Real Estate Record

AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE.





Vol. VL





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1870.





No. 142.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATIOr.

TERMS.
Ono year, in advance......................$6 00

All communications should be addressed to

lOB Brcujavay, cor. ok Pine Street.





GOTHIC AKCHITECTURE.

We see no good reason why Gothic architec¬
ture should not have as fair a trial among our
civic buildings as all the other styles to which we
are accustomed. In a city Avhich—contemptuous
of the stately biit monotonous dignity of whole
streets and squares designed after one pattern,
as ia Paris, Munich, or modem Edinburgh—ap¬
parently aims only at as much variety as pos¬
sible ; Avhere each man tries to make his build¬
ing overtop instead of range horizontally Avith
his neighbor's; where every strange innovation
must have a still stranger one placed alongside,
and every Mansart roof that dares to lift its as¬
suming head must be immediately out-mansart-
ed ;by its next-door neighbor, surely every style
on earth can have a show, if possessing any in¬
trinsic beauties to recommend it. And Avhat style
is more prolific in ingenious and artistic thought
than the Gothic ? We are told that it is of too
gloomy and monastic a character, that it savors
too strongly of the dark ages, and is not at all
adapted to our modem modes of li-ving. But
if we can bend the ponderous Egyptian to our
uses, in a monstrosity like the Tombs,—^the Gre¬
cian (which knew nothing of plate-glass or the
use of the arch) into aU sorts of modifications
fco suit our dwellings,—the Moorish and others,
all derived from states of society more foreign
to us than the English in the time of the
Tudors, why may we not also take the rich in¬
digenous architecture' of our trans-Atlantic an¬
cestors and adapt its beautiful forms and com¬
binations to our present wants ?

How far this may be done we have a promi¬
nent illustration of at hand, in the excellent
architectural improvements of our Central Park.
Who that looks at any of those well-formed arch¬
ways, those cunningly contrived abutments and
recesses, adapted everywhere to the formation
of the ground itself, those spicy little touches
of well-considered enrichment that surprise one
at every turn, but is struck by the richness of
any style that can admit of such pleasing va¬
riety. The art which can invest bridges, pal¬
isades, rural cottages, and even blank walls,
■with so much interest can certainly do the same
when applied to commercial buildings in our
principal thoroughfares, if the hand of the
artist tie there.

Although upon a comparatively small scale,
the best attempt of the kind which has yet come
to our notice is Decker's piano store, la,tely
erected on the western side of Union square
from design of Leopold Eidlitz.    Everything





about this little front: —the bold arrangement of
the stoop at the entrance,—the pleasing sunk
paved space leading to the store below, and oc¬
cupied by Brentano's literary emporium,—the
variety of ingenious forms adopted for Avindows
in the several stories,—the distribution and
meaning of the ornamentation,—the tasteful
combination and contrasts of different stones and
brick work,—aU exhibit traces of artistic thought
and skUl. The windows are large and -wide
enough for all the purposes for which they were
intended, and although the architect has freely
availed himself of the pointed arch, the mould¬
ings and other ornamental forms of Gothic archi¬
tecture, there certainly is nothing either gloomy
or monastic about the building.

An apparent rival has just appeared in a new
narrow front noAv approaching completion on
Fifth avenue, near TAventy-third sti;eet. This
example—designed, Ave beheve, by Mr. Pfeif¬
fer, does not at aU compare with the former in
taste or judgment, and is calculated to draw
attention more by its grotesqueness than by any
beauty of Gothic art which it displays. The
tour de force of this front seems to have been
reserved for a queer oriel window—^if such it can
be called—projecting from the fourth story and,
towering independently above the roof, -with
conical slate covering which is to be crowned
with an immense sign. This window is of most
extraordinary and uncouth shape, being formed
of only two sides sloping together to a sharp
angle in front at an angle of 45 degrees, and arched
below in the most clumsy and incomprehensible
manner, so as to escape the centre -window-
head, of third story. We were relieved when we
found that a large portion of the superstructure
of this assumed stone'oriel was being made of
wood instead of solid stone, for we did not other¬
wise understand how such an arch could carry
the weight to be put upon it. Such freaks in
design, defying all well-known and obvious laws
of construction, are, at best, but mere architec¬
tural legerdemain, and may weU succeed in being
stared at, but can never be admired; certainly
never help to popularize Gothic architecture in
our streets.





