i90





RECORD AND   GUIDE.





October 20, 1900.





increasing number of moderately rich men. Such men when
they want a house of a special design and plan are often obliged
to tear down some existing brown stone residence in order to
get tt, and In this way a good many blocks are being transformed
in sections which are quite untouched by the pressure of busi¬
ness.   No doubt the process will be indefinitely continued.





Fourth  Avenue.

WHAT WILL THB NEAR FUTURE DO FOR IT?

THERE is no up-and-down—as distinguished from cross-
town—thoroughlare that is so reluctant to respond to
the modern demand lor change as Fourth avenue. Here and
there it has the appearance of having been prodded into tem¬
porary wakefulness, but as a whole it Is sluggish and sleepy,
while parallel arteries ol travel are lully aiive and undergoing
rapid translormation in response to the active spirit of the
times. Most ol the abutting buildings look like mines lor pro¬
ducing the avenue's principal staple of industry—antique fur¬
niture and bric-a-brac—and which will not change until they
are worked out and all their produce sold. Meanwhile, how¬
ever, the thoroughfare itself is rapidly increasing in traffic,
though a traffic largely originated elsewhere, and the fact that
the rapid transit railroad is to run under it with stations at
Fourteenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-third and Twenty-eighth
and Thirty-third streets, suggests the query whether tlie abutting
property is not also about to receive its awakening.

It may be as well to state that we are aware that the condi¬
tions under which much of the property on Fourth avenue is
held account for its dullness.    There are a good many leased
parcels  and  restrictive  covenants  that block  certain kinds of
improvement.   Possibly few are aware that there is a restriction
against noxious and manufacturing businesses on all the Bast
Side from about Twenty-second to Thirtieth street. These restric¬
tions were contained in deeds of the executors of the will of
Mrs. Ann Rogers, who died some time in the early part of the
century.    The property disposed of by the will consisted of the
Rose Hill Farm, which extended from Fourth avenue along the
line already indicated, which was its broadest part, back to the
East River, where it was narrowest.    How obstructive of im¬
provements such covenants can become in the course of time
is shown by the fact that owing to the discovery of this one, the
plans of the American Lithographic Co., who originally intended
to locate on the Cooper property between Twenty-seventh and
Twenty-eighth streets, were changed and the company forced to
go elsewhere; so that, practically, Mrs. Ann Rogers, who died
when the century was infantine, eighty or ninety years later pre¬
vented a great corporation from enjoying an appropriate site for
their intended building. Besides the many present holders of this
tract of land are limited in its use by the notions of that lady
as to what would be an inappropriate improvement.    Notwith¬
standing these facts, there is still room to hope for liveliness
• on the avenue, because technical and legal obstacles generally
vanish when it pays to get rid ol them, and with what may truly
be called the extraordinary developments that are going on in
this section, the ghost of Mrs, Ann Rogers which haunts hall a
mile of building front and scares ofl improvers, and all other
technical ghosts may be laid.

Since what was known as the Cyclorama site was occupied,
the only remaining vacant parcel on Fourth avenue is that on
the southwest corner of Thirteenth street, which has long existed
only for the delectation of bill posters, though there are other
parcels that would he better to have not been improved at all,
seeing what might be, compared with what is done with them.
Between Ninth and Fourteenth streets there are a number of
modern stores and lolts doing well, especially two of those which
are located on the east side of the avenue.    Above Fourteenth
sti-eet the modern improvements are in spots and,  witii some
conspicuous exceptions, are experimental.    Nothing reveals bet¬
ter the hesitation that has been for many years characteristic of
Fourth avenue, than the development of the four Twenty-third
street corners.    There we have the old Columbia College Med¬
ical Department Building, which was inaugurated Jan. 22, 1856;
the Academy of Design of 1862, which is to-day forlornly appeal¬
ing for a new tenant,  the Young Men's Christian Association
Buildiug of 1869,  and after an  interval  of more  than  twenty
years the only really up-to-date structure, the home of the New
York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.    The
erection of the last mentioned building was so nearly accom¬
panied by the "United Charities Building, the Church Missions
House, and the Bank for Savings, that it aroused the hope that
the day of recrudescense had come, but a long time elapsed be¬
fore new life was put Into tfils section by the purchaseand build¬
ing for the American Lithographic Co. on the southwest corner





