■Januai^ a3i 1900;





RECOliD AJSD   GUIDE.





45







ESTABUSHED ^ lARRf H Sl^A 1968,

"de^tiD to Rem Estate .BuiLDirfc AR-ofiTEcruRE .^(ousEKom DE6(2;jiiDifc
BtfsuJESs a(Jd Themes of GEfJERsl Interest.;

PRICE   PER   YEAR    IN    ADVANCE   SIX    DOLLARS.

I'lib'ishcd    iiHry    SaUirdiiy.
TSLBniOKK,                                                   COTiTI.AXllT 1S70.

Communioaiinns should  be addressed  tn

C. W. SWEET, 14-lG Vesey Street,
/.   T.   LINDSEY,   Business  Manager.





••Enccrod al. t/ie fos'-Offtw al New Tori.; N. Y.. as scco''<l-ilasn mallrr."





Vol. XliV.





JANUARY 13. 1900.





■  No. 16G1,





▼ T was hardly likely that the stock market could remain weak
i under the changed conditions that tbe money mai-ket pre¬
sents. Not only have the standard European discounts heen
reduced this week, but tbe local market has for the moment a
larger supply of money than it needs. It is, therefore, in order
that those who prefer the long side of the market should take
courage and put new life into things. Money is likely to be easy
for the next sixty days, and that ought to make a bull movement
easy, especially considering tbe big decline that has been forced
all along the line by the series of minor panics that began with
Governor Flower's withdrawal from tbe market last summer
and bis death almost immediately thereafter. It is not in the
nature of things speculative that one tendency should prevail
indefinitely. ' We have now had practically seven or enght
months of a bear market, produced by over-speculation on the
long side here, and intensified by a series of unfortunate events,
all keenly felt by the security markets abroad; and, in the
absence of organic trouble, the time for a change should have
arrived. Except for the continuation of the struggle in the
sugar trade, which is relatively of quite moderate importance,
the business prospect is not one that should create gloomy
views. There ia nothing discouraging in the reports from the
great trade centres, or from the legislatures. Trusts of course
^e the subject of a good deal of talk, but as the securities
■■classed under that head have been the severest sufferers in the
late declines, and as tbe difBcuIties surrounding the subject as
well as good policy preclude the possibility of vigorous action
.against institutions so directly and largely contributing to tbe
prosperity of the community, that ought not to create alarm.
Even from abroad, on the mere theory of probabilities, we ought
to get good news. Altogether the outlook is very much im¬
proved from what it was in a quite recent past.





NEXT Monday cannot far! to be a very interesting day In
the history of the development of rapid transit in this
■city. This is not merely because it is the day when the bids for
constructing the rapid transit railroad are to be opened, but be¬
cause it will most probably determine whether the building will
be done by a contractor, with the city financing the project
merely, or whether it will be municipally constructed and
financed. Of course none can say whether any of the bids to be
received will be satisfactory or not. It is said that at least one
or two of them "will merit" serious consideration. Be that as it
may, it ia not possible to think that the city administration will,
In the event of none of the bids being acceptable, drop the
project. This would be too cruel a disappointment to inflict upon
the public and a violation of the administration's pledges to
put the work physically under way. A failure of satisfactory
bids would, therefore, be followed by an application to the Leg¬
islature for power to build, in addition to the power already pos¬
sessed to issue bonds for the work. This would delay matters
Gomewhat, but it would save the situation. The question of the
propriety of creating tunnel communication beaween the bor¬
oughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn has got itself attached to that
of rapid transit in Manhattan and the Bronx to some extent,
and in the form^ it has thus taken is not so objectionable as it was
at its birth. Mayor Van Wyck's statement that it would require
eight tunnels to afford the same facilities to traffic as a bridge
would do, and his expressed preference for the latter, cannot
encourage the advocates of the tunnels; but there might not
be any great objection to creating an opportunity for the con¬
struction of a tunnel, on a business basis, at a point where a
bridge is impracticable. As to the demand that work on the
rapid transit railroad be so arranged that the upper part of the
■city shall be served as soon as the lower, that seems a case in





which the oid caution, first catch your hare before you cook it,
applies. President Orr's reply to the representatives of the
upper sections of the city, in effect that, providing a willing
contractor can be found and tbe city is able to spend the money,
all four sections will be begun at the same time, ought to be
satisfactory.^





Residence  Buildings and   Buying.

