Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXX.





NEW TOEE, SATUBDAT, JULY 29, 1882.





Na 760





Published Weekly by The

Real Estate Record Association

TERMS:
OJVE f EAR, in advance.....$6.00

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

The Record annouaced some time since
that the old Arcade plan was to be revived.
Mr. Melville D. Smith was the originator of
that magnificent scheme. He proposed, it
will be remembered, to construct a now
street under Broadway which was to extend
from house to house, and would accommo¬
date steam roads, carriages, vehicles of all
kinds, as well as foot passengers. The Leg¬
islature approved the measure, but Governor
Hoffman vetoed it. Smith and his asso¬
ciates have since then secured the Beach
charter for a pneumatic railway, the pro¬
visions of which have been amended by the
Legislature. The company has offices in the
Boreel Building, $30,000 in its treasury, and
has given a bond to the city for $100,000 to
commence the work within a certain time.
Mr. Smith is a man of great energy, but he
will require it all to get anybody to subscribe
the funds for creating a new street under
the present surface of Broadway. But that
avenue is certainly getting so crowded that
in a few years more it will become impassa¬
ble between Chambers street and Wall.





The following change has just been made in
the systeai of Plumbing Inspection employed by
the Board of Health of this city: Heretofore
eight sanitai-}' engineers have done all the inspec¬
tion of both old and new work, in the eight dis.
tricts into which the city vk-as divided. Now,
five of them devote themselves wholly to new
work, each having one of the five new districts
into which the city has been divided, and the
remaining three inspect only old work and the
changes made in it, the city being divided into
three districts as regards this class ot" work.





The New York Times, in an editorial article
referring to the new building for the Produce
Exchange in that city, mentions that a process
has been discovered for protecting iron from cor¬
rosion; which can Le applied on a large scale,
and is considered to be far suptrior to that pract¬
ised under the Bower-Barff patents. The inven¬
tors are, it is said, about to make public exhibi¬
tion of the results attained by them, and it is
claimed that a cheap and effectual mode of ac¬
complishing the loiig-desii-ed end is at last within
our reach. We wish we could feel full confidence
that this promise would be realized, but hope for
the best, and can quite agreo with the Times,
that if such a process should really come into ex¬
tensive use a new field will be opened to* the art
of architecture. One of the worst obstacles to
the use of iron as a means of decoration or ex¬
pression in building has always been the necessity
for bedaubing it with successive coats of paint,
which destroy its apparent character as a metal,
without n.ssimilating it to any other class of sub¬
stances, if this objection can be removed, and
iron can be employed in such a way as to exhibit
lis shining surface and sharp lines, a wide range
of novel and beautiful effects will be at the ser¬
vice of architects who know how to use them.—
American Architect.





IMPORTANT TO BUILDERS.
Lawrence Weiher, a builder, commenced some
time ago on the southeast corner of One Hun¬
dred and Twentieth street and Fourth avenue
the erection of four tenement houses. Two of
the buildings front on the avenue and the other
two on the street. According to the new plumb¬
ing act, all plans for plumbing in new buildings
have to be submitted to the Board of Health for
approval. Weiher submitted plans for the
plumbing in two of the buildings, which, on ex¬
amination by Sanitary Inspector Naalis, were de¬
cided to be of a most defective kind. The board
accordingly refused to approve them. W«iher
then commenced the plumbing work in the cdifaer
two buildings without submitting any plan of
the work to the board. He was ordered to desist,
but failed to do so, and hastened the completion
of the dwellings. He then, it is alleged, sought
to sell them. The board, however, obtained an
injunction from Judge Haight, of the Supreme
Court, restraining Weiher from occupying, let¬
ting, leasing, or selling the premises. The case
was argued yesterday before Judge Haight on a
motion to strike out the features relating to the let¬
ting, leasing, or selling. The motion was denied.
After the decision of the court had been rendered,
Weiher asked the board to discontinue proceed¬
ings, offering to pay the legal costs and to com¬
ply with the directions of the board with regard
to the plumbing arrangements in the four build¬
ings. This Is the first legal victory of the board
in relation to the provisions of the new plumbing
act.

■ ■<*►'     '■--

THAT ASSESSMENT COMMISSION.
The Assessment Commission announce that
their next meeting will be held on Tuesday, but
as ex-Mayor Cooper sails for Europe on August
Itith, and as the Hon. Johu Kelly is in Saratoga,
it is not likely that any business will be transact¬
ed by them before the fall. Those well-informed
iu the affaij-s of this commission state that they
will undoubtedly complete the business that is to
come before them before the expiration of the
extended time fixed for the completion of their
work, which is November 1st, 1883.





