AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE





Vol. X.                     NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1872.                        No. 240.





Published Weekly hy

THE REAL ESTATE PiECOPJ ASSOCIATION.

TERMS.

One year, in advance......................SC (10

All communications should he addressed to

7 AND 9 WAUREN STRKIOT.





No receipt, for money due tho Real BST.vrR Record
will be ackno^vledgell unle.ss signed by one of our ref^ular
oollectors. Hk.nuy D. Smith or Thomas P. Cujimings,
All bills for collection wiU be sent from the office on a regu¬
larly printed form.





ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S EPISCOPAL   CHURCH.

Since tlie erection of the splendid synagogTie
of El Emanuel, on Eiftli avenue, no place of
public -worsMp Las been constructed in this city-
more pleasing and satisfactory, as a specimen'
of ecclesiastical architecture, than the new
Episcopal church of Saiat Bartholomew, now
rapidly approaching completion, aud situated at
the south-west corner of 44th street and Madi¬
son avenue. This elegant structiire occupies—
with the handsome little rectory adjoining—
a frontage on Madison avenue of IOO feet, runs
back from the avenue 145 feet on 44th street,
and is 58 feet high to the top of the groined in¬
terior, with a capacity of one thousand sittings.
It has been very rapidly erected, for a building
of such solidity of construction and elaborate¬
ness of ornamentation, having been commenced
in June of last year, and expected to be com¬
pleted in the coming November.

The design is in what might, in general
terms, be called the Byzantine style of archi¬
tecture, but the architects have so closely ad¬
hered to the peculiar branch of it illustrated by
the Cathedral of Pisa and other works of that
character, that it may more properly be classi¬
fied as Pisan Bomaulesque. Nothing can exceed
the care and beauty with which the architects
have carried out the minutest details of this
somewhat peculiar but fascinating form of ec¬
clesiastical architecture, both a,s to the exterior
and interior. The frontage is one perfect fyet-
work of little arcaded recesses and -windows,
resting on small columns -with floriated capitals,
and adorned -with rare carvings, especially
one in high relief over, the entrance doorway,
illustrative of the history of Saint Bartholomew.
No less than five different stones enter into the
composition of the front, all introduced and ar¬
ranged so as to form the most pleasing contrasts
and combinations of color. In this the design
is eminently successful, and shows great prac¬
tical skill in the knowledge of material on the
part of the designers. New Jersey freestone
forms what may be called the groundwork of
the composition, and this is interveined
throughout, the plain surfaces or ornamental
parts, according to their best mode of applica¬





tion, -with Pottsdam freestone, Cleveland free¬
stone, Schenectady blue-stone, and Pennsylvania
serpentine.

In outline and proportions, the whole frontage
toward Madison avenue is very grand and im¬
posing, and, with the leviathan Grand Central
Depot right in front of it, and so many other
first-class buildings in the immediate neighbor¬
hood, gives to that portion of the city a pala¬
tial appearance scarcely to be seen elsewhere
in New Tork. "Where there is so much to ad¬
mire, it is not ijleasant to find material for
fault-fiuding, but we must take decided excep¬
tion to the termination of the otherwise beauti¬
ful tower at the north-east angle of the build¬
ing. There is no such crucial test of the deli¬
cacy of taste, feeling, and artistic tact in an
architect as planning a perfectly graceful ter¬
mination to a tower or steeple. To lead the
eye gracefully away, from base to pinnacle,
strictly confining all obtruding projections with¬
in that rigid pyramidal outline which is the
essence of architectural grace, requires the ut¬
most delicacy of touch on the part of the artist.
This is where Sir Christopher Wren showed his
wonderful power of composition, in the thou¬
sand and one spires he scattered over the sur¬
face of London, all differing, but aU, tapering
away in snch elegant gradation, no matter how
elaborate the various parts, that the whole
looked as if they had been made from two rigid
straight lines meeting in an apex, and the eye
is charmed -with the universal symmetry, even
when forced to condemn any intervening parts
in detail. In St. Bartholomew's church, the
whole frontage niay be pronounced absolutely
perfect, tower and aU, uutU we reach that stage
of the latter where an open octagonal turret,
formed of a wooden and slated dome resting on
slender columns, is placed upon the square
portion of the tower, sloping away at the angles
to receive it. It is in the slope of this dome,
still more in the yet smaller turret placed on
the top of it, and forming a termination to the
whole composition with its little spiral cover¬
ing, that we find the outline very defective.
The lower dome might pass, if redeemed by
the other little terminal turret placed upon it;
but -She latter, instead of tapering away gradu¬
ally to nothing, actually projects and overhangs
just where it ought to recede, producing a most'
uncouth effect. The most impractised eye will
find a ready illustration of what we niean by
contrasting the mode in which this tower is
terminated -vvith that of the terminal turret to
the synagogue of El. Emanuel close by, at the
comer of 43d street and Fifth avenue; literally
the same idea, but far more ably tre^ed.

