EAL  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXIV.





NEW YOUK, SATUKDxVY, DECEMBER '20, 1879.





No. GU





Published Weekly by

Cbe Seal €state Eccortr |lssocmtton.

TERMS.
OiVK YEAR, in advance.. ..SIO.OO.
Communications .sliould be addri^ssed to

C.   \V.   S"lVKK'i\

Nos, I'ib AND 1J7 Broadwav

■ IIEATINC BY STEAM,
The 11'oyositiou to hcai the public aud privnte
houses of this city by steani is very naturally
exciting considerable di^cus.sioii. It i.s quite .1
possible thins *u <i"- It is within the resourcesi.«f
practical science to have steam reservoirs in
various parts of the city which will supply heat
to private residences .as water aud <^as arc iiiw
brought into our houses. The proposition deserves
a great deal of consideration before nnj- decided
action is taken. It may be said in favor of this
scheme that it would result in an inuiieuse saving
of fuel; that it would do away with the danger of
lire, if generallj* ii.sf'd, ami that it would be
cleanly. But it ailects private interest.^, which
are veiy important, aud which cauiiot lie over
looked. The mauufaclurers nud dealers iu
furnaces, stoves, aud ail the heating and cooking
apparatus of our niodenidwoUiugs cannot regard
this new iunovatiou with favor. It is a direct
attack upon their pockets, and, as such, wiil be re¬
sisted. There is another danger. This steani heat¬
ing of the whole city will necessarily be a moiioin)-
Iv. Chart"red b\- the city, if will have a gi-i-at
deal lo saj- in the election of our locnl oflicials,
and will trj- to control tho Coinmon Council
in its own. interests. The thiie will certuinly
come when all compactlj' built cities will use heat
supplied either bj- the luuiiicipalitj or by private
corporations. The present .sj-steui is wasteful and
dangerous, but a luouopoly of the heating of our
dwellings is a verj- serious mutter to sell or give
away to anj* corporate budj-.

The English governinent was wise iu the char-
ter.s it gave to railroads. None of Ihem are per-
petuil. The Slate reserved the right niter
' twentj'-live 3'ear.s to purchase the lines thej' gave
authoritj- to build, if Parliauicut or the Govern¬
ment so willed. Our own railroad charters are
not so guarded in the iuterests of the coininuiiitj-.
Thej' are practicallj- perpetual, though, as the
decision in tho Granger cases showed, thej' are
amenable to Federal and State laws. This, how-^
ever, is an age of great enterprises, it is a mag¬
nificent s'.dieme to undertake the heating of a
great city, and, with the heating, all tho neces¬
saries for cooking. Undoubtedly, steam heating
is more healthful than ordinarj- furnace heat, and
far preferable to stoves or ranges; but we should
guard against permitting anj- corporation to
have the warmth and comfort of the conuiiuiiitj-
at its meicj', without some guaraiitj- thut its
power will not be misused. The cilj' should re¬
serve to itself the right at auj- time to purchase
the works at a reasonable rate, to be adjusted bj-
a fair arbitration. The luunicipalitj- itself sells
water. It ought to manufacture and sell the
gas, and if ever the citj' should be heated bj*
steam, tho corporation should have some control
over the business. There are some things after
all, better done bj- the governinent than bj-
private enterprise.     Our government buildings





are not too dear: the ships built iu our Mavy
Yards are not over-costlj-: our Post OfTice depart- '
ment is efllcient and economical. Bad as the |
nianngeuient of the Ene Canal has tjeeii, the poli- I
ticiiiiis who havi' abused their trust can snfelj-
claim that the linancial record of the Erie Rail¬
road is a hundred times worse than their own.
The Jobbeiy and stealing in the public service
cannot begin to compare in enormitj' with that
which obtains in corporations which transact the
biisiiu?ss of the comiiiuuitj'. Before this scheme
of heating the citj- bj- steam is endorsed, a com¬
mission of experienced citizens should be ap¬
pointed, who should consider the iiros aud cons,
and recommend some action looking townrds
guarding the rights of the comiiiunitj'. Then the
whole inatter should be taken in hand, and modi-
tied to suit the situation bj- our corporate author¬
ities. But no steps should be taken hastilj' on a
matter of such vital imj;ortauce ns the heating of
our whole citv.





FIXED BUSINE.SS CENTRES.

S.inip time .since we pointed out tho fact that the
buililiiig <if {lie elevated roads fixed for a long
period the busine.ss centres of this city-. There was
real dauger 01.ce that the business of Broad and
Wall streets would have to go up-town if the citj-
kept exteiidhig northward and the trade of the
metropcdis increased. It would in fact have been
phjsicallj- impossible for merchants, bankers aud
lirokers to have been accommodated in the lower
p;irt of the citj- and live in the iipper'portion.
But rapid tmiisit has settled the ijuestion for a
Iniudicd years to come. Our present busines.s
centres below tho City Hall Park will not be af¬
fected, but will reniain stalionarj-, and be to the
next generation what thej- havt; been to the pres
ont and past.

