EAL Estate Record





AND     BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XYIII.





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, JULY 8, 1876.





No. 4,34.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION.

C, W. S WEET...............Pbesibent and Tbeasuker

PKESTON I. SWEET...........Secketaby.

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, ill advance....$10 00.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   TT.   S'W.-EET,

No3. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





A WOED TO LARQE CAPITALISTS.

We suggest that large capitalists coukl not do
better than invest their money in new and im¬
proved varieties of apartment houses, or Paris
flats as they are popularly called. We believe
there is no question that all of these new edi¬
fices have bronght in large dividends, even in
these hard times, to the capitalists who had the
courage to erect them. The capitalist who
constructed the Stuyvesant House, in Eighteenth
street, "builded better than he knew." That
made the apartment houses fashionable. It is
said there are now a hundred and seventy-eight
such houses in different parts of the city; but we
judge this to include Sixth avenue edifices and
other large buildings erected ^vith stores under¬
neath them, which are properly only a kind of
tenementhousefor the middle class, or people
who can afford to pay from thirty to sixty dol¬
lars a month. But large, costly houses, which
are designed to furnish fine accommodations,
pay to-day better than any other real-estate
property in New York.

Nor is there any present likelihood of its being
overdone. Of course, it would not do to mul¬
tiply Haight Houses, Albanies, or Saratogas;
but the time has, come when large capitalists
should take whole blocks, west or east of the
Central Park, and build up magnificent palaces..
The aim should be to add very greatly to the
attractions of the present apartment-houses,
which can be done, and the tenements rented
for what would be in the aggregate a very much
larger sum. Why is it not possible to have in
one block, not only apartments suitable for
families of all sizes, but laundries and cooking
facilities in the centre of the block, where the
needful household work may be done at a mini¬
mum cost ?

Prom 1842 to 1850 the "I'ourrierites" and
ether socialists agitated the subject of what
they called "unitary homes," in which the peo¬
ple were to live in vast dwellings by some fan¬
cied co-operative or socialistic scheme. They
pointed out with a great deal of truth that cer¬
tain economical advantages would accrue. They
said, take a block of houses comprising, say, a
hundred different families; here are a hundred
ranges, a hundred cooks and two hundred othei
servants of their wants, all scattered over a space
which could, if made into a vast dwelling, ac¬
commodate twenty times the number of persons
with, even greater eomfOTtan4actiially leas cost,





thus to have one great range, five cooks instead
of a hundred, washing done by steam, thereby
utilizing an immense amount of human labor,
the service of all more efficiently organized,
economy in space, whereby ten persons could
live on the same area of ground that one person
did then.

All these considerations had weight; the diffi¬
culty was that the excellent suggestion was
simply impracticable as presented. It was sup¬
posed that householders could get together and
manage all this matter in the same way that a
political caucus could be conducted. Thou¬
sands of attemr)ts were made to realize this
dr. am, but they have universally failed. But
now comes in the capitalist with the apartment
house,-availing himself of the economies sug¬
gested by socialists, and, as a business matter,
makes practicable and profitable what was sim¬
ply the dream of a set of weU-meaning en¬
thusiasts.

We make this suggestion to capitalists, as we
are sure that in this direction is a large amount
of money to be made, and the erection of such
houses at this time would be a benefit to the
wbole business interests of the city. A dozen
such edifices under way would not only be
certain of success, but would distribute money
prudently that is now unwisely hoarded and
bringing no return to the community. This
will not interfere with private houses. New
York has a surplus of them now, and it is bet¬
ter, perhaps, that there should not be much
building for one or two years to come.

The great majority of families will object to
living in apartments, no matter how commo¬
dious or how cheap. The gregarious mode of
life which these huge buildings wiU bring about
is very attractive to some Americans, especially
those who are in the habit of living in hotels,
but wiU be naturally objectionable to people who
believe in keeping themselves to themselves.
In great palaces, such as we suggest, there may
be places for social meetings, art galleries, to
which all who dwell in the houses should con¬
tribute, and ten thousand luxuries and cim-
veniences that it would be needless to enumer¬
ate here, but which any one can sketch out for

himself.

------------------» <<»> ♦------------------

AEE  NEW BUILDINGS  NEEDED?





Several of the city papers have jumped at the
conclusion that times are reviving because cer¬
tain capitahsts and builders have seen fit to em¬
bark in new enterprises, and have commenced
the construction of edifices with a view to fu¬
ture profit. We may as well be candid and ad¬
mit that any building which is likely to take
place within the next two years in this city wiU
be entirely unwarranted by any immediate re¬
quirement of trade, and wUl be undertaken
simply with a view to profit at some fiitttte time.
It nni.st be borne in mind that the weeding oi%t





which is taking place in mercantile circles, the
necessity for economizing in the number of com¬
mercial agents which the countryneeds, is elim¬
inating large numbers of the class which stood be¬
tween the producers and consumers. During high
prices and times of  abnormal commercial ac¬
tivity great numbers of people have been em¬
ployed in the cities as agents or intermediaries
betvveen the producing and consuming classes.
P)Ut one of the effects of the panic is to dispense
with these needless agents, and to send them
into some productive emi)loyment ; hence fewer
merchants   aud a   smaller number of clerkf.
"VMiile this  declination of prices and weeding,
out in the number of assistants is going ou,
fewer stores and houses are needed in the large
cities.    A glance at the business streets of Nev/
j York at once  tells the  story of the ax>pavent
diminution  of our population.    People  (both
workingmen and employers) have been com¬
pelled to leave the  city for   country  places,
where their labor can be   made   available   in
some other way than   in   exchanging  goods.
New York has a great many idle houses and un¬
tenanted stores, nor is there any class of new
structures needed, unless indeed it is the apart¬
ment   house.      The   better   class   of   French
flats are to-day the only lucrative building in¬
vestment for capitalists.    There is, of course,
activity in the altering of old buildings and in
the construction of new ones by people who
have funds lying idle and who build now, be¬
cause material and labor are cheap, expecting
to hold these edifices until better times create a
demand for them.   And it seems to us that
wealthy men are justified in thinking that a wise
investment of money may be made by taking
advantage of the present depression in prices to
construct buildings which will be needed at
some not very remote period.    But it should be
clearly understood that this is a purely specu¬
lative movement, and is, with the single excep¬
tion before indicated, not based upon any real
want of the community.   Americans, however,
are hopeful, and New York capitalists have an
abiding faith in the future of the metropolis,
which time   wiU   undoubtedly  justify.     Kich
men,   therefore,    who  hold  these   views   act
wisely in undertaking the construction of new
buildings; but do not let us deceive ourselves
into believing that, as a consequence, times are
improving, though of course better times  can¬
not be very far off.    The liquidation which has
been going on is getting rid of indebtedness,
and is preparing the way for a better business
future.





ALLOWANCE AND EEPEREES' FEES
FOEECLOSUEE CASES.





IN





Since our last issue the recent amendments
to the Code have been published, and among
them are the following: In an action for the
toveclosttt'6 of a mortgage the Court ma^ gtgwut