Real  Estate







AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXX.





NEW TOEK, SATXJEDAY, JULY 22. 1882.





.^' -. 749





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:

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

Communications should be addressed to

€. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.
J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

If the Wall street operators, a majority of
whom are no^v mailing large profits, desu-e
to find a first-class investment for their sur¬
plus funds, they could not do better than
make tlieir wives a present iu the shape of
one of the many elegant residences now
being offered near our beautiful Ceu tral Park.
A number of these dwellings can now be pur¬
chased at a figure for which they could not
be duplicated, and, beyond a doubt, they
will command higher figures next fall.      i

After all, when the shrewdest and largest
stock speculators w.aut to make a permanent
investment they always turn to real estate.
But recently we reported tho sale of tlie
Windermere apartment house, to James R.
Keene, for |350,000, at which figure, by t he
way, it was not a great bargain, the sel lor
having purchased it but a short tiijie
previous, and, it is said, turned neaijly
$50,000 in the transaction.                            ;

Mr. Mackay, the " Bonanza King," is also
about to appear in the market as a bu^'dr.

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SURFACE TRANSIT ON THE WEST
SIDE.
A petition is being circulated and exten¬
sively signed among property owners west
of Central Park and north of Sixty-fourth
street, praying the Ninth Avenue Raih-oad
Company to extend its road to One Hundred
and Twenty-fifth street. The proposed route
of this road is from Ninth avenue and Six¬
ty-fourth street up the Boulevard to the in¬
tersection of Tenth avenue at Seventy-second
street, thence up the Tenth avenue to One
Hundred and Twenty-fifth street.

The Ninth Avenue Company have always
claimed the right to extend theii^ road under
a resolution passed by the Common Council
on December 28th, 1853, by which they say
they were empowered to lay tracks and run
cars along the old Bloomingdaie road and
Tenth avenue to the Harlem River. A few
weeks since they made application to the
Commissioner of Publio Works for permis¬
sion to commence the laying of the neces¬
sary tracks and the rembvalof so much of
the paving on the Boulevard and Tenth
avenue as would be necessary thereto. This
application was referred by the Commis¬
sioner to the Corporation Counsel for in¬
structions. Below Avill be found an abstract
of the latter's reply to this communication:
" The question is_ wl\elher the Ninth Avenue
Railroad still ha^ the right under the fran¬
chises granted by resolution of the Common
Council December 28th, 1858, and confirmed
by chap. 411, laws of 1860, or other authority
of law, to extend their tracks as stated in
the application.   The resolution of Common





Council, adopted in 1853, authorized the
construction of a railroad through Ninth
avenue and various other streets from Fifty-
first stieet to the Battery, and also contained
the following: 'And, also, provided that
said railroad shall be continued from Fifty-
first street along Ninth avenue to the Bloom¬
ingdaie road, thence along Bloomingdaie
road to Tenth avenue, thence along Tenth
avenue to the Harlem River, whenever re¬
quired by Common Council and as soon and
as fast as said avenues are graded.' The
whole of this resolution was originally in¬
valid, but Avas legalized by chap 411, laws of
1860. It appears to me that the effect of
this clause was not to give the grantees
named in the resolution, or their assigns, an
absolute right to extend their road above
Fifty-first sti-eet, but to give the Common
Council the right to require them to
do so. That the Common Council ever
did so require, there is no evidencq."
Under these circumstances, the Com¬
missioner of Public Works had no
alternative, but to refuse to give the Ninth
Avenue Company the required permission
to extend their tracks, at which they aire
from all accounts very indignant, as they
had already provided themselves with the
necessary rolling stock as well as the rails
with which to commence immediately the
laying of the tracks, it being confidently
expected that the cars would be runniijg
not later than September 1st. It is ndw
reported that a mandamus will be applied
for to compel the Commissioner of Public
Works to grant the application.                  .'