CLUBS   ON   UPPER   5TH   AVENUE—HISTORICAL   INTEREST   OF
A COMING SALE.

DISAPPOINTING as regards other classes of property the
week's brokerage reports give assurance of a continuance
cif tbe demand for private houses. Purchases for improvement
were below the recent average in volume and importance. So also
were the sales of flats and tenements. Two new 7-story elevator
apartments were disposed of, but considering the number on the
market, this is not a very impressive showing. Mercantile prop¬
erty was wholly neglected. The transactions in private houses,
however, were fairly numerous, and included some of rather ex¬
ceptional interest, transactions, furthermore, not confined to any
particular locality. A dwelling on the north corner of Sth avenue
and 83d street was sold by Daniel E. Seybel to "William Salomon,
of Speyer & Co. Mr. Salomon, in turn, sold to J. Pierpont Mor¬
gan a plot on the north side of 36th street, east of Madison ave¬
nue, adjacent to- Mr, Morgan's residence on the corner, from
which it is sepai'ated by an alleyway. W: W. & T. M, Hall sold
the last of their row of three new dwellings on Riverside drive,
at STth street, and Joseph A. Farley sold the last of a row ot
seven in 108th street, between Riverside drive and Broadway,
These transactions direct attention to several distinct private
house localities which are very much in the public eye. Since
last spring a hundred dwellings, more or less, have been put
under construction in the five blocks hounded by Riverside drive,
West End avenue, and Broadway, 104th and 109th streets, while
the operations in tbe eighties and nineties, in and off the Drive,
are on an equally conspicuous scale. The Murray Hill district
is being transformed architecturally by the displacement or re¬
modeling of the old brownstone highstoop houses of the past
generation of speculative builders.

Fifth avenue opposite the park contributed, besides the afore¬
mentioned sale, the very important announcement that the Prog¬
ress Club, at the north corner of 63d street, purposes to remove
to a less expensive site. The removal will not take place before
the 5th avenue premises are sold; these are about to be put in the
hands of brokers, certain of whom have been approached oa the
subject. Upper Sth avenue is too remote and land values there
are too high to encourage its use for club sites. The plot, 100x100,
owned by the Progress, is worth, on a conservative estimate, ?665,-
000, without the building. The club would hardly sell the prop¬
erty for the value of tbe land alone. But it Is difiicult tO' see to
what new use the building can be put, except, possibly, that of an
apartment hotel. However, the property lies in the very choicest
part of the avenue, a part in which there is no other corner In
the market, so that there is always the possibility of a multi¬
millionaire being found willing to pay a fair price for a build¬
ing which he would strightway proceed to tear down. Corners
were thoroughly canvassed for Howard Gould, who wanted to
make his home below 70th street, and who compromised on a
73d street corner.                                                                          ^

The executors' sale of tbe estate of the late George B. Whitfield,
conducted by William Kennelly, on Wednesday, resulted in the
purchase of the larger part of the property by heirs. Simon
Sterns, an outsider, who secured the northwest corner of 2d ave¬
nue and 25th street, 25.SslOO, containing two 5-story flats with
stores, for $51,250, owns abutting property, a fact which throws
light on the value he placed on his purchase. Tbe offerings were
is no way notable, except for the fact that they were the only
voluntary offerings of the week. The coming executors' sale of
the estate of the late Charles H. Contoit by Peter F. Meyer, how¬
ever, is of the very first interest in respect both of the character
of the property and its historical associations. Charles H, Con¬
toit was the son of the famous founder and proprietor of Con-
toit's Garden, at No. 353 to 357 Broadway, included in the
schedule. There is now none of the family left, and the pro¬
ceeds of the sale go to charity. President Monroe died in No.
63 Prince street, and Bishop Hughes and Dr, Hobarth, the Roman
Catholic dignitaries, lived and died in No. 65 Prince street, before
tbe Cathedral was removed uptown, and when fashion still re¬
sided on the lower East Side.





IT was pretty widely expected that the outcome of the agita¬
tion last fall would be an attempt this year in Albany to
revise tbe new Building Code, if indeed the attack did not go so
far as to propose its complete abrogation.   This was not because