Real Estate Record





AND    BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XIL





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1873.





No. 279





Publistied Weekly by

THE   HEAL  ESTATE  RECORD ASSOCIATION.

TERMS.

One year, in advance......................SG 00

Ail communications should be addrcBsed to
C TV". ©TVEET,

Whiting Building, 345 and 347 Buoadavat.

PLENTY TO PAY, BUT NOTHING IN EETUKN.

It is unfoi'tunate Hint tlie Reform city gov¬
ernment does not understand hoAV lo manage
municipal affairs in a manner satisfactory to
property owners and tax payers. This is not
the fault of one, but of all the departments,
Avhich, instead of working together as a whole,
endeaY»r to obstruct one another. Thus one
department lays on the taxes heavier than
ever before, while another refuses to pay for
I the necessary work of improving the city—
I regulating its streets and building its sewers.
I At this moment all the workup town is stopped,
% simply becausff Mr. Green declines to pay for
it, and because the Aldermen are wrangling
over political appointments instead of attend¬
ing to the actual Avants of the city. In the
Nineteenth Ward, for instance, the taxes this
year are heavier than the entire amount of
rent collected there iu the same space of time,
while no effort is being made to regulate the
grading of streets, the curbing and guttering,
and all that sort of Avork Avhich makes prop¬
erty more A'aluable, owing to its improvement.
Were it not lor this dead lock, Ave had almost
said anarchy, in our municipal departments,
the people Avotild not grumble so much at their
being taxed more heavily than usual. As it
is, tliey have to pay very heavily, and have
nothing to shoAV for it at all. In private life
such transactions are called swindles; why
should not the party of the first part keep its
contract, aud give the tax payer an equivalent
for his money ? And it would if it only had
the foresight that if the work up tOAvn were
to progi-ess steadily and without interruption,
there would shortly be such an increase in the
"  revenues as would amply repay for all previous

outlays.

--------------------, .^(y, .--------------------,

EEFOEM IN FINANCE.

Mr. Van Schaick may or may not be a suc¬
cessful Wall Street financier, but in the posi¬
tion he now occupies before the community
he certainly cuts a very strange figure. As
the head—Ave will not say the brains—of the
Aldermanic clique that opposes the mayor's
nominations, he apparently finds ample time
' to turn his back upon Wall Street and all of
its allurements, and devote himself to affau's at
the City Hall, with what benefit to his con¬
stituents can best be appreciated when a glance
at the Police Courts reveals the presence there





of the same men, who for years under Tam¬
many rule have made common cause with the
roughs and rowdies of New York. Still, all
this can be tolerated for a time, as the voice
of the j)eople will soon be heard in regard to
this matter when Myndert Van Schaick and
all his clique will have to take the back track
aud keep their place. But, as Mr. Van Schaick
hails from Wall Street, and some of his col¬
leagues appear to place great confidence in his
fiuancial knoAvledge, it is Avell to at once hold
up his latest new scheme to create a loan of
$150,000,000 at five per cent, interest, Uie prin¬
cipal to be payable in one hundred years.
Does Mr. Van Schaick remember the difficulty
Mr. BoutAvell experiences in placing even
$100,000,000 with all the advantages of
leading financial agents here and abroad ?
Does he forget that the utmost Comptroller
Green could get for city stock lately was 103,
while United States 6's of 1881 are. selling at
120; and this bid of 103 was only for a pal¬
try $3,000,000 which the Comptroller called for
at the time. Even the credit of the State of
Massachusetts is far better in the money mar¬
kets of the world than that of the city of New
York to-day; and this credit will grow still
worse if blockheads insist on putting forward
schemes, such as even an average Wall Street
banker would not listen to for a single mo¬
ment. Van Schaick himself may be great in
Wall Street, but at the City Hall and its com¬
mittee rooms he is growing smaller by degrees.

V     ———

THE CENTENNIAL BUILDING.





Thirty-seven designs for the Centennial
Anniversary building arc now on exhibiton
in Philadelphia, from which the committee
on plans and architecture will select ten to
be admitted to a second competition. One of
the plans submitted by Brugaldi, Marshall &
Welsh, architects of this city, has certainly,
for beauty and grandeur of conception, noth¬
ing to surpass it among the thirty-seven sub¬
mitted. It proposes a nave 2,150 feet long,
with a centre transept 1,275 feet in length, and
two transepts east and west, each GOO feet long.
The width of the nave aud transepts to be
275 feet in each case. An octagonal domC)
400 feet in diameter and 300 feet high, is pro¬
jected for the centre of the building, and to
be surmounted Avith a cupola 120 feet high
and of 150 feet in diameter. At the shorter
transepts with the nave are smaller domes,
225 feet high, and 125 feet in diameter; tlie
ends of the nave and three transepts to be
terminated with large circular or rose windows
decorated with and designed for the exhibi¬
tion of stained glass.

Externally the ends of the nave and ti-an-
septs are designed to present eight facades,





united by tlie Avails of the aisles, 70 feet high,
and roof of the nave and transepts. These
facades are to be enriched by statues of emi¬
nent men and historical bas-reliefs. On all
sides of the building it is proposed to form
grand terraces, one of which shall form an
arcade for a raihvay station. The whole
building is intended to be erected on solid
stone foundations of sufficient height to secure
accommodation for storerooms, workshops,
raihvay tracks, water supply, ventilation, and
drainage. The superstructure will be mainly
composed of iron and glass, covering 25 acres
of fioor space, including a gallery 75 feet
wide, and running entirely around the build¬
ing 30 feet above the floor level. The floor to
be constructed of narrow pine on iron beams,
or of artificial stone. The approaches to this
gallery are 32 staircases, each 18 feet wide,
thus preventing croAvding or confusion. A
second gallery is to be formed around the
octagon dome, at the intersection of the nave
and centre transept, 60 feet from the floor.
This gallery is to be reached by the staircases
and eight large elevators, and from it four
bridges, each 25 feet wide, connect Avith a cen¬
tre platform 150 feet in diameter. This central
platform is included within the limits of an
octagon tower which, supported on arches
springing from the foundation, is carried up
through the centre of the dome to a height of
420 feet from the floor level, and is surmounted
by a colossal globe, over which an|eagle spreads
its wings. Four large elevators within the
towers start from the level of the platform
mentioned and run to the top of flie dome,
and passing beyond to the top of the cupola
and to the centre of the globe.

There are three promenades arranged on the
outside above the roof of the main building,
to which access is to be had from the elevators
through the tower. The first promenade
around the dome will be at an altitude of 300
feet, affording extensive views. The second
promenade encircles the cupola at a height of
350 feet, and the third and last around the
interior of the globe, about 450 feet from the
ground. The globe is to be 50 feet in diame¬
ter, surmounting the cupola or tower, and the
eagle at its top will be 500 feet from the floor
of the building, or 600 feet from the sea level.





WESTEEN LANDS.





The sale of twenty thousand acres of Kan¬
sas lands recently reported was effected, we
understand, in the city of New York, where
the business of the Pacific Roads is more and
more concentrating. The offices of these
roads, especially on the. arrival of European
steamers, present a very busy appearance—
that   of    the    Kansas    Pacific    Railway,