Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXV.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1880.





No. 640





Published Weekly by

C^« J^mi Estate ^mxh %SBacmiian.

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   S"WEE1\

No. 137 Broadway





Builders and material men should read care¬
fully the Mechanics' Lien law which has just been
signed by the Governor, and is printed for the
first time iu the columns of to-day's Record.
The importance of its various provisions will re¬
quire a general circulation of this law among tbe
building trade. Extra copies of The Record
containing tho new statute can be obtained at
this office, and orders can be transmitted to us by
telephone.





Communication can now be had with this offlce
BY   TEIiEPHONE,

an accommodation provided specially for our
subscribers and advertisers. Up-town builders
and agents, also, who are subscribers to the Na¬
tional Bell Telephone, can now, without delay,
converse with the editor of Thk Record without
being compelled to come down town.





THE HEALTHY REACTION.

The depression in prices, so sudden and ex¬
traordinary during the last two months in various
departments of business, proves now to have been
a healthy reaction from an attempt at over specu¬
lation, so readily indulged in, especially in this
section of the country. This reaction was indeed
necessary to maintain that steady, onward march
of prosperity based upon the excellent condition
of the country. Its effect has been to open the
eyes of speculators in time, and to put on brakes
where matters were going too fast. The lesson
has been a salutary one, and the heavy stocks of
merchandise brought in here from abroad, owing
to the high prices, are being rapidly reduced by
healthy consumption and a decrease in the volume
of importations. In fact, during the week ending
last Saturday the importations were smaller than
they have been at any time since January. The
eleven, and often thirteen, million dollars worth
of foreign goods brought,to this port during the
booming weeks of March and April are now re¬
duced to seven and eight millions, with a per¬
ceptible increase in the volume of exports. The
result will soon make itself felt again in an increase
of prices, but that increase will be sure and steady
and at a moderate percentage. The example of
the iron trade will not be followed with its boom¬
ing prices, since succeeded by crushing failures.

Wall street, also, while recovering from the
quasi-panicky feeling of the last month, is more
disposed to act in accordance with the sensible
ideas of merit and value. The earnings of all the
railroads throughout the country are better than
they were a year ago, and th^re is already felt a
sound undercurrent which will give better per¬
manency to the prices of stocks.





There are those in the real estate market, as well
as in Wall street, who are not always disposed to
reason. These people, during the recent healthy
reaction, imagined that another long and tedious
period was to set in. They must already see by
this time the erroneous views under which they
labored. Never in the history of the country has
business been conducted upon a more solid basis,
and the speedy breaking down of speculative
prices has already had the beneficial effect of re¬
newed improvements flverywbere, of turning the
flood of foreign goods and securing a steady con¬
sumption by a population vastly increased by emi¬
gration.

--------•--------

WHY NOT REAL ESTATE ?
If the Government, in taking the census, had
made provision for gathering statistics iu regard
to real estate, both improved and unimproved,
property-owners might with complacency regard
the schedule for New York City. It would have
been like taking stock in a large warehouse, so
that those interested in the number of buildings
and lots on hand or occupied could have seen at
a glance the extent of tlie supply. We regret
that, notwithstanding the tremendous efforts
made in "Washington to make the census of 1880 a
model one, the authors of the census bill did not
have the foresight to provide for the gathering of
these statistics. It would have been shown, for
instance, where the density of population causes
a demand for more lots; how those not finding
room enough on the soil allotted to them are be¬
ginning to build skyward, and how near we, in
this city of New York, with the approaching
completion of the East River Bridge, may be to
the creation of a city and suburbs that must, in
the course of time, eclipse even London with its
four million of inhabitants. Figures tell the
story, whether they show the aggregate of lots
laid out or the number of miles covered by paved
streets. And it is upon such figures that values
may be based. Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore
and other cities would have been benefited by
statistical information on such a subject, and the
comparative tables forming part of such an
investigation would have been scanned with
interest, not only, but with profit, by American
investors generally. It is passing strange that
while the general government has created special
bureaus to gather all statistics in regard to man¬
ufactures, agriculture, etc., it should have over¬
looked the real estate column. Especially, in a
republic like this, with its fifty millions of inhabi¬
tants, many of them owners of the soil in a ratio
far surpassing that of other countries, the statis¬
tics on this subject would have been instructive,
not only to the capitalist and investor, but to the
political economists of this, as well as of other
countries.





The two most important bills affecting the prop¬
erty interests of the city passed at the last session
of the legislature, were ;|the Assessment Bill, al¬
ready published in these columns, and the Bill for
the improvement of Morningside Park and the
avenues bounding that park, which we print to¬
day. Both bills have now been approved by tho
Governor.   For the passage of the latter bill the





city and the West Side property owners are chiefly
indebted to the efforts of the West Side Associa¬
tion, and especially of its president, Mr. Dwight H.
Olmstead. A bill for the improvement of River¬
side Park was also introduced into the legislature.
It passed the Senate, but failed to pass the As¬
sembly, owing to the great pressure of other busi¬
ness at the close of the session. It is understood,
however, that the Morningside bill is the initia¬
tory step in the completion, at an early day, of all
the public improvements on the West Side. The
improvement of Morningside Park is much
needed, and will open up for occupation a large
and growing section of the city.





The question of locating" the World's Fair of
1883 is beginning to agitate the minds of incor¬
porators as well as of property owners. It would
be folly for any one, during the present embryo
state of the Commission, to designate any partic¬
ular locality that answers the requisite purposes.
And yet, it might as well be said now as later,
that the committee charged with selecting a site
will have to go where there are but few owners
to deal with. It has been so in London, in Paris,
in Vienna, and even in Philadelphia, and will be
found to be the same when the actual work in
securing the ground in New York City will have
to be taken in band. Legislative enactments
may give the World's Pair Corporation all the
privileges they ask for, but owners of lots or of
acres cannot be driven even by legislative enact¬
ment to surrender their property at nominal
values. One or two may be found, and no doubt
will be found to grant leases at nominal figures,
or perhaps at no flgures at all, but the case wUl
be different when, say twenty-five or thirty own¬
ers have to be dealt with. It all amounts to this,
then, that to obviate the obstacles that will surely
be put in their way by individual owners, the
commissioners will have very little to choose
from when the all important question must
finally be decided. Aside of the Central Park
but few if any tracts can be had suitable for the
emergency, jirovided the Pair is to remain on
Manhattan Island. Any other selection would
involve tedious negotiations, owing to the num¬
ber of small owners, whose peculiar ideas as to
the temporary transfer of their property, might
result in upsetting the very best scheme conceived
by the commissioners.





Officials in charge of municipal and other cor¬
porations in calling for plans, specifications and
estimates make generally a glaring mistake by
announcing the fact that they will pay only for
the best or second best plans. What these best or
second best plans are, can be easily conjectured
when no architect of standing can afford to
prepare a plan in haste nor give his time for its
preparation free gratis. The result is. that in
many cases only the drones of the profession
send in plans and take their chances, while those
who have any work at all on hand keep aloof from
making plans not based upon positive remunera¬
tion. Our public buildings would be less subject to
criticism if all architects, when called upon to
ubmit their views and ideas, were to be paid for