicest of winter resi¬
dences. No other city can afford sucb an opportunity for a buai¬
ness man, or those who want to be interested or amused. It is the
headquarters, too, of all speculative enterprises. Onr Produce,
Cotton, Mining, Petroleum, Mercantile, Coffee, Metal and other
Exchanges vie witb the stock market itself in the variety and mag¬
nitude of their transactions. A great Real Estate Exchange will soon
be in operation, and then, more than ever, will dealings in realty
become popular and profitable.





Around the Produce Exchange.

While the enormous building of the Produce Exchange has been
under construction we have from time to time offered such com¬
ments upon its architecture as seemed to be called for. Now that
it is completed and opened, there is nothing in these to be modified,
and nothing to be added to them, except to remark upon the
singularity of treatment by which it has been attempted to convert
the obscure and secluded rear of the building into the moat monu¬
mental, indeed tbe only monumental, portion of the design, A
tower which is purely monumental haa been built in the rear, and
not even at the corner but withdrawn up an alley. On the north
Bide of tbia tower is a considerable area of ground which has been
reserved apparently for the purpose of securing a good ligbt for
the east side of the building. This space is converted into a paved
plaza, with the heating apparatus of tbe building underneath, and
haa been laid oufc with broad flights of granite steps at the north
end, and heavy balusfcraded railings of tbe same material. This
might constitute a dignified approach if it were at the principal
front of tbe building or even faced a broad street. But ifc can be
gained or even seen only through a low vaulted passage at one end
or an alley at the other, so that it is amusingly incongruous with
the plainness of the entrances of the principal fronts ; as if one
■were to lavish all the decoration of his house upou the kitchen
door.

The tower seems to be purely monumental, since an edifice of
this kind, considered merely as a dwelling for a janitor, must be
admitted to be extravagant. It contains a clock, to be sure, but by
reason of the sequestered situation of tbe tower the utility of the
clock will be conflned to tbe people wbo approach the building
from the rear. Considered as a monumental tower its situation
is particularly unfortunate, since from no point of view does it
dominate the building, or seem even to belong to the building
except by the similarity of color and treatment. By itself, how¬
ever, it is an impressive object by its size and massiveness, and
in some measm-e by its design also. In general form it suffers,
like the building to which it ia adjoined, from having no viaible
roof, and this privation is emphasized instead of being relieved
by the structure at its centre, which makes the tower look even
more like an unfinished edifice thau itwould otherwise appear.
From the basement, which is pierced with au arch opening into
a tuunel vault through the tower, up to the clock stage, the only
relief to the solid square shaft is afforded by the openings which
follow the line of the stairway, and by the string courses wJiich run
through, forming the springing^course of one opening aud the sill
course of the opening next above. On a small scale, in a building
treated expressively and picturesquely, as the Produce Exchange
eminently is not, this is often a very attractive feature, but it is
scarcely a motive for the treatment of a tower of this size
attached to a building treated with tbis pseudo-classical formality
and symmetry. The clock stage is scarcely lighter or m»re open
than the shaft below, tnough it has au apparent balcony-in each
face ; but it is very mucb enriched by panelling below the spring¬
ing of tbe tower arches and by decorated spandrils and panels
above. This work is perhaps the best detail in the building,
abstractly considered, if detail can be abstractly considered. It
is alao very well adjusted in scale to ita height, and being a visible
inlay it is mucb more appropriate to terra cotta than the preposter¬
ously projecting cornices, which are the most conspicuous details
of the main building.

During tbe progress of the great building, its effect upon real
estate in the neighborhood has been anticipated by the erection
of a number of warehouses and office buildings in the neighbor¬
hood. Just below the ;Excbangt> a seven or eight-story building
has been erected which, by contrast with tbe excellent warehouse
we noticed las; week near tbe Brooklyn Bridge, shows how desira¬
ble it is to bave an artist to design even the most prosaic buildings.
Without a single ornament, as we then saw, and simply by the dis¬
position of parts and the emphasis of an ordinaiy construction an
excellent effect has been produced. This building has some orna¬
ment, notably a cornice and parapet in terra cotta or tin painted





to that effect, and very bad ornament it is. Otherwise it consists
merely of a basement ivitb arches in granite and brick, and a
superstructure in red brick alone, with segmental arches and jambs
slightly projected from the plane of the wall, apparently witb the
intention of producing an effect of depth w^hich is not produced,
but might easily have been produced by aettiig the windows back
a few inches and permitting the thickness of the wall to be felt.
The openings are not grouped at all, nor modelled at all, and the
result is a very thin and stupid looking box.

