April 9, 1904.
RECORD AND GUIDE
793
I
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Duggan St Taylor have had plans pre¬
pared and will erect a 6-sty and basement brick, stone, terra
eotta and iron, 92x110 ft., apartment house at Conti and Joachim
sts, estimated to cost, including elevators, steam heat, etc.,
$100,000.
SYRACUSE, N. Y.-The Building Committee of the South Pres¬
byterian Church, consisting of O. M. Edwards, Rev. Murray
Shipley Howland and W. L. Bundy, has received two sets of pre¬
liminary plans for tbe proposed edifice, prepared by Archimedes
Russell, of the Bastable Bldg,, Room 321, Syracuse, N. Y. '
ROCHESTER, N. Y.—Tbe Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Co. have
begun to erect a S-sty fireproof store building, 231x200 ft., to
cover their block on Clinton av, between North and Main sts.
Indiana limestone, Canandaigua pressed brick, six rapid pas¬
senger elevators, three freight elevators. The boiler room will
contain three 300-horsepower boilers.
UTICA, N. Y.—Estimates are invited for building a superin¬
tendent's residence and staff house for the Utica State Hospital
at Court and York sts.-----Architect M. H. Hubbard, 82 Arcade,
Utica, has prepared plans for a new edifice for the Bethel Bap¬
tist Temple Society of Jacksonville, Fla., and will let all con¬
tracts. 'Material, stone; cost, $40,000.
NYACK, N. Y.—A new church is to be erected soon on tbe
grounds of the "Christian Herald" Children's Home, Upper Ny¬
ack, in place of the chapel tbat bas been used there for years.
Address, Christian Herald, Bible House, New York.
BUFFALO, N. Y.—Tbe Buffalo Box Factory (Jaraes Fenton,
proprietor) will build a plant on about six acres on Babcock and
McKinley sts, with a frontage on the Pennsylvania Railroad, to
consist of a 4-sty and basement brick and stone flreproof build¬
ing, 100x300 ft., an electric power plant 38x40, dry kiln 24x70,
and shipping room 30x80.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Pemberton Se Co. will soon begin the
erection of eighty 2-sty dwellings in the section of the 34th Ward
bordering on Fairmount Park tbat will involve an expenditure
of $228,000.-----.Samuel Shoemaker will also erect in the same
ward seventy-six new dweilings and three stores and dwellings
at a total cost of $170,000.
HARRISBURGH, Pa.—There will be no further delay in start¬
ing work on tbe new cathedral of St. Patrick's Catholic con¬
gregation on the site of tbe pro-cathedral on West State st, for
which ground was broken on St. Patrick's day. The contract
has been awarded to William McShane of Philadelphia. The
approximate cost of the edifice will be $100,000.
CHICAGO, HI.—Plans for tbe Hotel Dieu, a religious hospital
to be built for the Hospitalers of St. Joseph, have been prepared
by Geo. A. Beaudry. The building is to be erected at Harvard
av and 64tli st, will be 4-sty high, 165x175 ft., and of flreproof
construetion; estimated cost, $200,000. Rev, Bernard P. Murray,
Pastor of St, Bernard Parish, may give information.
NEW HAVEN, CT.—C. E. Thorapson & Son, purchasers of SIO
Cbapel st, will make extensive additions and alterations to the
building after June 1st. It will be remodeled into a bank and
offlce building,------Daniel Prendergast, of Boston, chairman of
building committee, is in receipt of over fifty sets of plans for
tbe headquarters of the Knigbts of Columbus, to be built in New
Haven.
(Other Cities continued on page 827-)
Ten cents each will be paid for Copies of the Record and
Guide Nos, 1211, 1251, 129S, 1346, 1348, 1554, 1712, 1816. ISIS,
1819. 1S21, if delivered in good condition at our offlce, Nos. 14
and 16 Vesey st.
Of InUrest to the Bulldlnsr Trades.
No contracts have yet been issued for the new Brunswick Ho¬
tel to be built by the General Building & Construction Co. of
100 Broadway on tbe Sth av block, east side, from 26th to 27th
sts. Tbe old buildings are new being demolished.
Tlie "unfair" placed by the Trenton Convention of tbe Tnterna-
tional Union of Bricklayers and Masons upon Adam Webber &
Sons, New York City, contractors for chimney, retort and furnace
building, has been removed, and the flrra have signed an agr,ee-
ment witb the B. and M. T. U.
Mr. C. E, Bucbholz, engineer of tbe Hudson River division of
the New York Central R, R., has resigned to enter business, and
will be succeeded by Mr. H. C. Thompson. Mr. J. L. Lantry has
been appointed supervisor of bridges and buildings of the divi-
The -Whale Creek Iron Works have purchased the entire plat¬
ing plant of the Jackson Architectural Iron Works on East 28th
and have removed same to their works at Nos. 372 to 392 Green-^
point avenue, Brooklyn. This addition will give them probably
the largest plating works in tbe metropolitan district.
