1276





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





June 15, 1912





-N'ew Theatre founders once planned lo
I'Uild. has been acquired under lease by
iliird parties, who are erecting buildings
in the style of tho Maxine Elliott The¬
atre. Together they will cost exceeding
$300,000 for the bare building. They arc
designated as "theatre and studio"
buildings, and will be in part five stor¬
ies high. As the new Shubert Music
Hall, now building, and the Little The¬
atre are directly opposite, there will be
four new theatres in a group. To relieve
the vehicle congestion that might other-
M'ise result, a new street thirty-five feet
wide has been planned, to extend through
the block from 44th to 45th street. New
theatres are also under construction lu
'12d. 46ih, -17th and 4fith streets, all in the
Times  Square   or   theatre  section.

Other forms of construction which arc
numerically pronounced are skyscraper
ofl'ice buildings, municipal buildings and
high-class commercial buildings. Owing
to a remarkable variety of work, loft
buildings of the factory type are not nu¬
merically as conspicuous in the list as in
most previous years. On the West Side,
south of SSth street, where the new
manufacturing colony has centered, there
is little building activity this year; but
on the opposite of the town, in the
new "commission district" there has been
a marked resumption of activity, and
of a type equaling the best that has yet
been done there. The Hess Building and
the Passavant Building, illustrated here,
are examples of current work on Fourth
avenue. Commerciai construction con¬
tinues active also in the lateral streets
north of 34tli street, and there is an in¬
timation of coming activity along Sev¬
enth  avenue.

The municipality is building a record
number of fire-houses, a monster offlce
building to supplement City Hall, a new
high school and various other buildings,
besides subways. As soon as plans are
ready work -tvill start on Brooklyn's new
municipal building. The Grand Central
Station work continues to employ a large
body of mechanics. Ofiice building is
having a conspicuous revival. It is an¬
nounced this week that work on the
Adams Express Building, which Robert
E. Dowling's new company is to build,
will soon be started at the northwest
corner of Broadway and Exchange place.
The Woolworth Building, the Bankers'
Trust, the Guaranty Trust and the Sea¬
men's Home are all objects of interest
south of Chambers street. The white
marble skyscraper of the U. S. Rubber
Corapany, just about finished, punctuates
the northern end of the skyscraper sec¬
tion of Broadway, and the new McAIpin
Hotel, towers above everything around
Greeley Square.

The executive secretary of the central
council of the unions in the building
trades. Roswell D. Torapkins, reports a
very satisfactory condition of employ¬
ment for skilled workmen. Some trades
cannot supply a sufficient number of men
for the jobs that are to be manned. The
busiest craftsmen are the carpenters,
electricians, ceraent masons, metallic
lathers, plasterers, tilelayers, marble
workers, and asphalt and asbestos work¬
ers. Not in a number of years have the
trades been so well employed.





New Surface Line in Fifty-Ninth Street.

The Public Service Commission for tlie
First District has approved the contract
made April 1, 1912, bet-(^'een the Third
Avenue Bridge Corapany and the Central
Park, North and East River Railroad
Company for the use of a track in 59th
street. This action was taken upon an
opinion by Commissioner I\lilo R. INIalt-
tiie, who stated that the Third Avenue
Bridge Company has a franchise to op¬
erate a railroad in 59th and 60th streets,
between Third avenue and about 50 feet
east of Second avenue, and on Third
avenue, between 59th and 60th streets,
and also across the Queensboro Bridge
to the Plaza in Long Island City. The
Central Park, North and East River
Railroad has a double-track railroad in
59th street, including tlie portion lying
between Third and First avenues. The
Third Avenue Bridge Company desires
to use a portion of these tracks on 59th
street east of Third avenue in order to
complete its route under its franchise.
The contract provides for the use by the
Third Avenue Bridge Company of about
SOO feet of this track for the operation of
its cars over a portion of its route, and
also to make connections with said track.





NEW POLICY FOR SAILORS' SNUG HARBOR





Its Manhattan Property Must Be Made Responsive to
Modern Business Needs,  and  the   Income  Is  Not Suffi¬
cient for Proper Improvements.





—Financial conditions are positively
changing for the better. A more confl¬
dent undertone prevails, both in the Bast
and  the  West.





WHAT is considered a rather serious
state of affairs in the finances of the
Sailors' Snug Harbor has been disclosed
to the public. It is probable that some
change in the long financial policy of the
trustees will be made. Uf late years the
character of the neighborhood in which
most of the investment properly of tlic
institution is situated has changed. The
lands have become desirable for business
ralher  than  for residential purposes.

A majority of the buildings have been
altered from private dwellings to an in¬
ferior class of store and loft buildings.
Buildings of this sort are not and cannot
be used for a desirable class of buildings,
except in a minority of cases. Tlie ten¬
ants cannot afford to erect large business
buildings adequate to the demands of the
present day. because such buildings are
considered by them as too costly for erec¬
tion on leased lands, and besides such
operations cannot be easily financed.

As the result of these conditions many
of the existing buildings on the Sailors'
Snug Harbor tract have been allowed by
the tenants to depreciate, and except on
Broadway and University place business
flrms of tlie better class have avoided the
property. The retail husiness in its move-
m.ent uptown jumped over the Snug Har¬
bor property, whicii bisects the business
districts, because the property is not re¬
sponsive to modern business needs.
Later the wholesale business, forced up¬
town by the growth of the city, also
passed over this section, for a similar
reason.