The interior of St. Bartholomew's church is
no less satisfactory than the exterior.' The
effect, on entering, is gorgeous and imposing.
Beautiful polished columns, of Aberdeen and





Peterhead granite imported from Scotland, sep¬
arate the lofty nave from the aisles on either
side, surmounted by richly eaiwed and gilded
floriated capitals, while the whole vaulted roof
and surface walls are ablaze with polychromatic
decoration- of well-contrasted colors mingled
with gold. Many of the side windows are already
filled with rich memorial windows of stained
glass,- presented by various members of the con¬
gregation, utterly devoid of that vulgar transpa¬
rent green and yellow and orange glare so com¬
mon in our churches,"but executed by variousNew
York artists in such.fitting designs and brilliant
but subdued rubies and other rich colors, that
some might pass for the works of the famed
'Willement or Wailes of England. The organ,
too, forms a very striking feature of the inte¬
rior. It is said to be one of Odell's best manu¬
facture, and fills up the whole space of the
eastern end with a grand device. It is being
painted in variegated colors to suit the rest of
the interior, and will look splendid when com¬
pleted. The whole cost of this structure, in¬
clusive of the rectory, is not expected to exceed
|240,000. Messrs. Eenvrick & Sands are the
architects, Duke & More the builders, Moran
& Armstrong the masons, and Hugh & J.
Young the stone-cutters.





GOSSIP.

We extract the foUov/ing from a circular sheet sent
around to merchants by one of the largest Commercial
Agencies in the United States. The letter is dated St.
Paul, Minn., Sep. 2S, 1872, and reads as foUows:

" On my return from Now York I found money very clo.se
here. That none of our Banks were discounting anything.
Also, that Country Merchants and .small Country Dealers
were paying Uttle or nothing; and that our Johhers were
often very hard up. I h.ave been at some pains to ascer¬
tain the causes of this .state of thing.«, and am satisfied
they are substantially these:

" First.—The Biinks here, and at some other places, h-avo
been furnishing for some three months abont all the cash
consumed in carrying forward the various lines of the
Northern Pacific Railroad, so that that Company now owes
directly and indirectly to St. Paul, not less than Six Hun¬
dred Thousa7id Dollai's-^a. laxge sum for our people to
carry.. The Road is now ' hard up,' the .sale of its Bonds
having been seriously damaged.

" Seco7id.—The wheat crgp w-as late and large. The re.
cent 'Wheat Corner' has been followed by a coUapae, and
wheat dealers have not as yet fairly recovered their equi¬
librium, and thenumber of buyers on the various roads is
so few that the price is down, and farmers are not selUng
much, therefore "not paying their debts. The depressing
eflfect of this state of atfairs upon the Country Merchants
is seriously felt by our Jobbers.                '

" We are in a vexatious situation, and many may require
time to turn themselves, notOTthstanding our State is in
good shape, and really able to pay aU her debts in fuU."

The Commissioners, in the matter of the extension of
Eleventh avenue, have discovered that the avenue had been
laid out previously and ground dedicated for it by a number
of property-holders, as shown-by several deeds, and they
have determined to "reduce the awards accordingly. This
is resisted by some persons, who as.sert that their titles are
free from such encumbrances, and they claim they are en-