Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDK





Vol. XXIX.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY. JA]S[UAET 14, 1882.





No. 722





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

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

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 137 Broadway.

J. T, LINDSEY'Business Manager,

Subscribers to The Real Estate Record who want
the Index for the last six months, ran get it gratis
upon calling at The Real Estate Record office.
This Index is indispensible to all who keep files or
have access to files of The Real Estate Record, It
tf'lls the page in The Tkcord where can be found the
various transactions given in our list of conveyances
in New York and Kings Counties. It is also an index
to the new buildings, plans for which were filed dur¬
ing the last six months in New York County.
--------------. J > » .---------------

Governor Cornell's message deals with
many very important matters in a very com¬
monplace way. The State tax will be re¬
duced one-third during tho coming year,
which is partly to be credited to the heavier
sums levied on the jDroperty of New York
city, due to the increased valuation of real
estate in this vicinity. The drought of last
summer seems to have shown the Governor
that he was wrong in vetoing the new aque¬
duct project last spring, so he now recom¬
mends the appointment of a commission to
see whether an aqueduct is really needed.
He laments the waste of money on sinecur-
ibts and in extrava.gant salaries to local offi¬
cers, but has no suggestions to make with
regard to a charter for New York, which
would make its government resj)onsible and
eflicient.





The temper of the stock market for the
moment seems bullish. .All the small
traders, as well as many of the large ones,
believe that at this time of the year a boom
oi some kind is in order, and so the ticker
shows advancing figures in the leading
stocks. There are signs of an imme¬
diate stoppage of the railway war, but the
rates are extraordinary low, compared with
what they were this time last year. Then
stocks have been under the harrow for
some time past, and in the natural oscilla¬
tions of the traffic in stocks a moderate rise
may be scored. There is no possibility,
however, of a return to the prices of this
time last year. Many strong people have
been saddled with stocks at very liigh prices,
and they are ready to drop their burden if
they can get out at a moderate loss. From
this one cause alone the market cannot
make any great advance. Then, again, it is
the professional traders who do most of the
buying and selling. The business men of
the country are actively engaged in looking
after their special industries, and they are
leaving the " street" alone. Still, the unex¬
pected often happens; some action may be
taken by Congress which would kindle anew
the fires of speculation, and, should it be
settled that silver is to be remonetissed when





the Monetary Conference reassembles in
April next, prices would advance the world
over, whether the crops are good or bad.





ABOUT DOWN TOWN.

According to the assessment rolls prepared
by the Board of Assessors the total valuation
of the real estate of this city is $1,039,-
300,136^ an increase over the valuation of
last year of $63,384,737. This valuation is
subject to correction as the lists are to be
kept open until the end of April. As the
corrections will be in the nature of reduc¬
tions, the final totals will make the valuation
probably something less than $1,000,000,000.
As these estimates are put on the basis of 60
per cent, valuation, it follows that the real
estate of this city is worth about $1,400,-
000,000. Were such a thing possible as for
each property holder to get what he consid¬
ered a fair price for his realty, the total
would soon reach nearly $3,000,000,000.

The increased valuation of the city below
Maiden lane and Cortlandt street is over
$7,000,000. This, as well informed real es¬
tate dealers know, does not tell the whole
story. The actual increase in the price of
property in the lower part of the island is
actually much greater than the official
figures indicate. It is undoubtedly true that
no part of the city has been more benefited
by the Elevated road system than the ex¬
treme lower part of the island. Their work¬
ing has put an end to all danger of the finan¬
cial business of the city being transferred to
any other quarter. The district below Cham¬
bers street is destined to be more valuable
than any spot of similar area on the globe.
It is snid that in old London, where the chief
financial business is transacted, the land could
not be purchased if covered with gold of the
thickness of a guinea. But the costliest part
of old London will not in time be able to
compare with the lower part of New York,
so far as commercial value is concerned.
The tendency is to erect immense structures
and to transact business by samples. Hence
suites of rooms will take the place of stores
and warehouses, for the goods will be shipped
directly from the manufactory or the New
York warehouse to where they are needed
in the interior. The crowds have become so
dense below the City Hall Park, that in bus-
ness hours it is difficult to move up and
down Broadway freely. As to vehicles,
they have become so numerous that some
provision must soon be made to relieve cer¬
tain well-known localities of the vast throng
of carts and wagons which now choke up
our business thoroughfares.    ■

Everything conspires to crowd business
and population upon the lower part of New
York island. It is only a question of time
when the tunnel under the Hudson will
transfer much of the vast business which is
now done on the Jersey shore, to New York.
The elevated roads will soon become con¬
nected with the entire railway system of the
country out of New York. This means a
vast addition to the business to be transacted
,iix every part of New York reashed by the





elevated roads. The Produce Exchange will
add largely to a demand for stores and
offices in its neighborhood, and the Cotton
and other Exchanges will soon be eager for
ampler accommodations than those they
now have. The growth of the country in
population is very rapid, and of course New
York must not only grow in size, but its
business quarters will feel the effect of the
vast addition to the trade of the country.
Other cities can grow in every direction, but
New York, especially its business quarter, is
forced to grow sKyward The elevator will
become the necessary adjunct to every new
building erected south of Chambers street.





THE   RAILROAD   SITUATION.

A gentleman who has had a recent con¬
versation with William H. Vanderbilt says
that the latter is anxious not only for the
railway war to continue, but for the most
stringent anti-railway legislation which can
be adopted at Albany. Mr. Vanderbilt was
very frank in giving his reasons. He said
the West Shore & Buffalo road was build¬
ing a parallel line to the Central; their sta¬
tions were located in all the cities of the
Mohawk Valley within a stone's throw of
those of the Central road. This line was
located south of the Central road, while the
Boston & Hoosac Tunnel line was being laid
out just north of the Central road. When
these two line were completed they would
naturally divide the business of the New
York Central. The actual cost of the par¬
allel roads would be less than $30,000 a mile,
that is to say less than $14,000,000 against
the $138,000,000 of the Central. The dis¬
tance between New York and Buffalo is 441
miles. Of course it is clear that the Central
could not continue to pay 8 per cent, upon
$90,000,000 in addition to the bonded obhga-
tions, with a road running side by side to
it requiring to earn interest on only one-
ninth of that sum. Hence Vanderbilt delib¬
erately inaugurated the railway war to cut
down thep.roflts of the trunk lines, and he is
quite willing that the Legislature should put
heavy burdens upon railway property, so as
to kill off all new enterprises of that kind.

And Mr. Vanderbilt has so far succeeded.
The construction stock of the Boston oppo¬
sition is unsaleable, while the construction
stock of the company which is building the
West Shore & Buffalo line is selling at
5 premium. Less than eight months since
it sold for 30 premium. The New York men
which was interested in building the New
York, Chicago & St. Louis road, that is to
say, the opposition line to the Lake Shore,
state that had the railway furore continued,
by this time a new construction company
would have been under way to duplicate the
tracks of the Chicago & Burlington, Rock
Island and every other road which paid large
dividends upon heavily watered stocks. The
argument in every case was that if a road
could pay high dividends when the line was
stocked and bonded for over $100,000 a mile,
that there must certainly be a profit in a
, V al road costing less than $30,000 a mile.