Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol   XXVII





NEW YOKK, SATCEDAY. JUNE 25,  18«1





No t)93





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
ONE YEAR, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, I3T Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





The building furore shows' no signs of
abatement. On the contrary, our lists of
new buildings and mort'i^ages show that new
building firms are entering the field, and
there is every indication that large quantities
of liouses are being put up on speculation.
There has been no such building, as is now
going on, within the memory of the oldest
real estate operator. All kinds of liouses are
being projected. Tiie greatest opera house
known to tbis continent is one, while im¬
mense buildings, for offices, stores, ware¬
houses, as well as great apartment flats, are
under way. There is no danger of building
being overdone in this city for many years
to come. The additions to our trade are
very great, and everything tends to swell
the population of the metropolis. Of course,
the time will come when speculative build¬
ers will be pinched, but there are no signs
of any catastrophies of this kind, either this
vear or next.





Dwight n. Olmstead is of opinion that
some day a tunnel, or rather an open cut,
will be built from the foov of One Hundred
and Twenty-fifth street and North River,
down to Fifty-seventh street, so as to supply
steam travel on a surface road to those who
live on the West Side. The elevated road
runs too near the Oentral Park, and people
who li7e midway between the Park and the
river, or near the river, will want swift
travel down town. Of course at One Hun¬
dred and Twenty-fifth street the open cut
would connect with the Hudson River road.
Mr. Olmstead is also of opinion that the Hud¬
son River road on the West Side will yet
play an important part in supplying rapid
transit for up-town people. He thinks some¬
thing shoukl be done to unite the elevated
system with the Hudson River road at Thir¬
tieth street.





There is no mistake about it, that building
has commenced on the West Side. Two
apartment houses are projected at the lower
part of the Grand Boulevard, and some ten
other enterprises are under way, which will
involve buildings west of the Centi-al Park.
Crowds of workmen are employed at Mr.
Clark's magnificent apartment house, and
the first story will soon be under way. Two
years' time will make a marvellous change.
Both builders and buyers will naturally pre¬
fer houses built on $6,000 and $8,000 lots, to
those for which $18,000 and $20,000 are
asked.   West Side property is still very, very

cheap.

^»>

The act of the Legislature, defining the

erm "land," when used in a legal way, is





very sweeping. It includes soil under as
well as above Avater, all substmctures and
superstructures erected thereon, all wharves
and piers, all telegraph lines, all surface, un¬
derground or elevated railroads, all mines
and quarries. "Real estate" and "real
property " has the same meaning as "land."
It is evident the State is determined to widen
as far as possible the fiehJ of her ta-^ation.

WHY A NEW RAPID TRANSIT COM¬
MISSION ?

Mayor Grace was formally petiticmed to
appoint a nevv rapid transit commission for
the annexed district. He did not want to
do so, but he supposed that the law was
mandatory, and that he could not help him¬
self. There is real danger that a new com¬
mission may so tangle matters up as to pre¬
vent any rapid transit in the Twenty-third
and Twenty-fourth Wards. In other words,
it is feared that what has occurred in Brook¬
lyn may happen agiin in the annexed dis¬
trict, and several new companies be organ¬
ized, one to interfere with the other. The
facts with regard to rapid transit in the an¬
nexed district are as follows :

Some years since the engineers of the
Central Park Commission made a survey of
the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards,
and laid out the route for three railroads,
all of wliich would converge at the Second
Avenue bridge. These three roads would
fairly accommodate all parts of the annexed
district. The first rapid transit commission
that was appointed had a careful scientific
survey of the district made, and their en¬
gineers agreed with those of the Central
Park Commission as to the necessity for
three parallel roads, converging at th" Sec¬
ond avenue, but having an outlet also to the
sunken track of the Harlem road. The
Jeromes and others who had their personal
axes to grind, raised a clamor about the ac¬
tion of the suburban rapid transit commis¬
sion, and the second commission was ap¬
pointed by Mayor Cooper. This commission,
after another careful investigation, endorsed
the plan of the Central Park Commission
engineers and the engineers of the flrst com¬
mission. A company was finally organized
to build the roads decided upon by the three
sets of engineers, as being the best and most
practicable.

But, of course, certain powerful local in¬
fluences wotild not be satisfied with any
plan. People who live within ten minutes
walk of the Second and Third avenue
bridges, are opposed to any suburban rapid
transit routes. Then, the property holders
on Third avenue, at the other side of the
Harlem, want only one road to run upon
that avenue, so as to benefit a small section
of the district at the expense of the proposed
improvements east, west and north. But
the stockholders of the suburban rapid tran¬
sit company object. They say the whole
district must be considered, and not the now
populous part of it. Third avenue, above
the Harlem River, is only 80 feet wide, with
15 feet of sidewalk, aud the storekeepers





who reside upon it would not patronize an
elevated road. It would be absurd to sacri¬
fice the whole district for the benefit of a
very few property holders in the central or
lower portion of it.

According to the last census, the total
population of the Twenty-third and Twenty-
fourtii wards was 43,300. Nearly 30,000 of
these lived below One Hundred and Seven¬
tieth street and near the line of the Harlem
road. It follows that a system of rapid
transit roads, to become profitable, must
help to create the conditions that will invite
a large population. The present inhaintants
of the annexed district used the Porchester,
the Harlem, the New York and North rn
and the Hudson River road, as well as the
horse cars. To make the Surburban roads
pay in addition, the population must at
least be quadrupled.

The majority of the new commissioners
appointed by Mayor Grace, are reputable
gentlemen. They in all probability will en¬
dorse what has been done by their prede¬
cessor?. The preliminary work of the Su-
bu'ban rapid transit company is about com¬
pleted, and tliey will soon be ready to com¬
mence actual road building. They believe
the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards
all, save the West Side, are the predestined
home of the working classes of New York.
They think the toilers will find cheap and
wholesome homes upon the routes of their
proposed rapid transit lines. They are un¬
derstood t) be desirous also of securing some
assurance of rapid transit on New York Is¬
land. Forty-one minutes -from the South
Ferry to the Harlem River, is the schedule
time on the Third avenue elevated road, but
forty-five minutes is the real time. Matters
must be so adjusted, that any part of the
Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth wards will
be within half an hour of Chatham Square.
This is a sine qua non. It is believed that
the elevated road people are willing to run
a through train on the Second avenue road,
which will reach down town in twenty
minutes from the Harlem River. The
friends of tiie officers of the Suburban com¬
pany say, that if they are not interfered
with, all the roads will be completed within
two years' time.





THE SITUATION ON THE STREET.

There seems to be an impression that there
will be a reasonably strong marltet in stocks,
between now and the 3d of July. On the
first of the new fiscal year, large sums of
money are to be paid out by the Govern¬
ment and by the various dividend paying
corporations. This money belongs to people
who are natural investors, and who are not
likely to keep it idle. It is not considered
pi-obable that the great operators will make
stocks cheap for the benefit of this class of
investors; it is far more liiiely that prices
will be advanced, so as to encourage these
owners of unemployed money to invest it
and then rates will be easv, the price of in¬
terest low, and there will not seem to be
much object in keeping money unemployed.