February 24, 1900.





RECORD AND   GUIDE.







1







Devoted to RE^LEsWE.BuiLDIfJG 7^;R.Ct(lTEeTiJI\E,KoiJSEHOU)DEi3ClEiATOrf.

Bu&alLss Alto Themes of GEjtR&l IiJtei^esi.,

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN    ADVANCE    SIX    DOLLARS.

PII tliis lied   nverif   Salunhi!/.
Telephokf,                                            Cortlandt137P.

Commuuic.-itions should be adi^ressed to

C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street.

/.   T.   LINDSEY,  Business Manager.
•'Entered re! lhe I'osl-Offise al ymo York, N, Y.. us secoiid-cldss matter."





Vol.  LXV.





FEBRUARY  24,   1900.





No. 1667.





W' B are likely now to hear as much of coal as we have
lately heen hearing of iron and steel in the stock mar¬
ket. While onr industrial development of the past three years
has been often discussed, little or no mention has been made of
the first requisite of industrial activity, namely, coal. This week
there have been some reminders of its existence in the shape of
flattering reports from some of the great railroads, whose very
existence is bound up in coal. Abroad the price of this sustainer
of mechanical being has advanced to very high figures, so high
in fact as to threaten a check to manufactures. Great Britain,
which is the largest producer, last year sent away to sea as
freight or for use of steamers in foreign trade 55,335,399 tons.
Corresponding figures for the two previous years were 47,827,000
tons and 47,552,676 tons respectively. The high price of British
coal is causing other European nations to look elsewhere for
their supplies, even in spite of the exti-a cost of carriage in¬
volved, across the Atlantic to this country. Consequently our ex¬
ports should show as flattering a growth in the item of coal as
they have previously in manufactures, and the railroads that
either mine or make a business of carrying it to the seaboard, or
both, will see their earnings correspondingly increased. An¬
other industry that ought to be doing well, and no doubt is, is
the shipping industry. The British charters for the present mili¬
tary service to Soutli Africa have drawn 222 vessels, or a total
tonnage, in round numbers, of 2,000,000 gi-oss tons, from their
i-egular occupations, which, although some deduction should be
made for the loss of their regular trade by the vessels that made
a specialty of South African business before the outbreak of the
war, must appreciably benefit the vessels left to do the world's
gigantic ocean carrying trade. Freight rates are also raised by
the increased military and commercial demand. The advance iu
freights and the high price of coal together also give sailing ves¬
sels an opportunity for profitable employment, the like of which
they have not seen for a long time. Indeed, so little was this class
of vessels in demand up to quite recently that not one was laid
down during the whole of last year in the shipyards of Giasgow.
Now unless freight rates and coal prices both collapse there
should be a revival of this class of building. The stock market
Eor the moment fails to invite speculation and is feeling the
effects of the disclosure of Third Avenue Railroad's embarrassed
condition. The presence of the shrewd buyer is, however, ap¬
parent in the rise in the prices of securities directly affected by
the business improvement in sections particularly favored just
now.





■■pHE suggestion that Fifth avenue be widened by taking in
*■ the stoop space is one that is revived at intervals, but
could be better applied to Nassau street and Broadway, between
Chambers and Wall streets, where increased space for pedes¬
trians is much more needed than ou the uptown thoroughfare.
Some years ago the authorities wei-e advised by this journal to
relieve the congestion on the downtown streets named by abol¬
ishing the stoop line altogether. This advice was favorably re¬
ceived, but the more important matters that came up then to
absorb both the public time and the public money caused it to be
put aside. The question must come up again soon because of the
growing necessity that exists for relieving the foot traffic on the
most important thoroughfares south of Chambers street and the
rmpossibility of finding a cheaper or quicker way of doing it.
Fifth avenue can wait. Broadway and Nassau-street ai-e crying
daily for this improvement. It would be necessary to proceed
to condemn abutting owners' rights within the stoop lines and
to compensate them for the loss they would thereby suffer as
weii as for the expense they would be put to in changing their
buildings to meet the new conditions created.    The cost to the





city would be considerable, but nothing like that it would be
if the buildings had to be moved back in order to widen the
streets. The space gained would be a decided convenience to the
walking public on the narrow downtown streets, who are now as
often forced on to the roadway as able to find space to move on
the footway in the busy hours of the day.