THE  NEW  YOKK   CLTJB.

The inevitable hand of progress has been
laid upon Fifth avenue, and almost daily we
find the uprooting of some old landmark there,
which, when planted, seemed destined to
remain for a far longer period of time. The
latest of these changes is caused by the volun¬
tary dissolution of the New York Club, after
an existence of twenty-five years. The head¬
quarters of this club was at the fine brovm-
stone mansion of Eichard K. Haight, on
the southeast comer of Fifth avenue and
Fifteenth street, where they located iiiemselveg
in 1861, on removing from the corner gf Astop





Place and Broadway, which they had occupied
ever since their foundation in 1845. Some
idea of the increase in the value of property in
the neighborhood of their. last mansion can be
gleaned from the fact that the rental, which in
1861 was $5,000, had gradually risen up to
$18,000. The house is now undergoing altera¬
tions for the purpose of converting it into
independent flats, upon what is knoAvn as the
European system, for the purpose of accom¬
modating such families as are Avilling to pay
high prices for elegant and luxurious suites of
apartments. That these prices wiH run very
high iu such a locality is naturally to be ex¬
pected, from the great value which the grotmd
can command for business purposes.

It is singular that while so much is being
done, in many of the most expensive localities
in the city, towards accommodating several
families conveniently under one roof, the im¬
provements should have hitherto been carried
out on a scale only intended to meet the require¬
ments of those who are able to pay compara¬
tively high rentals. These rentals for suites of
apartments range, in many instances, as high
as $1,000 and $1,500 per annum, and evexi
higher; and it is all but impossible to obtain
such conveniences as we allude to for $750.
But there are thousands of families in this city,
of the highest respectability and refinement,
who are really not able to pay more than $400
or $500 for house rent; and for this large and
valuable portion of our population no adequate
proArision seems to have been hitherto made
beyond the miserable accommodations of ordi¬
nary tenement houses. There is no reason
Avhatever why the same accommodations—on a
less expensive but equally convenient scale—
should not be provided for this class of our
poiDulation as well as for those of larger means;
and if the impediment Hes in the costliness of
land in our best localities, surely a remedy
could easily be found in erecting buildings of
the same character, but less expensively, on
land of less value in the city, or in the most
accessible portions of Brooklyn, Hoboken, and
other immediate and desirable suburbs.





MECHANICS'   LIENS   AGAINST    BUrLDINGS

IN NEW YORK CITY.

[Tlie date 1 is for Dec.    Tlie others are for A'ou.]

28  Baxter  st.,  s.  or w. s. (ISTo. 20,

rear house).    Nolen & Steers  agt.

D. Fiaelite,.......................     $474 70

29  Bowery, E.  s.  (No.  21).   Charles

NeAvbauer agt.---------............         22 93

Same property.   Peter Wagner agt.

---------...........................        26 13

30  Broome and Essex sts., n. e. cor.

(No. 226 Broome st.) Small & Nolan

agt. Sainuel Ingraham............       275 00

1 Same property.    Nathan Abra-

hams agt. Samuel Engle..........       160 00

26 Chrystie bt., e. s. (Nos. 174 and

176.)  D. D. Boyce agt.------— ....       650 00

29 C. AV. w. s.  (No. 269).   Wm. & T.

B,. A. Hall agt. —•. Sheridan......       245 00

25  Eighth av., w. s. (No. 273). Donald

McQuinn, agt. —. Barker... -.......       121 12

26  ElSHTEENTH ST., S. S. (NO. 162). "W,               '

D. S, Schanck & Sons agt. Jamea

DoAvd..................,';,, ?;*:r;    isp oq

28 Eleventh st., s. s.  (No., 339 E.).

Rpbert Julian agt. James KeUy....         80 ^

3Q   giGHTY-rSIXTN ST.,   S. S.,.ADJOINING

"the il. e. cor. of Old Beservoir. W.
H. CrommeUn agt. Mayor, Alder-
nien,&c..........................   7,000 00