of Nineteenth street. The southeast corner ol the same street is
an excellent illustration ol the difflculty that seems always to
have arisen as to what was an appropriate improvement lor a
Fourth avenue site. Here was located the parcel that was as¬
sociated with the show that occupied it lor a comparatively brief
period. Endless were the destinies proclaimed for it. The ad¬
joining successful apartment-house suggested a rational solution
of the problem, especially to those who believed that downtown
apartments were needed, but it flnally devolved to a store and
loft building which so far has not-been a success, judging by the
proportions of the rentable space therein still untenanted;
though it would be altogether unreasonable to believe, seeing
how rapidly business is growing in that section, that it will not
finally prove one.

Perhaps the most encouraging and suggestive feature of this
thoroughfare, is the number of apparently successful small
hotels that'are scattered along its length. Besides two large
ones at either end, there are half-a-dozen or more small ones,
not counting any classed as hotels by grace of the Raines Law,
that have a fairly prosperous air; in some this prosperity is
evidenced by their having spread, as time went on, into several
adjacent residences. The latest experiment is a bachelor apart¬
ment-house, near the northern end, composed of one and two-
room and bath apartments, Intended, like the small hotels pre¬
viously referred to, for people of smaller means, than those
who occupy the gorgeously appointed and decorated hotels or
houses of like design, that have come into vogue of late years.
This house, though only just completed, is under agreement
for lease entire, and will doubtless be appreciated by people of
moderate means.

Another feature to be noted is that among the names of the
buyers of the comparatively few Fourth avenue parcels that
have come on the market in the past two years, are those ol
several well-known professional operators, which fact, taken
with the other main fact that the thoroughlare forms part of
the line of the route ol the rapid transit railroad, and will con¬
tain five stations ol that road, suggests that Fourth avenue
realty is soon to experience new life, and join the other main
arteries of city travel in the modern re-building movement.





A GROSS city budget in the neighborhood of $105,000,000 is
expected by competent estimators, and while this will be
reduced considerably by the general fund, the net budget for
next year must be much larger than the one property owners
are now paying taxes to meet. The actual reductions cannot be
told yet hy any one, as they will be created by circumstances yet
to arise, but they cannot in any case offset the increases in ex¬
penditure that the budget will reveal. The question tlien arises,
how will these increases be met? The problem is one for which
no one can give the solution at the moment, but the tax authori¬
ties are already considering how they can reach more personal
property for taxation and so avoid the necessity of making fur¬
ther large additions to the tax values of realty. Something is
hoped for, too, from increases in the franchise tax valuations.





THE claim presented to the Comptroller this week, which
revived recollections of what was known as the Orchard
street disaster, and which it was erroneously reported involved
the question of the responsibility of the Department of Buildings
for the stability of construction done under plans approved by
them, appears to be really only a claim for the return of money
deposited for work done by the department and which the de¬
positor claims the department ought to have done without
charge. As is well known, when the department, in the exer¬
cise of tbeir discretion, do anything in or about a building to
protect the public from probable injury, they make the owner
pay the cost. In some recent cases the department's right to do
this has been contested on the ground that what was done in
the interest of the public should be paid for by the public. In
the Orchard street case the department required tbe owner to
pay for the shoring, etc., done, and, as appears, an attempt is to
be made to recover tbis money.





WANTED,   BATHING    FACILITIES.

Commissioner Kearny has furnished to the Mun!'.i,.ijl A^sem-
Vly some statistics showing that in the Fifteenth As.sfmhly Dis¬
trict there are only 1,037 bathtubs to 8,176 families, or an aver¬
age of about one bathtub to every right families, "West i^f 9th
av there are in a certain city area only 270 bathtuiJs for 3,334
families. In this district one bathtub lias to do duty for eighteen
families. West of lltb av there are only flve bathtubs for the
use of 416 families. These flgures are intended to support an ap¬
plication for the establishment of a pubiic bath in this district.