The Suburban Rapid Transit Company has
begun the construction of its iron bridge across
the Harlem River to connect with the East Side
railways. The bridge is to stretch from Second
avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-ninth
street over the river to the line of the projected
suburban route, in the vicinity of the Harlem
River depot of the New York, New Haven &
Hartford Railroad Company. It will be wide
enough for a double railway track and side foot¬
ways, will be 440 feet long, and rise 30 feet above
high-water mark. The" work will probably not
be completed before January 1,1&84. The bridge
is to cost $300,000.

.   ,.                        - ■        *-*^>

It is estimated that the partial failure of the
crops last season involved a loss of a greater
amount than the combined valuation of all the
property in the entire country at the time of the
declaration of independence. This fact not only
demonstrates the enormous interests involved in
the agricultural departments of the country,
but also satisfactorily illustrates the power of
our people to withstand any extraordinary pres¬
sure to which they may be subjected. Of course,
it has resulted in seriously advancing the price
of provisions, but, notwithstanding this, the
business interests of the country have thrived
and prospered in a most remarkable degree.
While meats, breadstufEs and other household





necessities have reached an extravagimtlj
high price and materially affected the expenses
and prosperity of the skilled and unskilled labor¬
er, creating dissatisfaction and contests between
labor and capital, yet amidst all this unsatisfac¬
tory episode, the business of the country has con¬
tinued in a prosperous condition and with very
little apparent depression, and the people them¬
selves have not suffered to any considerable or
appreciable extent, while the usual employments
of the great mass of the people have not been
seriously disturbed or impaired. Our stability
and success as a nation has been forcibly demon
strated by the events of the past year, as what
would have shaken the very foundation cf society
and of the government of any European nation
has hardly cast a perceptible ripple on the sur
face of the business interests of the great Ameri¬
can repubUc.—Lumberman's Gazette.





Two brokers sold on Wednesday last the same
piece of property, one at 1 o'clock, the other at 5
o'clock. The one making the latter sale notified
the owner by telegraph of his transaction, while
the former reported by letter—the telegraph
reaching the owner first. The brokers both claim
commissions on the sale, and it is said that a law
suit is likely to result from the transaction.

The opinion of most of our reliable dealers seems
to be that the broker who used all due diUigence
in making his report should be entitled to the
commission, although the law regulating, or
rather the construction of the law regulating
real estate brokers' commissions is very defect¬
ive. If au owner places his realty in the hands
of two brokers, and they both make a sale, it
seems only reasonable that they should both be
entitled to a commission.





ANSWERS TO COBRESPONDEKTS.

E. R. -E'eventh avenue vas declared open on AprU
•J9th, 1874. Woik for the regulaiing, paving etc., will
be commenced when the Common Council see fit to
dir ct the Department of Public Works to proceed In
the matter. In regard to the erection of frame
buildings within the city limits we reprint the law on
this subject, passed in 18Sl, and uhich was published
in The Heal Estate Record of May -JSih, 1881:

Section 1. Nothing in chapter six hundred and
twenty-flve of the laws of eighteen hundred and sev-
eniy-one. entitled "An act to amend and reduce to
one act the hcver&l acts relating to buildings in the
city of New York, passed May 4th, eigiiteen hundred
end sixty-six, May sevenieentti. eighteen hundred and
sixty-seven. and May sixth, eijihteen htmdred and
sixty-eiglit." shall be so cou>trued as to prohibit the
buiUib g of frame buildings with shingle roofs and
eight-inch bricl< foundation walls tmder tt e same, ia
the Twelf h. Tweutv-third and Twenty-£< urth wards
of the city of New York, northof One Hundred and
Fortieth street. Buildings of brick, not exceeding
two stories in height above the basement, may also
be erected iu said district, having basement walls
twelve inches in thickness constructed of part brick
and good mortar, ana walls above the basement
eight inches in thickness constructed of part brick
and good mortar.





Bids will be received at the Department of Fubllo
Charities and Corrections, until August 4, at 9:.% a.
u., for 330 pounds chrome green. 10 barrels plaster
Paris, 20 barrels Rockland lime and 20 barrels JointA
lime.                                              ^ .





OUT AMONG THE BUILDERS.

Bernard Havanagh will shortly commence the ered-
rion of two fire-story flat houses, on the south side of
Elghty-flfih street. 185 west of Third avenue. Th^
will be 35.6x91x10-2.3 each.

A lodging house, of novel design, will be erected on
the south side of Twenty-sixth street, east of First
avenue, by the New York Fruit Mis,<ion Society, from
designs by E. H. Kendall. It will be four stories
high, and thirty feet wide, the depth being eereiity
feet.

S. B. Wtedteshss^tibssidans in hand f or the erec-
ktioa Qt two »partin«B^ Itouses on the north iid^ of