September 14, 1912





RECORD AND GUIDE





483





formed like life Insurance companies, on a
mutual plan? Building and loan associa¬
tions have, of course. Introduced the ad-
A'antages of co-operation into house build¬
ing; but such associations have rarely
been united with the development of par¬
ticular pieces of land. It looks as if the
time were ripe for some such association—
for the formation of co-operative develop¬
ment companies which would share their
profits with its purchasers, and by means
of community action strengthen subur¬
ban life on its weakest side by providing
many conveniences and economics which
are beyond the reach of the isolated in¬
dividual family.





The Week in Real Estate.

The business of the private sales market
this week was very limited, and contained
no items of special interest. The inactiv¬
ity was accounted for in large measure by
the Jewish holidays. The week, howeyer,
was productive of news of first rate im¬
portance bearing on real estate properties.
This was the crop report of the Depart¬
ment of Agriculture, which is discussed In
some detail on another page.

The report, coupled with evidence from
various industries regarded as barometric,
confirm the general belief that the country
is about to enter a new period of large
activity in commerce and manufactures.
The condition in agriculture disclosed by
the report adds a basic element to the
analogy which had already begun to de¬
velop between the current business situa¬
tion and that of 1897. In the autumn ot
that year were noted the first strong cur¬
rents of business revival which introduced
the subsequent decade of general prosper¬
ity.

Time will, of course, be required for the
community to recover its normal purchas¬
ing power before any general moA'ement
will take place in real estate. How soon i^
such a movement to be expected? If we
fall back on experience, next year should
be a dull year. In 1898 real estate was de¬
cidedly quiet, both as regards transfers
and building operations. Capital was
scarce, being "drafted away from real
estate partly by the Spanish-American
war but more especially by the strong de¬
mand for funds in other branches of busi¬
ness.

The flrst marked symptom of recovery
in the real estate market was observed in
January, 1899, when two notable auction
sales were held on the same day in the
old Real Estate Salesroom, at 111 Broad¬
way. These were the sales of the King
and Bathgate estates, the former embrac¬
ing flfty-five building sites, mostly just
north of Central Park, and the latter 144
vacant lots, mainly in the Tremont sec¬
tion of the Bronx.

The report of the sales, printed in the
Record and Guide of Jaimary 14, 1899,
reads in part: "That a turning point has
been reached, ... is the conclusion
universally drawn from the results of the
King anti Bathgate estates' sales on
Tuesday last. What that result would be
was largely a matter of conjecture. Good
judges of the market doubted the possibil¬
ity of disposing of upward of a million
dollars' worth of property in one day
without  serious  sacrifice  of  values.

"The unexpectedly high prices ob¬
tained at Tuesday's great sale illustrates
the tendency frequently observed in the
real estate market after a period of de¬
pression for the disinterested public to be
the flrst to recognize the true value of
property. For years past owners and ap¬
praisers have been marking down values
so as to overcome the unreadiness of the
public to buy. And now that capital again
seeks the realty market by virtue of the
reaction of economic conditions, the pro¬
fessional appraiser is surprised to learn
that, during the years when he has been
marking down real estate, real estate has
quietly been absorbing value trom public
and private improvements, a fall in the
interest rate, and a thousand and one
other indirect and more or less obscure
agencies."

The sales, it should be noted, were of
building sites, and the buyers were ex¬
clusively loan operators and builders. The
sales foreshadowed the building boom of
1899, They were a reflection of the new
speculative temper of the market, and had
no bearing on investment buying, which
did not develop until considerably later.
They are referred to here to show just
when the flrst large current of activity
was observed. It is not likely, however,
that we shall have to wait a whole year
now for a similar current to develop. At
that time the only special factor tending
to ln(iuce building was the recent intro¬
duction in uptown streets of electric power
for elevators in apartment houses. To¬
day the rapid transit situation is a far
more effective stimulant. There is every
reason to believe  that  we  shall have  a





prosperous and generally active building
year in 1913, and with numbers of new
buildings contemplated, there is certain to
be a lively demand for sites. As to just
when investment buying will reach large
proportions, indications are not clear; but
there can be little doubt with respect to
professional and speculative enterprise.