That such a surface railroad would be pf
much benefit to all owners of realty on the
West Side tbere can be no doubt, and't'hfit
it would contribute largely to the building
up of the streets through which it would
run, as well as those adjacent thereto,
is beyond question. But^facts are stub¬
born things, and it cannot be denied that if
the railroad company goes to law with
the Commissioner of Pablic Works the
chances will be in favor of the latter. In
addition to the reason already given by the
Corporation Counsel why the company have
not the right to build the road proposed, it
should be remembered that under the char¬
ter they claim they were granted the use of
the old Bloomingdaie road; now as the
latter has been closed up, and some portions
of it become private propei-ty, it is, to say
the least, exceedingly doubtful if their right
did not expire with the closing up of the
said road.

That every property-owner on the West
Side should sign the petition to which we
have alluded heretofore and give the Ninth
Avenue Railroad Company the benefit of
their support in the endeavor to establish a
surface road on the Boulevard, is eminently
proper, but that there is an immediate
prospect of such a road being built, how¬
ever desirable it may be, wlien all the facts
are taken into consideration, not forgetting
Governor Cornell's veto of the general rail-
k road law, we do not believe.





The House of Representatives have passed the
Senate bill as ameurtod, providing for the sale of
the old jjost office building on Nassau street at a
minimum price of stJUO,i)0(}. it is ciiutc pi-obaV)lo
that the Senate will eoucur iii this action, and
that the bill v/ill bo signed by PresWent Arthur,
as we learn on undoubted authority that Secre¬
tary Folger is strongly in favor of such legisla¬
tion.





Active building operations continue in the
district north of One Hundred aud Twentieth
street, west of Fifth avenue, aud iv^ the records
of the Department of Buildings sliow, many
plans for the erection of new buihUug.s in this
locality are benig constantly x)laced upon record.
Most of these structures v.-iil bo either what.are
termed flat houses, or thi-ee-;toiy private .resi¬
dences, with an oectasional large apartment
house. Mr. James Fettreti'h is about to build
two of the largest houses of this character yet
erected in Harlem. They Avill be seven' stories
high, and will be built on "Oue Himdred and
Twenty-eighth street, between Fifth aud Sixth

avenues.

--------------------< • ►-------------------•

Owners of propei-ty iii the Seventeenth Ward
will doubtless take pleasure in reading in our
"Out Among the Builders," that Messrs. R. G-.
Mitchell & Co. do not propose to rebuild their
candle factory on the corner of First avenue and
Fourth street, but have selected a site in the
Seventh Ward. A large delegation oH resith?iits
and property owners iu the Seventeentli AV^ard,
headed by Alderman Ferdiiiaud Levy, recently
appeared before the Health Gommissiouers and
protested against the factory being rebuilt, ou
the ground that the niauutacture of ca)idle.s in
such a densely populated locality was dctrimcutal
to the public health.





The active movement in realty does not confine
itself to New York alone, but seems to be spread¬
ing, and there are many indications that iu the
autumn there will be a very general advaiice in
real estate all over the United States. In
Chicago not only has there been an advance in
prices, but the erection of many extensive i^rivate
residences, as well as large office buildings, .have
alreadj^ been commenced oi- projected, as the fol¬
lowing list of the most important will show:

Mr. Shepard Brooks, of Modford, Mass., has
purchased the southeast corner of Deaboru and
Monroe streets, 190x131..5, from the Connecticut
Mutual Life Insurance Co., for *o:0,000, and
which he proposes to improve in the spring by
the erection of a building without its equal in
Chicago.

Marshall Field will build a ten-story ofiice
building at the southwest corner of LaSallc aud
Monroe streets. It wlU rival tho Montauli build¬
ing on the same street.

Charles Counselmau will build a ten-story cas¬
tle for board of trade ofrices on his leased ground
at the northwest corner of Jackson aud LaSalle
streets. And, by-tlie-bye, he pays $5,000 a year
lease for land that was bought for .$:;0,000 a com¬
paratively few months ago.

The Norton Bros, will build a block of stores
and fiats, 330x200 feet, five stories high, at the
southwest, corner of Thirtj^-lirst street aud Cot¬
tage G-rove avenue.

A company, to be known as the Manhattan
Building Company, has been incorporated with
a capital of .§1,500,000. The incorporators are
Geo. E. Biddle, Steele Mackay, F. M. Pirsson, H.
G. Maekay and A. C, Wheeler.   The object of the