Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XX.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAT, SEPTEMBEE 15, 1877.





No.  496.





Published Weekly by

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....$10.00.
Communicafcions shoiUd be addressed to

C. MV.  SWEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





THE MARCH OP IMPROVEMENT.
The twelve months ending September 1, 1877,
are notable and distinguished for a miscellaneous
and voluminous projection of buUding. We have
selected this arbitrary period for review, as it
fm-mshes the data of four different seasons. Usu¬
ally the spring and fall are the most prolific in
buUding enterprises. Owing to the intense politi¬
cal excitement of last f aU the season was practi¬
cally lost; building operations being genei-ally sus¬
pended. As soon as a peaceful solution of the
troubles became assured, the floodgates of enter¬
prise and industry were bm-st asunder with an
overwhelming pressure, and a degree of building
activity exhibited such as the city has not seen at
any other period since the great coUapse of 1873.

Not thafc there has been any actual intermission
of buUding enterprise, as every year and every
month since the panic has developed a share of
activity. It musfc be confessed, however, fchat the
business tapered to a very insignificant volume
affcer the fuU significance of the monetary revolu
tion contemplated and set in motion by President
Grrant, in 1874, -«'as completely reaUzed by master
buUders and speciUators. The sudden shock and
violent distui-bance of values that resulted envel¬
oped the projectors of buUding in a maze of un¬
certainty and doubt as to aUowable cost and proba¬
ble result. The operation of building on a faUing
inarket is about the most certain way imaginable
of emptying- a bank account. The patience and
foresight of buUders were not subjected to any
pi-olonged or inoi'dinate tax. Labor qiuetly
yielded in horn-sand pay, adjusting itself to al¬
tered conditions. As stubborn as New York lot
owners proverbiaUy are, a year or so of depres¬
sion and stagnation sufficed to convince them that
inflated prices were no longer realizable. At aU
events, by the opening of this year the situation
became clearly and sharply defined as regards
land, labor and materials, prices for these having
crystallized on a plane that promises steady and
remunerative employment for all our mechanical
forces. In the absence of any untoward condi¬
tions or fresh calamities, we may justly suppose
prevaUing rates to be representative of the gold
values of respective conamodities, and Ukely to be
permanently estabUshed and maintained untU, afc
least, the next financial cataclysm sweeps over
the horizon. We would characterize the prevaU¬
ing business in bmlding, in the majority of cases,
as extremely natural and legitimate. BuUders
have no longer to contend with that excrescence
and parasite, the lot speculator, but are aUowed
to determine the value of land in the Ught of their
own experience, and according to the capabUities
of the business, and in conference with 6o?3,a fide





OAvners—whose tenure is qualified by no mort¬
gage, and to whom landownership is no new or
recent thing.

During the past whiter the prices of labor de¬
cUned below the lowest scale of gold times, but
this may be ascribed to the peculiar exigency of
affairs then prevaUing. Nearly all wages have
since re-acted, imder the impulse of this years'
activity—a little defcerminafcion on the part of fche
men enabUng fchem, wifchout open demonstration,
to secure what may be termed living wages.

The extremely faA'orable conditions for build¬
ing purposes, that marked the beginning of the
year, were plentifuUy availed of, seemingly, by
aU classes who had money to invest or spend, spec¬
ulatively, in buUding schemes. The capitalist and
the mechanic, the man of doUars who pays for all,
and the man of limited means who reUes upon
loans, were equally ready to reap the advantages
offered by cheap building rates. The year has
fuiiushed another iUustration of the remarkable
pluck and fche unquenchable vigor of our masfcer
buUders—in fche main fche best representatives of
their class that the world can produce. We fancy
we see the incipient verification of one of om-
f oreshadowings—that, at low prices, the city wiU
be built up and completed more rapidly, solidly,
and beaufcifuUy, than at extravagant or high
prices.

Our analysis of the record, of projected buUd¬
ings during the past twelve months, reveals the
facfc that they aggregate over fifteen hundred
erections, divided thus.

First-class residences........................

Second-class residences......................

Aparfcmenfc houses............................

Sfcores and warehouses......................





