Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXVI.





NEW TOEK, SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1880.





No. 642





Published Weekly by

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

C.  AV.   SVl?^EET,
No, 137 Broadway

OUR INDEX.

Simultaneously with the publication of the first
number of the new volume. The Recorb presents
its subscribers to-day with an elaborate, carefully
collated Index of Volume XXV., just closed, and
covering transactions ofiicially recorded up to
date.

The transcendent value of the Reai, Estate
Record Index has been heretofore attested by
our appreciative friends, and the fact that our
journal has become the standard work of refer¬
ence in regard to values of realty and other sta¬
tistics peculiarly its own, makes this Index a mat¬
ter of necessity. The labor involved in its com¬
pilation, the care taken in the revision of its num¬
erous details have heretofore challenged the ad¬
miration of our readers, and yet, notwithstand¬
ing all this labor, it is again furnished to our sub¬
scribers freo of cost.

To-day's Index surpasses preceding numbers, in
so far that it has been arranged with still greater
simplicity, condensed where condensation renders
the search the easier, and expanded where ad¬
ditional explanation makes a vain search impossi¬
ble. For instance, where a lot in the form of an L
has been transferred at a certain date, the Index
gives the page of the avenue, as well as the street,
where said transfer is described. There are those
who occasionally complain that they cannot find
the street or avenue on the page quoted in the In¬
dex, to them we must repeat that they will find
it there, if they will onl^ look far enough. Often,
the allusion to said street or avenue is to be found
in the body of another transfer.

The key to the transactions of the past six
months will be appreciated during the revival of
activity, two months hence, when investors and
operators will be glad to refer back to the trans¬
actions that startled the market during the late
boom, and also to those that were recorded dur¬
ing the sudden reaction, which created such a lull
in activity.

It will be seen at a glance that transfers in
New York during the past six months have been
most numei'ous on the extreme East Side, be¬
tween Seventieth and Eighty-fifth streets, and
also between One Hundred and Fifth and One
Hundred and Fifteenth streets. In Brooklyn a
large number of transfers of lots in the vicinity
of Prospect Park are recorded.

Not only, however, does the Index simply fix
the reader's eye upon the transfers of real estate,
the numerous new buildings erected during the
half year, the new laws passed—bearing on prop¬
erty, the mechanics' liens, but all the various
matters of interest that are from week to week
found in the columns of The Record are carefully
indexed in alphabetical order, so that our sub¬
scribers can have no difficulty in ascertaining,





without delay, where to look for the information
required.





WHERE THE GRANDEST IMPROVEMENTS
ABE IN PROGRESS, AND IN EMBRYJ,

The exceptionally long and important list, which
appeared in this journal last week, under the head
of "Buildings Projected," and the steady and
continuous sales of first class residences, so un¬
usual in midsummer, betoken most clearly the
unabated demand for good houses in desirable
localities. Many of the purchasers seem to be
availing themselves of the interval of leisure
afforded by the summer vacation, giving them
time and opportunity for looking about and of
securing the] required domiciles suited to their
tastes and means, or the sites for their speedy
erection in advance of the more active demand for
both, which is sure to return with business activity.
There are in our midst many gentlemen of fore¬
cast, who secured valuable property as opportunity
offered, and have been holding it for years in an
unimproved state. They seem to have just got in
readiness for erecting the houses which have been
their ideals during all this period. For these, and
other reasons which are obvious, the building of
princely residences is more active at the present
time than for several years past. This is notably
true of that especially attractive section so long
known, and appropriately called "Lenox Hill."

