September 23, 1905





RECORD AND  GUIDE





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got. Thig money is being frequently re-invested in bouses fur¬
tber north. Throughout the whole of the current year, the de¬
mand, which arises from these conditions, will continue to be
Tery large. In Harleni, also, many private dwellings are being
torn down in neighborhoods which have become more avail¬
able for tenements; but the people who are dispossessed from this
cause do not receive such good prices for their property and
probably the great majority of them go subsequently to swell
the apartment-house population. On the West Side a similar
displacement of private dwellings hy flats would be taking place
were It not that so many streets in that part of the city are re¬
stricted to thHt one class of improvement. The existing demand
for dwellings is, however, good enough to warrant the increased
construction of such buildings; and it is certain that in 1906
more money will be spent upon them than has been spent In
hny year since 1902.





Copjrleht hy ths Eeal Estata Record acd Boildars' Gulds CompanT.





Vol. L?:xvi.





SEPTEMBER 23. 1905.





No, 195S,





IND ax  TO  DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.

Pag&                                                      Page

Cement   ...................xxv          Law  .........................ix

Clay Products  .............xxiv          Machinery   ...................v

Contractors  and   Builders., ,vii          Metal "Work .................xxi

Fireproofing  .................li          Stone   ......................xvi

Granite  ...................xviii          Quick Job Directory.......xxvii

Heating '...................xxii          Real Estate ..................xl

Iron and  Steel...............xx          "Wood Products   ............xxvi





"P^ROM the way the market is advancing it looks as if every-
■^ thing was being prepared for another sharp reaction. It
is obviously desirable at present that no speculative movement
should gain any great headway and call for any large amount
of money; but the absence of selling pressure and the ease with
which certain railway stocks can be advanced encourages
speculators to advance them—in spite of the fact that prices are
already very high and money for speculative purposes scarce.
The news of the week has done nothing to impair the general
strength of the situation. The reported intention of the St, Paul
company to build to tht coast does not, even if true, contain
any threat to security values, because the traffic which originates
in that region is beginning to justify another transcontinental
line. The acquisition by the Brie of the Cincinnati, Hamilton
& Dayton Railroad, while' it adds nothing to the current value
of Erie shares, is an example of profitable railroad consolidation
and will in the end largely increase the possibilities of the
Erie system. It is probable that this is the flrst of several an¬
nouncements all looking in the direction of improved railroad
and industrial organization. The current business year is also
likely to be an active and important one in relation to railroad
finance. Such financing comes generally somewhere towards
the end of a period of business prosperity, and Is de¬
signed for the purpose of enabling the railroad financiers to
turn profits into cash. Enormous profits have certainly been
made in the last year, by a number of railroads, and some means
■will be found to realize upon them without endangering the
existing control of the roads.





EXCAVATIONS   have   been   commenced   for   the   combined
apartment house and hotel which will be erected hy the
Astor estate on the block bounded by 78th and 79th sts, Broad¬
way and  West  Bnd  av.    Inasmuch  as  this  will be  a twenty
story building, occupying a whole block, it will constitute bot!i
the largest and the tallest apartment house in New York or for
that  matter  in  the  world,  and in  consequence  every  circum¬
stance connected with the improvement has a certain interest
Thus  its  location  on  Broadway  emphasizes  the  growing  im¬
portance of that thoroughfare in the busuiness economy of the
West Side.    For years it was neglected except for the erectiou
of a few rows of flve story flats.  Then came the years in which so
many seven story apartment-houses were ere'cted, and in which
the recent trade of tho avenue was increasing.    Finally, after the
seven story tenement was killed by the new-law, flre-proof struc¬
tures began to be erected on Broadway;  and hereafter the new
buildings will almost all be confined to that kin,d of improve¬
ment.    The subway has made it the leading business thorough¬
fare on the West Side, and it will be used for both high-class
residential and husiness purposes in a way which is unique in
New York.    It should  be remarked also that this new build¬
ing will be a combination both of apartment house and hotel,
which is becoming a populai type cf building.' It will constitute
in fact a larger and completer Ansonia, and will offer an enor¬
mous variety of residential accommodation.    A building of this
kind is even more difficult to plan than a large hotel;  but if
properly planned it has an even better opportunity of securing a
permanently profitable set of tenants.   There are not a great many
new apartment houses now being erected on the West Side, but
those which are being erected will cost a great deal of money.
Plans  have  already  been  filed  this  year  for   four  apartment
houses, each to be twelve stories high and all to be erected at an
aggregate cost of £3.350,000.





THE demand for private dwellings continues to be a notice¬
able and satisfactory aspect of the current real estate
market. While this demand is stronger on the Bast Side, it 's
not confined to that part of the city, but is well distributed
throughout the West Side and in Harlem. It is so well dis¬
tributed indeed, that it has not occasioned any considerable
speculative demand in any one section; but If it continues the
operators will participate in it more largely, and it will have a
greater effect upon prices. Moreover, it will probably continue
and even incfease—^not because there has been any change of
condition respecting the economic availability of private dwell¬
ings compared to flats, but, because it looks as if just for the
moment, the demand fo? residences, Irrespective of their loca¬
tion, has overtaken the supply. That demand is unusually large'
at present, partly because the average business man is again
very prosperous, and partly because the normal demand has
been increased by special causes. The conditions are similar
to those which caused the Bast Side movement in 1902. Then
business men had made a great deal of money aud were ready
to lock it up in houses; and in the same year the purchases of
the New York Central for terminal purposes, had both dis¬
possessed many owners of private dwellings and provided them
with plenty of money wherev/ith to buy new ones. Just at
present there is no big railway company to accelerate by Its
purchases the demand for private houses; but the increased re¬
quirements of the wholesale and retfiil trades are having the
same effect. The owners of residences along the line of 5th av,
as far north as 4Gth st, are being displaced by business and are
gelling out at higher prices than any which they ever expected to





THE current demand for tenements and apartment houses is
not confined to any one part of the city, but it is noticeable
that Washington Heights'^is forging ahead as the district in
which resideutial building is most active. The only section of
Manhattan which competes with it is the area east of Central
Park, tip to date plans have been filed for 356 tenements to be
built on the upper Eas: Side at a cost of $15,816,000, whereas
tbe oorreEponding totals for Washington Heights are 296 and
?15,4iJ7,000. it will be seen that while there are about 60 more
tenements under construction on the East Side, builders have
so far planned to spend the same amount of money in each
district. But of late plans for new buildings on Washington
Heights have been coming out more rapidly than plans for new
buildings on the East Side, There will be over $20,000,000 spent
on Washington Heights in 1905 and probably over $30,000,000 in
1906.





IT looks as if another pair of tunnels would be built between
Manhattan and New Jersey. The announcement is made
ihat the New York City Railway Com.pany and the Public Ser¬
vice Corporation of New Jersey have between them agreed to
seek a franchise for a new Une of communication under the
Hudson River, the Manhattan terminus of which is to be some-
wliere in tbe vicinity of Pearl st and Park Row. If the corpora¬
tion which has been organized for the purpose obtains the fran¬
chise and takes advantage of it. New Jersey will be almost as
well connected with Manhattan as Long Island will be. There
will be three sets of tunrels under the river, one terminating
at Greenwich and Cortlandt sts, one terminating at or near
Chambers ,^t and Broadway, and one having two terminal sta¬
ticns, one at Greeley sq and one at Astor pl. In this way
every Important line of transit across the river will he effectually
provided for, and residents of New Jersey who wish to reach
tithor the financial, the wholesale, the retail or the amusement
districts will be furnished with excellent means of communica¬
tion. ■ The proposed new tunnel filla an obvious and important