The Livingston st (Brooklyn) widening matter is still as far
from solution as ever. An attempt to put the whole cost on the
city failed absolutely. A resolution, by Comptroller Grout that
the city should bear two-thirds of the cost and tbe prm>erty
beneflted one-third, now reposes on the table in the Board of
Estimate.
Tbe Fordham Stone Renovating Company have removed their
oflices to the Townsend building. No. 1123 Broadway, corner of
25tb street. This company has been established many years, and
does excellent work in the cleaning, repairing, and painting of
building fronts. A letter to the company will bring a representa¬
tive who will cheerfully furnish estimates.
In a city up the Hudson the Mayor's annual message states
that the total amount of building during the preceding twelve
months consisted of two houses, two barns, flve additions and
one alteration. This, in a city of twenty-flve thousand, showH
how the building industry is paralyzed in some places. In ex¬
plaining tbe matter, tbe Mayor says the cost of construction Is
nearly forty per cent, greater than a few years ago.
The strike of the bricklayers did not interfere with tbe progress
cf work at the subway power house at 59tb st and lltb av. It
was said at tbe plant this week tbat between four and five hun¬
dred bands are engaged in all branches. At the west end the
brick work is advancing rapidly, and all of tbe ironwork has
been completed. Tbe building is roofed over except at this point.
Boiler makers are installing boilers, and flreproofers are erecting
partitions.
Electric Fireproof Wood Saves Another
Sl«y scraper!
With the conflagration in Baltimore, the flre In the Iroquois
Theatre, Chicago, in addition to many other smaller disasters of
recent date, it may be said in more senses than one tbat the
whole question of flreprooflng our buildings is "under fire." We
have had in the past a great deal of theory about tbe value of
fireproof materials. There are literally hundreds of them on the
market, if we include in the catalogue the many varieties and
devices of the same substance. A great many of them, have
3'et to go through the ordeal of a real test and prove their sub¬
stantial value beyond tbe catalogue and the sbop talk of their
manufacturers. Others have been tested and have utterly failed,
and still others have been tested inadequately and must be left
standing for the time on the doubtful or waiting Ilst. A very
few have not only stood tbe test, but have proved conclusively
their right to be considered reliably fireproof; but in general
there are so many question marks all along the line tbat every
bit of real evidence tbat can be accumulated in regard to fire¬
proof materials is of real value to the community, to our archi¬
tects and to our builders.
Tt is in tbe line of this consideration that the recent fire in the
Fiatiron building, at Twenty-third street, Broadway and Fifth
avenue, should not be lost sight of. It is true the fire was in its
results an insignificant affair, but tbat is just what ought to be
the case in a "fireproof" building. In fact, there is a certain un¬
fortunate aspect to all flres that break out in really fireproof
structures—they do not make much public smoke and thereby get
into tbe newspapers. All that we read Is—"The flre was ex¬
tinguished by the employees of the building," or "The fire was
confined to the room in which it originated"; and the negative
quality of all this news, wbicb yet contains so much that is
positively to the credit of fireproof construction, receives hardly
any attention at all—certainly, not one-tenth as much as is given
to some flimsy flre-trap that is consumed like a box of matches.
In other words, tbe fireproof building never speaks for itself!
Like many other efficient things in life, it works without talking!
Tt works all the time and is ready for and deals with the emer¬
gency effectively whenever it occurs.
Now, that was precisely the case the other day with the flre¬
prooflng in â– tbe Fiatiron building. That structure, everybody
knows, is one of tbe flnest in the city. The owners have a
large investment in it and hundreds of tenants occupy it. Even
a very moderate fire in it would occasion a great flnancial loss
A flre did break out, as it happens, in an office on the twentieth
floor—just in one of those places which many flre chiefs have
said are so dangerous, because in a way so inaccessible to the
apparatus of tbe Fire Department, The fire was a particularly
hot affair, A deal of the stuff tbat was in the room was of a
flammable nature, and, of course, it promptly became an in¬
cendiary to join in tbe work of destruction. The heat of the
conflagration, indeed, was at one time so great that it melted the
glass on tbe chandelier, Tt even attacked in some places the
cement walls. The furniture and contents of tbe room were, of
course, destroyed, and, under ordinary circumstances, undoubt¬
edly the flames would have communicated from one ofiice to an¬
other by means of tbe trim, doors and other wooden parts of the
partitions and walls, had it not been for the fact tbat the trim
doors and other similar standing parts were constructed of flre'
proof wood supplied by the Blectric Fireprooflng Company if
this wood had been in the slightest degree flammable it would
have taken flre. As a matter of fact, it suffered merely a super¬
flcial charring, so that most of it is intact and to-day can be ren¬
dered as good as new by a little polishing plus the necessary
varnish. Clearly this is a result that is stronger than any
theory, better than any amount of talk, and of tremendously
greater value to the public, to architects and builders than even
the most carefully conducted laboratory tests. It siraply proves
the case for wood treated by the Electric Fireproofing process
More than that, it establishes the care with which the Electric
Fireproofing Company of this city manipulates its process for