Mor is this all. Thesame remark applies to the
present importing and drygoods centres. There
was a decided teiuleiicj- to move the dij-goods
business from the Fifth to the Eighth Ward, from
below Canal street to above Canal street. It is
within the recoUection of the middle-aged readers
of The Recoud when the drygoods interest left
the soutlieast portion of the citj-, the lower part
(if Broadwaj-, and occupied portions of the Third
and Fifth wards west of Broadwaj-. It was a
most surprising coop at the time, and created
great e.xcitemeut in mercantile and real estate
circles. The locaiitj- of the Real Estate Exchange
was occupied within the last twentj-five years bj-
Levi Cook & Co., then about the largest dry-
goods and notion house in the citj-. But such
sudden changes are nunatural, und are not often
repealed in the hisiorj- of a great citj-. At the
lime this change was made inerchnnts did not gen¬
erally own their own, but the great profits
of the drygoods aud importing busiuess have led
to the ownership bj- merchants of the stores they
occupj-, and heuce manj' of the great houses above
Chamber and below Canal street on the westside
of Broadway and also on the east side are in great
part owned by the merchants who occupy them,
and this is a strong standing reason for the per-
mnneucj' of the drygoods district. To them the
elevated roads settles the question as to whether
they shall or shall not move. The Franklin street
station has become the centre from which the
drj'goods merchants reach their various stores.





and there is now no likelihood of anj- change in
the location of this important department of onr
local trade. In fiftj- years from now the great
houses which are situated between Elm street and
"West Broadwaj- will have their rej resentatives
in tlie same locations. All the poorer houses in
that section of the citj- will eventuallj- be oc¬
cupied !)j- new dl jgoods establishnuuts as the
growth of the ciij- continufr.^. The same is true
of the great importing houses, most of which are
now north of Canal street, where it is probable
thej' will stay, in locations cnvenient lo ware¬
houses and wharve-s and where ehiipiiig facilities
can be easilj' reached. All this has been liuallj-
.settled bj- rapid transit. As jet the good that this
has done the metropolis has not been realized bj-
tiur citizens.

RAILROAD STOCKS AND DEBTS.
There is one aspect of the railroad problem
that has not j-et been fullj- discussed, Upmi the
break down of our new railroad lines in IS?:! it
was supposed that the effect would be a liquida¬
tion of the debts of the various corporations and
a scaling down of tlie mortgage and other indebt¬
edness. The last stages of tiic railway inllation
was the is.suing ofthe fir.st mortgage boniis which
were lo take the precedence ff tiie .stock nud all
the other obligations oi the railroads. If that
had been done we wuuld have luid a railway sys¬
tem to day capitalized al about the actual iiginvs
of lhe co.-t of the roads. But il was f'ou'id that
jhose who pimieii their faith upon the n-suraneo
of the mauiijulators of the roads that a tir^n mort
gage gave a pieference ovim" all ollie!- forms of
iudcbieduess, were deceived, lii nil ihe reo-gau-
izalions which took place, instead ol the debts
being wiped out or scaled, all interests were con¬
sidered, and th.' first mortgage boi!dh',«lders, in
relurii for their securities, were given second and
third mortgages, preferred stock, income stock
and ordinarj- stock, so as to add largelj- iustead o {
taking from the nominal capitals of tho roads. It
would be a curious compilation for some e.\pert,
interested, to give the figures of the various recon¬
structed roads, such as the Chesipeake i!!C C>liio,
Kansas Se Nebraska, Midland of New York und
New Jer,sej-, indeed, aiij- and all of the com¬
panies which went iuto the hands of receivers.
We are quite sure il would be found that the obli¬
gations of the roads have been swollen
enormously. Take the Erie road, f«r
instance. It is only a few years since when
its total mortgage indebtedne.ss was oulj-
eleven million dollars. This was during the
daj's of Jaj' Gould and Jim Fisk. The fixed
charges of the Erie will hercalter amount to
more than sixtj-six million. In other words, w-e
start upou u new era of prosjieritj', with a far
heavier load to <!arry, iu the waj- of interest on
transportation charges, than wheu the panic
struck us in 1873. It is too late to rectifj-thi.s
state of things, but it shouhl be lioriie in mind bj-
nvestors in considering the value of railwaj"
securities. True, the population of the nation is
increasing largelj', and it will be found in a few
J-ears that our railway- sj-steui is inadequate, that
it will need extending, and we expect before five
years are over to see another great raihvay
"boom" and au increase in the mileage of our
connecting road.s.    In'Europe, the population is