Considerable as are the income re¬
sources of the institution, tliey do not
suffice to meet the expenses of ex¬
tinguishing the outstanding ground leases
and the proper improvement of any con¬
siderable portion of this large tract of
land. The capital resources of the Har¬
bor are not available for that purpose
without a sale of some of its land. At
the present time the trustees are seeking
authority to dispose of some of its lands.
That the lands may be sold with the
consent of the Legislature it is agreed;
but for various reasons the Snug Harbor
Board is reluctant to ask for this legis¬
lation. It is believed that an act passed
by the Legislature in 1901 will be con¬
strued by the courts as empowering the
trustees to make tlie change, and accord¬
ingly a suit has been instituted with a
view to obtaining a decision to tliis ef¬
fect.

A. Barton Hepburn, president of the
board of trustees, does not favor any sud¬
den departure from a policy that has
proved successful for more than a cen¬
tury, and he says that if authority to
sell the real estate should be conferred
upon the trustees, either as a result of
the law suit or by legislation, he would
advi.se that such authority be exercised
cautiously and only after careful con¬
sideration.

The board of trustees is not subject to
any supervision, but it makes a report
annually to the Legislature and the
Euard of Aldermen. The last report does
not set forth the condition of the real
estate. The value of the real estate is
estimated to be in excess of $20,000,000.
The income for the year 1911 was $552,170
frora ground rents. $33,796 frora interest
and $3,d73 from olher sources; total, $589,-
i>40. The expenses of the institution for
maintenance of inmates, buildings and
grounds and the New Tork oflice was
?402,S57; expenses of buildings in Eor¬
ough of Manhatlan, including taxes, $39,-
754.

Ponndation of the Charity.

The president of tiie Chamber of Com¬
merce is, by virtue of his office, also a
trustee of the Sailors' Snug Harbor, a
duty imposed upon him under the will
of Captain Richard Randall, who died in
1801. Mr. Hepburn is now filling this
dual position. In a report which he has
just made to the Chamber he gives some
unfamiliar information concerning the
Snug Harbor, including a statement of
the pTesent crisis in  its flnanciai  affairs.

By the terms of Captain Randall's will,
he gave his entire residuary estate to the





Chancellor of this State, ttie Mayor and
Recorder of this city, the president of
the Chamber of Commerce, the president
and vice-president of the Marine Society,
(he rector of Trinity Church, and the
minister of the First/ Presbyterian
Church, with the direclion, that from the
rents, issues and profits thereof they
sliould erect an asylum or marine hos¬
pital, to be called, "The Sailors' Snug
Harbor," for the purpose of maintaining
and supporting aged, decrepit and worn-
out sailors. There is a tradition that
the will was drawn by Alexander Ham¬
ilton. In 1S06 a charter -^t-as granted to
the trustees by the Legislature of New-
York, who were thus given perpetual
succession and the right to act in a col¬
lective corporate name. The office of
Cliancellor was abolished in 1847, and
that of Recorder in 19o7, thus reducing
the number of trustees from eight to six.

Captain Randall's residuary estate con¬
sisted of his farm of about twenty-two
acres in the (then) Seventh Ward, lying
east of what is now Pifth avenue, and
north of the present line of . Waverly
place, whicii was then worth (as it is be¬
lieved) belween twelve and fifteen thou¬
sand dollars; four lots in the First Ward
of the city, then worth (as it is believed)
about twenty thousand dollars, and per¬
sonal properly to the extent of about ten
thousand dollars.

Such estate was insufflcient to justify
the immediate establishment of the in¬
stitution contemplaled by Captain Ran¬
dall. Accordingly, having first divided
the Seventh \\ ard into standard lots of
25x100, the trustees devised the policy
of leasing such lots upon ground leases,
for terms of fivcnty-one years. Leases
are limited to twenty-one years, for the
reason, as Mr. Hepburn explains, that there
is in this State a statute enacted in 1846
which taxes tlie "reiils reserved" on
leases for more than twenty-one years.
That is to say, if a lease is made for
more than twenty-one years, the rent for
one year is capitalized and taxed as i>er-
sonal  property  belonging  to   the  lessor.

The Sung Harbor Leases.

The leases provided that, upon the ex¬
piration of each successive term, the
trustees should have the option either to
pay the value of the improvements made
by the tenant, or to extend the lease for
a, new term of twenty-one years at an
annual rental of a stipulated percentage
upon the value of the land without the
improvements. Under all of such leases
the tenant was required to pay all taxes
and assessments, and it w^as provided
that, if the tenant should have improved
the land, he should have an absolute
right to successive renewals of his lease,
unless, at the expiration of any term, the
trustees should elect to pay him for his
improvements.

In 1S33, notwithstanding the heavy ex¬
penses entailed by an unsuccessful at¬
tack raade upon the will by certain of
Captain Randall's relatives, the trustees
had accumulated enough money to erect
a marine hospital or asylum upon lands
purchased by them upon Staten Island,
and thirty aged and indigent sailors were
received therein during that year. And,
so successful has the "ground lease" pol¬
icy thus inaugurated, since proved, that
frora tlie accumulated income of the
property, the trustees have been enabled
to create the magnificent institution upon
Staten Island so familiar to us all, to
care for many thousands of sailors and
to erect a few large buildings upon the
former "farm,"  for investment purposes.





—A new mortgage for $3,000,000, cover¬
ing the big skyscraper office building at
No. 43 Broadway, extending through to
New street, has been obtained by the
owners, the New York Real Estate Se¬
curity Company, from the New Tork
Life Insurance Corapany, The mortgage
was obtained to liquidate a mortgage
for a similar sum now on the property
ond held by the Equitable Life Assur¬
ance Society.