246





RECORD  AND   GUIDE





February S, 190S





which the city is to erect on 136th st, north side, 274.T ft. east
of   Lenox   av,   to   cost   $130,000,

139TH ST.—No contracts have yet been awarded for the new
school building which St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church will
soon erect on 139th st, near Cypress av, Bronx, at a cost of
$70,000.    John E. Kerby, 481 5th av, is architect.

76TH ST.—Contracts will soon be awarded for the 2-sty
bakery building, 75x100 ft., at Nos, 506-510 East 76th st to
cost about $40,000. A. Fink, 536 East 72d st. owner, and Otto
L.   Spannhake, architect.     Plans are now ready.

29TH ST.—No contracts have yet been awarded for the 7-sty
store and loft building, 49.9x88,9 ft,, which L. & A. Pincus, 34
West 27th st, will erect on the south side of 29th st, 201 ft.
west of 7th av, to cost $80,000. Two buildings will be torn
down, bluestone coping, tiled floors, marble work, nickel plumb¬
ing fixtures, hai-dwood trim. The owners will take the general
contract, awarding all sub-contracts, Benj. W. Levitan, 20
"R''est Slst st, has the plans ready.





Contracts Awarded.

130TH ST.—Hankinson Christie Company. 232 West 40th st,
has received the contract for improvements to manufacturing
building. No. G12 West 130th st, for Messrs. Sinclair & Valen¬
tine, 611 West 129th st, from plans by Warren H. Conover, 232
West 40th st.

The Libman Contracting Co,. 1968 Broadway, has received
the contract for extensive alterations to No. 178 Canal st and
Nos. SO-2 Mott Et for the estate of Henry Stone, in accord¬
ance with plans made by Messi-s, Bernstein & Bernstein, work
to start on March 15. The Libman Contracting Co. will take
bids about the 15th of February.

FT. WOOD,—The following awards have been made for the
construction complete of one double set of captains' quarters
at Port Wood, New Tork harbor: Wm, L, Luth, New Tork
City, construction, $21,712; George H. Drake, Buffalo, N. T..
plumbing, $1,540; heating, $l,'ilO; Kelly & Kelley, New York
City, wiring, $500; Geo. H. Sykes, New York City, fixtures.
$275.

The Board of Education, Jersey City, has awarded the general
contract to W. H. & F. W. Cain, of Manhattan, for the construc¬
tion of a new school, which will be known as No, 9. It will be
erected on the block bounded by 26th and 27th sts and Avs D and
E, The contractors will have 260 working days in which to com¬
plete the work and they will be obliged to pay the city $25 a
day penalty for each day the building is incompleted after the
expiration of the ttVne limit unless delay is caused by some
other contractor.





Plans Wanted.

Chas. E. Boiling, engineer, Richmond, Va., will receive com¬
petitive plans until March 23 for the construction of a combined
market and armory building to be erected at Richmond, The
cost must not exceed $100,000.

Sketch plans will be received by the building committee,
Rhinelander, Wis., until March 23, for a brick or stone court
house for Oneida County, to cost not more than $100,000.
Arthur Taylor is chairman building committee.

Plans and specifications are asked until Feb. IS by Thomas
D. Bradstreet, State Controller, Hartford, Conn,, for the pro¬
posed State Armory to be erected at Meriden. The sum of
$90,000 has been appropriated for this purpose, and the above
sum must include the cost of construction, heating plant, archi¬
tects' plans, and supervision and furnishings.

Plans and speciflcations are wanted for a Ma-sonic home to
.be built at Joliet, III. Plans will be considered for an exclusive
home, two stories and basement, consisting of large banquet
hall, lodge rooms, cost not to exceed $30,000; also plans for a
3-sty building, with stores below, banquet hall and lodge rooms
above, at a cost not to exceed .$00,000. Address all communi¬
cations to H, W. Spencer, chm, building committee, 707 Benton

St.

Plans and speciflcations will be received by the North Hud¬
son Hospital Association, Weehawken, N. J., in competition for
the construction of a modern fireproof hospital building, to he
erected in the township of Weehawken, N. J. For further par¬
ticulars address building committee. North Hudson Hospital
Association, town of Union, Weehawdieh Post OfQce, N. J.
Herman Walker, chairman; J. M, Rector, M. D., secretary.
(See also announcement in another column of this issue,)

Professor V?arren P. Laird, head of the architectural depart¬
ment of the Western University of Pennsylvania, has been
chosen by the building committee of the university as advisor
in the architectural competition for the general plans of the
new university to be erected in Oakland, Pa. The general plan
for the architectural competition was decided upon. This pro¬
vides for a competition in which invited architects outside of
Pittsburgh will take part and which will be also open to local
architects. Architects who are interested in the terms of the
competition are invited to apply to the secretary of the uni¬
versity, the Rev. Samuel B. Linhart, The preparation of the
general programme for preliminary competition will begin in
four weeks,

(For  other  Construction  News  see  Page  282,)





BUILDING     NOTES





On Feb. 18 the New Tork Hardware Association will be in
annual session at Buffalo.