In Beaver street, just below the Exchange, there is a 25-foot
front in blue stone and red brick, which'is a typical example of what
a commercial building ehould not be. It ia a house front designed
in the Dutch domestic Renaissance with the bloated grotesqueness
of that style, which has a charm in a dwelling when it is done
with spirit, or even in a shop front wbich is also a house front, auch
as is often found in Germany and the Low countries. But uothing
could be less appropriate to a moderu place of business in Beaver
street. The "Ticker" might as well be set to grinding out old-
fashioned madrigals. The quaint omaniention is worse than
thrown away. Besides it is not good of its kind, and though it
is worse on tbe front of an office building than it would be on a
house front, it would be a bad house frout in the most appropriate
situation that could be chosen for it.

On the other hand, the German Society haa just finished a build¬
ing on lower Broadway, which is distinctly a place of business.
Three brick piers enclose two tiers, four stories high, of square-
headed openinga all alike, wifch brown stone lintels and mullions.
There is no ornament and indeed there is no art about the build¬
ing. It is not a particularly agreeable object to contemplate, but
it is so simple and straightfor ward that it cannot be offensive or
ridiculous, and it is absolutely without pretension.





Was Real Estate Speculation to Blame?

The Commercial Bulletin is usually wise and discriminating in
discussing trade and financial questions, but in the follo\cing para¬
graph it does not show the same intelligence in real estate matters:

The suspension yesterday of the Marine National Dank, owiue to the
apeculationa of its president in real eatale, ia a sigoiflcant symptom. Fol¬
lowiug the failure Iwo .weeks ago of a prominent private operalor in the
eame Hoe of biiaineBS, it indiuHtes tbe strained condition of real estate
spocnlatioQ which has long been patent to disinterested obser7era. It is
a rule iu all great commercial reacliona tbat real estate ia the last to feel
the effects of tho general decline in values ; and hence experienced observ¬
ers who remember the series of events started by the panic of 1873 have
looked for BUch a fall id the values of real estate as has already occurred
in respect to commodities and manufactures at large. Keal estate is the
last interest that conld be expected to escape the general fall in valoes ;
for in nothing has there been such an excess as in the structure of dwell¬
ings, flTitis, oflice stractures and pnblic buildings, aud in those of the more
coatly and luxurious kind. Nothing haa .been learned from the manifest
over-production on every hand nor from the prevailing depreaeion. and
Ihe conatruction of new buildings is, up to to-day, cairied on with an
energy which haa kept wages and materials from sympathizing wilh the
general decline. But, at last, the inevitable crisis appears to have oome
when lendere refuse to advance on auch undertakitiga;; and that ia likely
to be the beginning of the end.

There is a curious mixture of truth and error in the above. The
Marine Bank failed not because of the real estate ventures of its
president but on account of the reckless and dishonest conduct
of one of the members of the firm of Grant & Ward, a concern which
had nothing to do with real estate. Mr. Fish's investments in real
estate were very large and generally wise although the heavy mort¬
gages he has recently assumed caused much comment in real estate
circles. His bank would undoubtedly bave pulled through all right
were it not for the reckless overcertification of the checks of the
junior member of the firm of Grant & Ward.

If the Bulletin would consult the tables given in last week's
Record and Guide, it would see that the dealinga in realty has been
30 far perfectly legitimate. The proportion of the mortgage indebted¬
ness now being created is far leaa thau in former years and altbough
the monies invested are the largest known iu (he history of the
city, it is notorious tbat prices are not high and that there is no
speculative fever. In another article we have pointed oufc the fact
that our businesa community ia investing in real estate instead of
in stocka and Wall atreet securities. It may be that too much
money is being put into large city apartment housea and business
offices but errors of judgment of thia kind are conflned to a few
wealthy persons and institutions. Investors are showing good
judgment and are purchasing productive store and residence
property. There is no danger of real estate being overdone until the
price of unimproved lots 'is swollen to an unnatural figure. So
far vacant property is slow of sale^and does not command high
prices.______________

A surface railway oa Forty-aecond street is now in order. An
organization has been effected, and property-holders are being
requested to sanction the laying of tbe rails. There ought to be no
impediment to the early construction of thia desirable improve¬
ment.    A Forty-second street road would crosa all the princi-