Housing   Construction.

CHANGES   AND   DEVELOPMENTS   TO   BE   PHODUCED   BY   THE
COMING   OF   RAPID   TRANSIT.

"^HE brokerage transactions reported this week consist for
-* the most part of purchases of sites for new building oper¬
ations, chiefly elevator flats. Indeed, the constructional move¬
ment iu this class of housing, which has been in progress two
years, is still on the increase, both absolutely and relatively.
The purchase of Nos. 51 and 53 Maiden lane for improvement
with a 12-story buildiug affects a class of housing which, though
recently neglected by builders, appears to be resuming a normal
position in the schedule of current projections. In improved or
investment real estate the week produced few transactions, and
these were of slight importance individually and collectively,
except for the fact of their miscellaneous character. However,
the week, being broken by a holiday, was not expected to de¬
velop an impressive budget. The unsettled condition into which
the mortgage loan market has been thrown by the Stranahan-
Allds bill is unquestionably having a depressing infiuence upon
real estate investments. On the other hand, brokers say that, as
the conviction is spreading that the rapid transit railway will bo
constructed under the McDonald contract, the public is begin¬
ning to manifest an interest in private houses on Washington
Heights. The layman is not slow in appreciating the fact that,
by buying improved property on the Heights at present prices he
will have, when the road is completed, a greatly enhanced piece
of real estate in a locality favored in an unusual degree by
nature, the incremental value being net profit, wherever the
premises have meantime been occupied by the purchaser. There
is every reason to believe that the rapid transit railway will
have the effect of reserving the better part of Manhattan Island
as far north as Harlem, inclusive, for elevator flats, costly dwell¬
ings, and business buildings, and that Washington Heights is
destined to stand in the same relation to the lower city that the
West Side now occupies. However, the quickening influence of
the prospect for rapid transit is not confined to this borough. It
is very apparent in Bronx, including a considerable part of
Westchester County. Auctioneers and brokers are unanimous in
the opinion that the spring and summer will witness the devel¬
opment of a suburban activity along the rapid transit route in
Bronx similar to that which has been in progress in the outlying
wards of Brooklyn, and that the movement will extend beyond
the northern terminal of the road over so large an area as it
may be feasible to render tributary by means of trolley connec¬
tions.

An interesting question bound to suggest itself iu any con¬
sideration of the probable effects of changing transportation
facilities is, Howwiil the lower East Side tenement district fare?
The East Side, with its teeming population and abundance of
antiquated premises has been a favored field for speculation aud
investment, and many believe that it will remain always the
tenement locality that it is to-day. Owing to rise in lot quota¬
tions and cost of construction, there is a very marked diminu¬
tion in the projections of the typical 6-story tenement variety.
It will be remembered, too, that the Health Board's census ©f
last summer disclosed a falling off in the population of all ex¬
cept one of the wards on the lower East Side. The exception was
the Eleventh Ward, on tbe river frout, and its growth was ac¬
counted for by the circumstance that it was able to offer build¬
ers the attraction of lower land values and its tenants lower
rents. The suggestion was offered that the decline iu the East
Side population as a whole was occasioned in large part by the
poorer tenants being di^iven out of the cheap rookeries which
were giving way to modern tenements—that the reconstruction
of the neighboi^hood with more expensive improvements meant
the sifting down of the tenantry to those who could afford to
pay the rents in the new buildings. However that may be, it is
conceded that, with present land values, there is no profit in
constructing the ordinary 6-story tenement, and it is suggestive
that builders are directing their attention to the possibilities of
elevator flats. If these prove successful, the next experiment
will probably be elevator tenements. A 7-story elevator apart¬
ment is nearing completion on Second avenue near 3d street,
and Roseuberg & Feinberg are about to construct a similar fiat
at Nos. 458 and 460 Grand street from plans by Sass & Small¬
heiser.   That the East Side contains an element for which eleva-