The cost of buiiding materials this week
continued to move upward. Even com¬
mon brick stiffened under slightly im¬
proved buying, although that market is
still nervous.

So long as steel continues to go up,
other buiiding materials will follow. This
will make costs of construction somewhat
higher next winter and next spring, but
industrial conditions are shaping them¬
selves so favorably that, despite the rise
in prices, construction work will go ahead
on a large scale because the demand for
new buiiding space will be there.

Suburban construction work has been
below the average this year. This is par¬
ticularly true of New Jersey. In New
York proper, exclusive of Richmond,
Building Department statistics show a
total of 8,557 new buildings projected, as
against 9,123 in the same period last year.
In New Jersey the falling off in new
building operations has been 47 per cent,
and in Westchester 12 per cent,

■With such a showing it is not possible
to charge the metropolitan district with
over-construction in 1912, The result
should be the absorption of all a\ailable
renting space this October, and before the
first of the year a very considerable de¬
mand for new living quarters should be
apparent, not only in the city, but in
the suburbs as well.

At least, that is the way the building
material interests have flgured it out, and
they are such strong believers in this
basis of computation that they are ac¬
tually loading in anticipation of heavy
demand and higher buiiding material
prices. News from manufacturing cen¬
ters in practically every basic line of
building material is to the effect that pro¬
duction is running near to capacity, but
that light stocks are being carried, be¬
cause such is the demand for immediate
delivery that premiums are being made
on guaranteed deliveries in such lines as
roofing tile, architectural terra cotta, some
types of terra cotta fireproofing and floor¬
ing, up to March 1.

Architects' boards are well filled, ac¬
cording to Dodge reports, and the pros¬
pects for improving real estate bought
this year on speculation, both in and out
of the city, are A'ery fa\-orabIe to winter
business.

Building managers are worried over the
coal outlook. The managers of numerous
large office buildings in New A'ork and
Newark are reserving all the coal they
can get, even at premiums, in anticipa¬
tion of a possible rise in the price of this
commodity should early winter weather
set in before the mines succeed in making
up a part, at least, of the 5,000,000 ton
shortage reported from Pennsylvania.
Prices remain steady, however, on Clear¬
field and Cambria (iounty soft, largely
used by factories and by some transpor¬
tation lines, and this is where the heav¬
iest drain is now centered in anticipation
of a possible advance. Building contrac¬
tors who use coal for air compression and
hoisting Jjurposes will do well to protect
themselves in this commodity at the ear¬
liest possible date.





How the City Is Meeting the Need For
Schools in the Bronx.

Editor of tJie Record and Guide :

The late Mark Twain used to say that,
"It was better not to know so many;
things, than to know so many things
which ain't so." I notice of late in .sev¬
eral of the local papers various resolu¬
tions such as are usualy offered by Mr.
Wiseman, calling attention to the lack of
school accommodations in the borouglii
and intimating that the Board of Educa¬
tion and the Board of Estimate have been
remiss in furnishing sucli facilities. In
order' that these gentlemen may speak
with knowledge hereafter I beg leave to
submit a few facts.

The agitation for more schools is justi¬
fied but belated. The Bronx is reaping
the results of the neglect of a former
municipal administration. Some of the
accommodations for which we are now
waiting should have been provided five
years ago. The machinery employed in
securing public improvements is ponder¬
ous and complicated and turns out a pro¬
duct slowly. Practically nothing was done
for school accommodations for four years
prior to January 1, 1910. The present
Board of Estimate was installed on Jan¬
uary 1, 1910. On the Bth of May following
it made its flrst appropriation for new
Bronx schools, authorizing the expendi¬
ture of $300,000 for new P. S. 46, Bain¬
bridge  aA'enue  and   196th   street   (opened





last April), and of $240,000 for new P. S,
44, Prospect avenue and 176th street
(opened September, 1911). The June fol¬
lowing it authorized $4,500 for portable
buildings for P, S. 8, Bedford Park.

