June 24, 1905





RECORD AND  GUIDE





1367





<^^              \           ESTABUSHED-^M^BPHaiVXieee,

Dev&teD id RfA.L Estate.BmLDTf/o Ap&KiTEeTUR,E.KousEHoU)DEe<HfcTio»t,
B[fsl^/Ess Alto Themes of GeiJERfl IKIW?*!.;

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS

Publisfied   every   Saturday

Communications ahouid oe addressed to
C. W. SWEET.   14-16 Vesey Street, New Yorfc

Teleplione. Cortlandt 3157

"Entered at the Post Office at mw Tori: 2^^. Y.. as second-class matler."

Copyright by the Eeal Estate Record and Eailders' Oalde Company.

Vol,   LXXV.                      JUNE 24,   1905,                        No.   1945.





INDEX  TO  DEPARTMENTS.
(Advertising Section,)





Cement   ..............

Clay Products   .........

Contractors and  Builders

Fireproofing..........

Heating   ..............

Iron and Steel   .........





Kli       Machinery    ....

vi       Melal Work___

tii       Real Eslate  . , . ,

;iv       Slone    .........

iil       Wood  Products











THE stock market has been showing signs during the week
of a certain amount of strength, and even of a little ani¬
mation, and it may well be that hereafter it will present better
opportimilies for successful speculation. It is stated that the
leading banking interests who withdrew their support from
the market in the spring are again ready to support a moderate
advance in stocks, and the renewed buying of Steel shares
indicates that less danger is apprehended from that quarter. Of
course the fact remains that even after the recent decline there
are very few first-class railway stocks which pay much over
four per cent, interest. This rate of interest has not
up to date proved to be sufficiently attractive to in¬
vestors, and apparently the railroads must both distribute a
larger percentage of their earnings and continue to show in¬
creases in traffic receipts before non-professional capitalists
will be tempted to buy. It remains to be seen whetlier these in¬
ducements will be offered in sufficient quantities to warrant a
bull campaign. But there seems to be a fair prospect that such
will be the case. The outlook is all for a good yield of grain,
which will be sold at fair prices, and such a consummation
should have an effect on general business which will bring
about the increasing railway and industrial earnings necessary
to justify an increasing rate of distribution. No sharp rise in
prices is to be expected, but it looks as if during the next few
months the trading would be upwards.





THE real estate market has failed to present any new points
of interest during the week. The voliime of current busi¬
ness continues to be large, and it continues to be confined chiefly
to improved properties. Nevertheless, tenement house buiiding
continues at a rapid rate, and the indications are that more
money will be spent during the year on this class of improve¬
ment than during any year in the previous history of the city.
Private residences remain in good demand, and every offering,
uf Bronx lots which comes upon the market is readily absorbed
at good prices. This BroDX property has the benefit of a
lively interest on the part of local residents which does not
often exist in Manhattan. It is improbable that the operation
of the mortgage tax law will do anything to injure the volume
of current business. In fact, it ia plainly foreshadowed that
the increased burden of taxation can be carried for the present
without much strain. The mortgage companies are already of¬
fering tax-free mortgages, and it wiil be interesting to see at
what rate they can sell these securities. A more serious handi¬
cap is the danger that the Board of Aldermen may succeed in
delaying the preparation of a new system of subways. The ex¬
tensive activity in real estate is partly conditioned on the ex¬
pectation that subway extensions will continue to be made here¬
after with promptness and regularity, and if it happens that the
Aldermen succeed in their attempt to delay the construction
of the new subways, the real estate market would in certain
directions suffer from a noticeable check.
------*-------