The new coal-handling plant for the Astoria Gaslight and
Power Co. will be furnished and installed by the Brown Hoisting
Machinery Co.

Complaints are coming in about cold radiators in "steam-
heated" fiats, A correspondent of the Times suggests that the
Board of Health should- have jurisdiction,

A public hearing will be held by the committees on concrete
and fireproofing and steel and iron construction in the Alder¬
manic Chamber,  City Hall, Friday, Feb. 14, at 2 P. M.

The ninety-fourth meeting of tlie American Institute of Mining
Engineers will be held in New Tork City, beginning Thursday
evening, Feb. IS. The Institute headquarters will be in the foyer
of the United Engineering Society Buildmg.

Mr, J. Sehlesinger, formerly senior member of the firm of
Sehlesinger & Sehlesinger, has retired from that concern and
has opened ofiices in the Monolith Building at 43 and 45 West
34th st, where he will conduct a general contracting and building
business. ,

The G. Drouve Company, of Bridgeport, Conn., at the annual
meeting of the directors, held Feb. 3. 1908, elected Mr. G.
Drouve as president and treasurer and Mr. W^illiam V. Dee as
secretary of the company. Mr. Dee. who recently resigned from
the Railway Age to take an interest in the company, has been
appointed general sales manager. The company manufactures
the "Anti-Pluvius" skylight, of which 125,000 square feet has
been installed on the Hoboken terminal of the Delaware,
Lackawanna and Western R. E., and the Lovell window oper¬
ating device and the Drouve ventilator,  drying stove, etc.    ■

H. W. Nutt, who for the past year has represented Buell &
Mitchell, of New York, in Boston, has been appointed district
manager for the New England States by the General Fireproof¬
ing Company, and will have headquarters at 161 Devonshire
st, Boston. Mr. Nutt has been assistant general sales agent for
the American Steel Hoop Company, secretary of the American
Tube & Stamping Company, of Bridgeport, Conn,, and vice-
president of the Superior Steel Company, of Pittsburgh. As
district manager for the General Fireproofing Company his at¬
tention will be devoted largely to exploiting the materials for
reinforcing concrete which are manufactured by this company,
and particularly pin-connected girder frames and cold twisted
lug bars.

An experiment with cold-water paint was recently made by
the Roebling Construction Co. on some of their work in a build¬
ing in Bast 49th st. It had always been found troublesome to
use such paint over iron work left exposed by this system of
construction, because the iron would rust through the paint
and stain it badly. The difBculty was taken up with a number
of water-paint manufacturers, and samples of their products
were tested. One proved entirely satisfactory. This is made
by M, Ewing Fox & Co,, and called "Permanite." "Permanite"
covered splendidly, dried out a pure, brilliant white, completely
killed the rust stains and proved so firm that it could not be
removed with a sponge and water. "Permanite" also proved
to be inexpensive, one pound covering about 25 square feet
of terra cotta block and iron, one coat, and costing about flve
cents.





Insurance Difficulties.

Insurance brokers are saying that it is hard to place clients'
lines in the congested business district since the Parker Build¬
ing fire.    One is quoted by the Insurance Press to this effect:

"1 have been turned down so often recently on risks above the
sixth floor that I am offering any amount of preferred business
to go with it as a bribe. The countermen are getting very
careful in their selections. When there have been no big fires
happening, he will accept a risk as a flyer, but he is not flying
nowadays. He is getting very conservative. Perhaps when
the new hose has been obtained, for which $50,000 has been ap¬
propriated, the existing state of affairs may change. I earnestly
hope so."

Yet New Tork is a fairly well-built city, though just now the
fire department finds it has about reached its limitations under
present facilities. The public is inclined to complain greatly
over tbe profits in fire insurance, but we find-that the dividends
on capital, after all. for the past sixteen years, and long be¬
fore, have been much less than the amounts received for in¬
terest earnings, leaving premiums entirely out of account. That
is to say, had It not been for the investment feature in fire
insurance, and the masterful manner in which finances have
been handled, there not only would have been no dividends,
but the companies would have been short some millions of dol¬
lars which they have taken either to help pay losses or to
strengthen their surpluses. The rate of profit on underwriting
up to the beginning of 1906 for a term of years had been very
small indeed, and of course the San Francisco disaster wiped
out all profit not only for 1907 but for several years to come.