Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXX.





NEW TOEK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1882.





No. 751





Publislied Wetkly by The

Real EstateRecord Association





TERMS:





ONE TEAR, In adyance





$6.00





Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway.

J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

HONESTY IN BUILDINi&.
Honesty" is, perhaps, more abused than that of
any other ethical or intellectual virtue.   It is
applied as a cloak of ignorance, as the apology
for bad manners, or even for worse purposes.
The man who, without regard to time, place, or
company, gratifies his vanity by blvirting out
his crude notions on any possible subject, is too
often called an honest fellow.   In fact, he is only
so.ill-bred and so ignorant as to be supposed in¬
capable of deceit.   That may be so, or not.   We
have known cases—and no doubt some will recur
to the memories of most of our readers—in which
a man may be held to have purposely adopted
the disguise of incivility, have lived for years
under the title of " Honest Tom Speakforth," and
at length, generally too late for human retribu¬
tion, have been discovered to have left behind
him only an unexplained deficit, or sometimes an
equally  unexplained family of  children.   The
honesty which causes this kind of pitying or even
of affectionate regard is simply that, so far a5 it
exits at all, of not telling lies; or rather of not
putting matters in such a light as may be most
agreeable to the sympathies of others.   This land
of honesty is sometimes applied to building.   A
man will declaim against the importance of stucco
and will give you hideous brick-work in place of
it.    " Honest brick and mortar," he calls it, but
he omits to mention two points.   One that the
imperfections of English stucco are mainly due
to the very rude and imperfect way in which we
treat  our lime.   Those who are most familiar
with the use made of this material in Italy, from
scagliola work to the preparation for fresco pain¬
ting, will be aware that this is the case.   Second¬
ly, while there is a real beauty in brick-work,
it requires so much care in the selection of clay,
and in the making, burning, and the laying of
bricks to insure it, that noble brick-work is al¬
most a lost art in England.   Our honest friend,
therefore, only gives the cheapest and meanest
material that comes to hand,  and excuses that
slovenliness of his work by calling it "honest."
—Builder.





A WIFE'S CIVIL EXISTENCE.
When Mrs rhomas F. Buck died, some time
ago in Brooklyn, some property which she owned
was sold under foreclosure proceedings, and
there was a balance of $3,428 for her husband.
A brother of the deceased, however, claimed
one-half of this amount. The matter finally
found its way into the Kings County Supreme
Court, when the brother's counsel claimed that,
under a recent decision of the Court of Appeals,
the civil existence of a wife was ignored. It was
held by Judge Danforth, of the Court of Appeals,
that the idea of husband and wife being one was
nothing more than a legal fiction. On Thursday
Justice Cullen gave judgment in favor of the
brother.





THE   BROOKLYN  TAX  RATE.
The assessment rolls of Brooklyn property for
1882 were footed up Thursday.    The following
are the figures as compared with last year:

1881.             1883.          Increase.

Real.........$240,128,905 $264,420,112 $24,291,'<;07

Personal....    15,137,400     19,334,301     4,197,261

Real&pers'l.$25o,265,945 $388,754,413 $28,488,468
The tax rate in 1881 was $2.45 on each $100 in
the Western District, and $2.13 in the Eastern
District, which pays no tax for the cost of Pros¬
pect Park. The average for the whole city was
$3.38. President Truslow estimates that this
year it will be less, and wiU probably be $2.40 on
each $100 in the Western District, and $2.10 in
the Eastern District, making an average of $3.33
for the entire city. Of the increase in valua¬
tions, $6,000,000 is due to new structures. So far
as possible, valuations have been equalised in all
parts of the city,





BACKWARDNESS OF ARCHITECTURE.

Although in painting and perhaps in sculpture
also the United States are improving from year
to year, it is astonishing how architecture drags
behind.   An enormous quantity of building goes
on here.   Wards spring into being in a few years.
Burnt cities rise again before the ruins have done
smoking.   But the edifices, although sometimes
loaded with ornament and constructed of costly
materials, are seldoin the work of an architect in
the true sense of the term as now used—namely,
a master of building, as one says master of a fine
art.   They are the work of masters of mechani¬
cal and technical art as opposed to the fine' arts.
In New York it will be the merest chance if the
next public building or costly residence does not
fall into the hands of men who are not able even
to sensibly "lift" modern  European ideas in
architecture.    For one, .lefferson Market Court
House, with its pleasing, though not very origi¬
nal design in elevation and coloring; we have
any number of buildings like the Post Office, the
Metropolitan Museum, the Cathedral in Fifth
avenue,   the   brown   stone  Vanderbilt  boxes.
What frightens one in these buildings is the com¬
placency with which owners and public regard
them, and the silence of the press.   They have
the same vacuousness, thesame absence of idea or
sentiment for outline, composition, light and shade
and color, which startle and disconcert the ama¬
teur in an exhibition of pictures at the Acad¬
emy.   Rich men and congregations are seldom
able to secure for their large outlays the build¬
ings which can be approved by a cultivated taste;
a club might be expected to succeed better.   But
the recent experience of the Union League shows
that a wealthy and ambitious organization, con¬
taining a very large proportion of cultivated
men aud an unusually high average of brains,
cannot save itself from grievous and elementary
mistakes in architecture.   It ^is evident that in
the building committees appointed by the general
or State Legislatures,  congregations and clubs,
there is seldom or never a majority competent to
select the best architect and get from him work
that is worth the money expended.