...................     200

...................    300

......  ............      75

..................      75

Tenemenfc houses___.............................    500

Facfcories and shops.............................      .50

Miscellaneous   small   buildings,  under   $5,000

value...........................................     150

In annexed disfcricfc..............................     150





Tofcal.......................................... 1,500

This aggregafce may seem smaU, but must be
measured by compai-ison with similar periods
immediately antecedent, and in the light of the
fact that the bulk of it originated in the first
eight months of this year. If the ratio is pre¬
served to the end of the year the total for 1877
wiU approximate closely to the normal average
of the besfc of times. The result thus far attained
may be haUed with satisfaction by our citizens at
large, and especiaUy by the real estate commu¬
nity, as indicative of revived interest and the
beginning of a new era of buUding development.
Any one possessed of the impression that the
bottom has faUen out of New York real estate,
or that grass was growing in our sfcreets, had
better take a cab and employ a leisure hour in
a tour of inspection -within municipal limits, the
sequel of which wUl certainly be the dispellihg
of such iUusions.

A careful examination of our analysis, accom¬
panied with personal observation, wiU develop
many interesting topics of i-emark. The quaUty
and character of present projections are more
significant and iostructive than the mere bulk or
aggregate of figures.   We remark, pi-imarUy, that





the major share of building is of an invest,ment
character, and partakes of the solidity and pei--
manence which such a purpose demands. The
largest estates, such as the LoriUard, Wolfe,
Rhinelander and Roosevelt, are conspicuously
represented in the field, besides a few capitalists,
who appear for the first time, aU intent upon
securing the best income that improved property
can be made to produce.

A .suggestive fact is found in the i>rojection of
over five hundred tenement houses, many of
which ai-e connected -with stores on the first floor.
When we state that about three-fifths of this
number are separate projections, by as many indi¬
vidual o-wners, we discover a favorite method of
investment by persons of smaU means, wherein
productive property becomes competitive with
sa-vings banks. A notable feature is the sparse-
ness of individual projections of first-class private
residences, showing a striking indisposition on the
part of wealthy citizens to embark in these costly
luxuries. The Record reveals but five such pro¬
jections within the period we are consid«-ing.
Among these the brown stone palace of Mr. J. A.
Bost-wick, Fifth avenue and Sixty-fii-st street,
looms up prominently and notably—destined, we
believe, to become one of the many models of
luxurious and highly embellished mansions that
adorn our city. On Pifty-eighth street, befcween
Fifth and Sixth avenues, Messrs. Hubbard, Samp
son & Bence have constTucted unpretending but
comfortable homes, while on Fifty-seventh street
Mr. Von Post, of Oelrichs & Co., has struck out-
an entu-ely new model of front elevation, whose
unique and highly wrought features form an
agreeable contrast with sun-oundmg platitudes.
The erection of so many pubUc edifices and of
costly and elaborate stores and warehouses must
be deemed either anachronisms of investment or
else indicative of greater thrift in business and
plenitude of cash than falls under the observation
of ordinary financial editors. The large out¬
cropping of speculafcive building, so-caUed, in the
way of private single dweUings—no less than
five hundred in all being recorded—^wiU convey
an assurance to the pubUc of a plentiful supply of
this prime necessity of Ufe, and a likelihood of
acquiring it at an outlay less fchan an average
fortime.

The aceepfced line of residence buUding fuUy
confirms our past prognostications that the
gro-wth of the fashionable quarter wUl foUow the
narrow belt between Fourth and Pifth avenues,
and partake of the character of soUd blocks of
mason work rather than of detached residences
with grounds. The apartment system, despite
aU unfavorable auguries, is receiving notable
and numerous iUustrations—some of a highly ex¬
pensive character.

The grovrth of our city proceeds so steadUy
and unobtrusively and buUding projections drop
upon us so like sno-wflakes, that we can readUy
imagine the average citizen immersed in affairs
may pass his days almost unconscious of what is
transpiring except in a given locaUty. Por the
edification of om-readers and on account of the
inherent value of the subject, as typical of the
Indomitable energy of New Yorkers, and Ulus-
trative of the peerless spirit in which they battle