In many particulars, " Lenox Hill" is already in
advance of the still famous " Murray Hill;"
especially in the magnificence of ita palatial archi¬
tecture. In the section embracing " Lenox Hill"
there are, to-day, more elegant, commodious and
costly private, not to aay public, edifices than in
any other diatinct locality in the city. By way of
illustration, we point to a number, all of which
may be characterized as graceful in exterior, ani
fitted, furnished and equipped without any close
study of cost. The residence of Mr, David Dows,
(Herter Bros,, architects) is a double house, fifty
feet front; that of Mr, Heber R. Bishop (Mr, C,
W. Chnton, architect), also double, fifty-four feet
front; of Mr, Geo, W. Quintard (Mr, Arthur Gil-
man, architect), thirty feet front, with an attractive
exterior; of Mr. Alex, H, Stevens (Mr, Haaney,
of Baltimore, Md,, architect), eighty feet; of Mr,
Lapham, of Brooklyn (W. H, Hazeii, architect);
of Mr. S, Bradley (J. G, Prague, architect),
twenty-eight feet, with a beautitiil facade ; of Mr.
Anthony Mowbray (Lamb & Wheeler, architects),
three houses, all extra size, Mr. Wm, Pickhardt
and Mr, Ladieux have their plans out and do not
intend to fall behind their neighbora. Any easen-
tial deterioration in this direction is precluded,
both by the honorable emulation and friendly
atrife of gentlemen of wealth and ambition, as
well as public spirit lor pre-eminence in the
designs and structures which they contemplate
erecting; alao, by the conditions attached to the
sale and transfer of this property for building
purposes, most wisely transmittei by the public-
spirited and far-seeing man whoae name it must
alwaya bear.

Of the comparatively small portion of this
" eminent domain " which could be obtained at
any coat, Mr, John D. Crimmins, to whose excel¬
lent judgment  and   splendid   enterprise   these





columns have borne frequent testimony, succeeded
in March last in purchasing a most magnificent
plot on Sixty-ninth street and Madison avenue, of
Mr, Robert L. Stuart, who purchased directly from
Mr. Lenox many years ago, Mr. Crimmins, in
offering this property to the public, announces his
purpose to enforce the original conditions of Mr,
Lenox in their fullest spirit and intent. The en¬
tire block is thereby reatricted to first class housea
only, and nothing in any way noxious or offensive
to the neighboring inhabitants will be allowed or
tolerated. We believe Mr. Crimmins will very soon
have the aasurance that these restrictions, thus
publicly made known, as surely as they enhance
the value, will proportionately accelerate the sale
of these splendid lots.

The names of other gentlemen, besides those we
have mentioned above, occur to us as owning
beauti^iil residences in the same vicinity; among
them Mr. J. M, Fiske, Hon, H. C, Van Vorbt, Mr,
F. D, Tappan, Mr, Anderson Fowler, Mr. Parker
Handy, Mr. B, B, Atterbury, and others equally
prominent, whose names do not chance to be
familiar to us, Messrs, J. M. Fiske and T. G.
Eastman (Mr. E. D. Hatch, architect) have, at the
present time, two new dwellings of the highest
order of architecture under way. Builders have
erected the moat expensive and magnificent houses
in this neighborhood, and so great is the demand,
that they have almost invariably disposed of them.

Owing to the character of these structures, as
well as the assured respectability of their owners
alid occupants, and especially owing to the scarcity
of lots in this immediate vicinity, the importance
of the restrictions in question can scarcely be ex¬
aggerated in the estimation of both present and
prospective residents. The security they afford
the purchaser is an important factor in the con¬
sideration of the deed. The value of such a guar¬
antee cannot be measured by legal tender, Mr.
Crimmins, we understand, will illustrate his good
faith in this behalf by building a house on one of
these exquisite lots, which will be, in some sense,
a model of his ideas of a " first class" house, as
wed as those of the original grantor. The re¬
maining lota will be so eub-divided aa to enable
any party purchasing to determine the dimensions
of the ground he may require, be the same twenty^^
five feet or more ; and, at the same time, he can
fix his own terms of payment.

Much might be said of the beauty, salubrity and
healthfulness of the locality, on the latter point
especially, by reason of the nature of the soil and
its elevation above tide-water, which s eighty
feet, at least ten feet above the highest point of
" Murray Hill." The indications are unmistakable
that, with the incoming autumn, the demand for
residences will be unprecedented. Let gentlemen
of means, not yet provided with homes of their
own, consider whether the inducements here pre¬
sented are not worthy their immediate and practi¬
cal attention, especially before a still more active
and speculative market yet further enhances the
value of these peerless building sites, in thisr
choicest of localities, ynth the most attractive
surroundings. Investors should also bear in
mind that the area of what is known as "Lenox
Hill" is not over one eighth the size of "Murray
Hill," the park occupying all the ground west of
Fifth avenue.   Heaoe the ntuaber of lots offered