AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE,





Vol. I.]

- Published Weekly by
C.   W.   SWEET   «&  CO.,
EooM 31 World Building, No, 37 Park Eow,
TERMS.

Si.x months, payable in adv.ancc.................    3 00

PRICE OF ADVERTISING.

1 square, ten lines, three months.................$10 00

1 square, single insertion..........................    1 00

Special Notices, por line.;........................       20

Business cards, per month.........................   2 00





SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 18G8.





[No. 6.





We call attention to the Eeal Estate Infor¬
mation Bureau Avhicli Ave. have opened in
connection with the Record office. Through
this Bureau Ave propose to furnish news which
will be found indispensible to all who con-
temiilate purchasing property in 'Hew York
and Kings Counties. To applicants we will
furnish the foUoAving information:

G-iven a described house and lot, we
will tell who was the last OAvner; the last
recorded sale; the value of the property;
whether incumbered or not; what the value
of the adjoining property on either side; what
would be a fair estimate of its actual market
price.

All Avho are interested in Real Estate will
see at a glance how important correct items
of this kind would be to those who are about
to purchase real estate, and Avho wish to have
some correct data before paying out their
money.

Our readers can see from the kind of news

we furnish in the Record that we can give

this information better probably than any one

else in the city.   We ask agents, property

holders, banks, and private purchasers to try

us and see if we do not give satisfaction.   The

following will give a rough idea of the. kind

of transcript we "wiU furnish to our customers:

The house and lot 250 feet Avest of 13 th
Avenue, in 199th Street, was last owned b}'
John Smith, who, 1864, paid $7,500 to John
BroAvn for same. The house on right side, at
last sale in 1868, sold for $6,500 ; that on the
left side for $5,600 in 1867. The house now
owned by Smith is incumbered with a mort¬
gage of §3,500, noAv due. The assessed value
is §4,000 in tax books. In view of recent in¬
crease of A''alues in that neighborhood, Smith's
house is worth about $8,500. Property ap¬
preciating in that part of the city.

If more information is needed it wUl be
given. Elsewhere will be found our adver¬
tisement of this new enterprise.

0. W. SWEET & 00.





THE HANSARD BOOF.
KownERE is Eashion more imperative than
here, and every new idea—from the facing of
our houses with hideous brown stone, to
croAvning our ladies with still more hideous
sacks of horsehair—^is folloAved with the ut¬
most avidity, until the thing becomes so over¬
done that sheer nausea begets a change. A
notion, however good, will sometimes vainly
knock for years at the door of progress with¬
out gaining admission, but, once admitted, we
rush to the other extreme and follow up the
notion until it is literally " played out." The
very popular Mansard or " French " roof, now
in such universal use, bids fair to become
another illustration in point.

Every one can remember the very recent
birth of this noAV feature in our architecture.
It is true that the Mansard roof—so common
not only in France, but all over Continental
Europe—^was nothing intrinsically novel to
us, for it was to be seen scattered frequently
enough among our suburban residences; but
as a controlling feature in our city architec¬
ture it appeared almost unknown. The pre¬
vailing fancy seemed to be to do all we could
to At(Ze our roofs; whereas now everybody
seems to be striving which can make it most
visible and prominent. Height of frontage
seemed to be the ultima thule of architectural
sublimity, and each builder Avas anxious to
elongate his narrow twenty-five feet frontage
so as to make his cornice overtop his neigh¬
bor's, if only by a few inches. ITow we are
not content Avith letting a Mansard roof taste¬
fully supplant our over-topping fifth or sixth
stories, but we must, forsooth, have it to every
Httle tAVO or three story shanty, where the
effort should be to elevate rather than to de¬
press the already too Ioav frontage of the
building. One very grotesque instance,
among many others, occurs to us at the mo¬
ment. It is the entrance to a bathing estab¬
lishment on Sixth Avenue near Thirtieth
street. Here, in a little narrow two-story and
attic building, with stories so low that a
passer-by could almost light his cigar from
one of the roof Avindows, we have all the
paraphernalia of turrets, Mansard roof, dormer
windoAvs, etc.; a lilliputian attempt at mak¬
ing a sort of brick Tuileries palace out of a
space that could be entirely swallowed up by
one good-sized entrance archway. This sort
of " architecture " may do very well in sugar
upon some fanciful wedding cake, but it is
quite out of place in any thoroughfare of a
great city.

The rule to guide us is that the Mansard
roof ia always more or less available, where we.





are dealing with inordinate height in city
buildings; but it is not at all necessary, in¬
deed sometimes even prejudicial, when the
building is already too low in contrast with
its neighbors. Properly introduced and
treated, this mode of terminating our build¬
ings is exceedingly beautiful and picturesque.
In too many cases, however, our architects
destroy that very lightness and airiness which
form its principal charm, by the introduction
of excessively heavy ornamentation, instead of
light and graceful ornamental iron-work.
Look, for instance, at the roof of the Herald
building, or, still more conspicuously, the roof
of ilr. StcAvart's new residence on Fifth
Avenue. In both these cases the ridge mold¬
ings and those encasing the hips look solid
enough for the construction of a railway
bridge. Upon the whole, the Mansard roof is
a great relief to us after the monstrously
heavy and clumsy cornices with which we
used to terminate our buildings, and cuts the
sky line in a far more agreeable manner.
But this, like everything else in a tasteful
profession, requires judicious handling; and
what in the hands of one man can be made
an enduring beauty, becomes, in those of some
untutored bungler a mere eye-sore and un¬
meaning absurdity.

THE " CENTSAL TJNDEEGEOUND EAILEOAD.»»

The public may congratulate itself upon hav¬
ing made at least one good stride in the right
direction, towards getting a mode of steam
transit up and down town, instead of the pre¬
sent wretched modes of conveyance. The
bill for the " Central Underground Railroad,"
better known aa the " Brown Tunnel Road,"
after passing both Houses of the Legislature,
has been signed by Governor Fentok, and
thus becomes a responsible incorporation.
This road is intended to run from City Hall
Park, through City Hall Place, and through
Mulberry and Bleecker Streets, Lafayette
Place and Fourth Avenue, to Marlison Square,
then under Madison Avenue to Forty-second
Street, and eventually to the Harlem River.
It is placed in the hands of men whose name^
are a sufficient guaranty for its fulfilment, an^
as they have agreed to forfeit $300,000 to the
city in the event of it not being completed as
far as Forty-second Street within the next
two years, it is evident they intend to push
it with vigor.

This sche,me ^s altogether different ivova, the
" Arcade Road '•' which we advocated in a
fo,rmer number, and although it does not meet
the measure of our necessities altogether—
being adapted to assist t^-avel only on the east-.