As things are now managed, an architect of
genius has to stultify himself nine times to get a
chance in the tenth instance to build something
that he really approves of—and who can do this
long without degenerating ? This fact reflects
perfectly the state of the fine arts—nay, perhaps
even of the government of the community that
built it. Pretentious communities want pre¬
tentious buildings. If New York were not mis¬
governed would we have our present ct urt-
house ? If Washington were not corrupt, would
we have our present postoffice ? If New York
society had aiiy dignity or back bone, would we
have millionaires thrusting themselves forward
by the mere weight of big houses, big picture
galleries, and lavish decorations, with a cynicism
worthy of our legislators ? The millionaires
would not build palaces iti six months, but would
employ real architects to build quietly and beau¬
tifully, just as they themselves would gradually
enter society on their personal merits, not on
their money bags. At Washington some pains
would be taken that the great buildings eracted
by the public funds all oyer the land were the
very best to be procured. Our municipal
government would slowly and. carefully
foster architecture by discouraging hasty work
and reckless expenditure of the tax-payer's
money. Our clubs and congregations would
make it their first business to judge of the qual-
. ificattons ojf architects on artistic, not on per-
*BdnaJ or Interested grounds.   The main point is





that the demand should be a demand of taste.
Architects cannot be independent, cannot " edu¬
cate the public," cannot wait till they are dead
for recognition. They depend almost as directly
on the public as the actor, and tbeir audience
is neither so numerous nor so ready to be pleased
with what is set before it. Until the public
shall reform, until the press shall begin to call
owners and architects to account for vulgar,
stupid, and ridiculous work, there is no hope for
American architecture. At present it represents
the mere brute force of money more than any¬
thing else. It shows also restlessness, vagueness
of purpose, smattering of foreign styles. No
wonder many people prefer the barren monotony
of blocks of brick and mortar to the ineffectual
efforts of our unhappy architects. And along
with as thorough and searching criticism as the
press can give, must go, on the side of architects
and owners, the most elaborate drawings and
models of projected buildings. For, alas! the
building once in place is there practically for¬
ever. Criticisms are forgotten, and people ac¬
custom their eyes to the ugly mass. Then asso¬
ciations give it dignity, and thn city is saddled
with a dull and pointless building to which the
citizens cling with a fervor worthy of a St.
Peter's or an Alhambra.—Tlie Critic.'





AN ARCHITECTURAL PARADOX.
Wood joists are being used in the construction
of the building on Walnut street, above Fourth
street, in preference to iron to guard against
danger in case of fire. Strange as such a state¬
ment may appear, it is a matter of fact that
many New England builders contend that the
wood joists, encased in plaster, are proof against
any ordinary fire, and for many reasons are
much preferred by them to the ordinary regula¬
tion fireproof iron joists. The joists are " strip¬
ped " on the outside, and over these strips irons
are run, and on these the plaster is spread. The
theory is that in an ordinary fire these joists
thus treated will be fireproof, and only when
the fire has reached such a fury that the building
must go anyway will they be affected. Here
comes iu one of the advantages claimed for them.
When a building is being burned by a furious
fire the iron joists expand and crush out the
walls and do other damage. The wood joists
would simply be buraed up without injuring the
walls at all.—Philadelphia Record.





London builders, like London merchants, keep
their manufactured goods in stock. Houses, of
nearly eveiy grade, are built, finished and com¬
pleted in every particular, and are held for years.
This gives an opporttmity to people who want
houses for choosing such a building as may suit
their requirements, and at the same time enables
them to occupy their own house at once. This
system also has other advantages; it does away
with the necessity of hasty and imperfect build¬
ing, and lessens the risks and inconveniences that
are sure to follow the occupancy of a newly fin¬
ished dwelling. It is not likely that builders will
use unseasoned materials in houses that have to
remain on their hands for several years before
selling—it wouldn't pay. Of course, only wealthy
builders who can afford to wait for results carry
on a business of this kind, but they get their re¬
ward, inasmuch as needy builders cannot com¬
pete with them on this line. This system also
tends to crush out " jerry building," as the build¬
ings referred to must necessarily be well con¬
structed, or the continual inspeotion to which
they are subjected by intending purchasers
would soon bring to light their imperfections,
and thus give the houses such repute as would
seriously depreciate the price set on them.—The
Builder.





What is said to he the largest flagstone in America
is soon to be laid in front of the stoop of R. L.
Stuart's house at Fifth avenue and Sixty-eighth
street. The stone measures 26 feet 6 inches by 15 feet
6 inches, is 9 inches thick and weighs nearly 60,000
pounds. It was cut in Sullivan County, at the same
quarry from which came Mr. Vanderhilt's great flag¬
stone. It was drawn by eighteen horses to its destina¬
tion.





Work on the Brooklyn Elevated Railway has been
resumed. It is rumored that the affairs of the road
will.be taken from the hands of the receivers, and
that the rpad will be completed by a number oCcapi'
tailets who are prgaBlzing for that purpose.