OWING to the flgures respecting the assessed valuation of
property transferred, which the Record and Guide has
been publishing for almost a year, it is now possible to calcu¬
late with approximate accuracy the aggregate value of the Man¬
hattan real estate which will  be  transferred  in  the course of





the current year. Up to the end of the second week in June
the assessed valne of tbe 11,911 parcels, the conveyances of
which were recorded, was $392,157,434, so that the average as¬
sessed value of each parcel was about $36,300. But this sum
total of assessments by no means represents the full value of
the properties. The official appraisements are supposed to rep¬
resent about 90 per cent, of the selling value, but the figures
siiow that such is not the case. Since January 1st some 924
conveyances have been recorded in which the considerations
were expressed, and the sum tota! of these considerations was
$45,892,734. These flgures indicate that the assessed valuation
of the real estate in Manhattan is still only about 70 per cent,
of its real value; and if such is the case, the full value of the
real property transferred during the flrst half of 1905 will
amount to over $500,000,000, while the average value of the real
estate conveyed by each deed is not far from $48,000. Inas¬
much as ten years ago the average value of each parcel con¬
veyed was about ?25,000, it will be seen that in the meantime
there has been an increase in the lotal value of Manhattan prop¬
erty amounting to almost IOO per cent. It must not be sup¬
posed, however, that the foregoing flgures represent the
amount of real estate which has actually changed hands during
the past six months. In these days of active trading many
transfers are made by contract which never appear in the rec¬
ords, and the total value of the Manhattan property which will
change ownership in the current year will probably be over
rather than  under $1,000,000,000.





The Hotels of Manhattan.

THE deflnitive announcement that the Plaza Hotel is to be
reconstructed at an early date and turned into a thor¬
oughly modern and completely equipped New York hotel again
calls attention to the changes that are taking place in the clas¬
sification and distribution of this class of building in Man¬
hattan, One by one the older hotels are being torn down and
their places taken by newer and better buildings, situated
farther uptown in a much wider variety of locations. Within
the memory of men not yet past the prime of life the ma¬
jority of New York hotels occupied sites south of Madison
Square and along the line of Broadway, Of the large number
which used to do business south of Fourth street all have dis¬
appeared except the Astor House and the Broadway Central,
and these have come to be used exclusively by business men.
There were never many hotels between Union and Madison
squares, and of these, two, viz.; the Everett House and the Con¬
tinental, still linger, but the land on which they are located
will undoubtedly, and before a great while, be covered by fif¬
teen-story loft buildings. On Madison square the Fifth Avenue
still holds its own; but within the next few years one of two
things will undoubtedly happen; either the Fifth Avenue will
degenerate into a temporary lodging house for commercial
travellers or else a huge offlce building will be erected in its
place. The company which proposed to erect a tweny-story
hotel on the site of the old Brunswick has come to the con¬
clusion that the site is not so available as was thought for hotel
purposes, and it is considering whether a better disposition
cannot be made of the property. The enormous cost of hold¬
ing this Fifth avenue frontage in its present unimproved con¬
dition would not be paid had not its owners reached the con¬
clusion that the land was more valuable for business pur¬
poses.

The fact is that one may safely go further and assert that
ten years from now very few first-class hotels intended chiefly
for transients will be found south of about Thirty-second street.
The older Broadway hotels in the twenties are rapidly disap¬
pearing. The old St, Jaraes went years ago. The Metropolitan
is soon to be replaced by a loft building. The Gilsey House can
hardly be made to pay. This section of Broadway 'is obviously
destined to be used chiefiy by the wholesale trade. Its im¬
portant theatres and restaurants have not a very long life re¬
maining to them, and the neighborhood of large,loft build¬
ings will not be any better adapted to first-class, hotels. It is
true that recently the Hotel Breslin, which is first-class in every
respect, was erected on Broadway in this vicinity, but we can¬
not help thinking that the selection of this class of building
for this location was something of a mistake. It may hold its
own for a good many years because it is an attractive and a
modern building: but whether a success or a failure, its sur¬
roundings will be against it. The wholesale trade is bound
within ten years to push up into this region and occupy it, A
little farther north, in the immediate vicinity of Herald square,
hotels such as the Imperial and the Waldorf-Astoria have an
indefinite lease of prosperity ahead of them, because the
wholesale trade cannot afford to take possession of such a
neighborhood as this and because the Pennsylvania terminal
will   eventually   make   its   vicinity   particularly   available   for