Since then there has been a constant
succession of similar appropriations,
among which are the following:

1.    June 3, 1910. Addition to P. S.
40, Prospect avenue and Jen¬
nings street, 12 classrooms (oc¬
cupied   November,   1911)........-  $96,600

2.    June 10, 1910. Addition to P.
S. 3, 157th street, east of
Courtlandt  avenue   ............  $55,200

3.    June 10,  1910,     Equipment  for

new P. S, 16, Wakefield........ $50,320

4.    June 29, 1910, New P, S. 47,
Randolph street and Ham¬
mond avenue.  (Ready October

7,  1912)   .'.........................$300,000

5.    Nov. 11, 1910, P. S. 30, 141st
street and Brook avenue. Con¬
struction  work   ................  $22,858

6.    Addition, P, S, 39, Longwood
avenue  and  Kelly   street......$182,744

7.    December 22, 1910. Pour port¬
able buildings between Foster

and  Faile  streets...............    $5,400

8.    Addition, P, S. 43, Brown place

•  and 135th street.................  $83,500

9.    March 9, 1911.    Addition to P.

S.  20, Fox street................  $48,710

10.    July 17, 1911. Building and site
to be acquired in the vicinity
of Union avenue and Bast
155tli street  .....................$366,030

11.    July 17, 1911. Building and site
to be acquired in the vicinity
of Tinton avenue and 163d
street    ...........................$366,030

12.    July 17, 1911. Building and site
to be acquired in the vicinity
of Teller avenue and 168th
street. <New P. S, 53 now
building)    .......................$366,030

13.    July 17, 1911. New P. S. 50,
now building, 172d street, Bry¬
ant and "Vyse avenues.........$385,630

14.    July 17, 1911. Addition to P. S.
30, 141st street and Brook ave¬
nue     .............................$111,000

15.    December 14, 1911. Site for new
High School, 184th street and
Morris avenue   .................  $65,000

16.    December 21, 1911. Site for new
school at Kelly street between
AA'enue St. John and Leggett
avenue    .........................  $75,000

17.    January 15, 1912.    Site for new
school,    158th    street    between            '
Trinity and Jackson  avenues,  $60,250

18.    1911,     New   P.   S,   45   (nearly            I
completed), 189th and Hoffman
streets    .................",........$280,260

19.    1912, New building and site to
acquired in the vicinity of
207th street. Perry and Hull
aA'enues    ........................$147,800

20.    1912. New building and site to
be acquired in the vicinity of
170th street and Washington
avenue   ..........................$434,025

21.    Summer, 1912. . Renting of St.
Paul's Parish House, St.
Paul's place and Washington
avenue, 6 classes, per annum..    $2,100

22.    Summer,      1912.    _   Renting     of
Prospect       Avenue       M.       B.
Church,   Prospect   avenue  and
Macy place, 130 pupils.

23.    Summer, 1912, Renting of Cen¬
tenary M. E. Church, Wash¬
ington avenue and 166th street.
116 pupils.

Further proceedings pending for the in¬
crease of school accommodations are as
follows:

24.    An addition of eight class¬
rooms to P. S. 42, 'Washington
and Wendover avenues. Ap¬
plication from Board of Edu¬
cation for corporate stock now

pending before Board of Esti¬
mate   ............................  $75,400

25.    The erection of 16 or 24 class¬
room building on the westerly
side of P, S, 4, 173d street and
Fulton avenue. Referred to
Board of Education by Local
School Board, and now pend¬
ing before Board of Superin¬
tendents,

26.    The erection of new building
on site to be acquired in the
vicinity of 165th street and
Woodycrest avenue. Applica-
cation from Board of Educa¬
tion for corporate stock now
pending before Board of Esti¬
mate,

27.    The erection of four portable
buildings at P. S. 14 and P. S.
26. Corporate stock Issue
pending.

28.    Erection of new buiiding on
site to be acquired in the
vicinity of 172d street and Sea¬
bury place. Requested.by Local
School Board. Pending before
Board of Superintendents,