November ii, 1905





RECORD AND  GUIDE







Dp6TiI>pRE\LEsTAjE.BniLDT?(G ^RcKrTEeTURp.HoiiSEUaDDEeat(JTBit,
Btrsir/Ess Aft)Themes of Cuita^l Wtoifst.;

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C. W.  SWEET.   14-16  Vesey Street, New York

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Copyright by tha RbhI Estate Record and Bnllders' Guide Company,





the conditions w'oich have prevailed during the current year
have been absohitely unprecedented, and have severely strained
the resources of the machinery of every individual and com¬
pany which has to handle legal papers representing real estate
transactions. Since Jan. 1, 1905, some 29,855 deeds have been
recorded at the county offices, against only 19,887 for the cor-
respondipg period in 1904, and during the same period the num¬
ber of martgages: recorded increased from 17,439 to 2S,804.
There has been an enlargement consequently of almost 60 per
cent, in the amount of work to be achieved in recording and
indexing these papers, and the Register has not received from
the Board of Estimate either as much room or as much money
as he needs in order to handle this enormous increase of busi¬
ness promptly. One of the first and most necessary works con¬
fronting the new administration will he that of restoring the
Register's oflice to the state of efficiency which characterized it
during the early part of Mr. Ronner's term of ofiice.





Vol. L,XXVI.





NOVEMBER 11,  1005.





No. 1965.





INDEIX  TO  DEPARTMENTS,
Advertising Section.
Pag;e.





Cement   ..................xxui

Clay Products   .............xxii

Contractors   and  Builders----vi

Electrical Contractors   .....viii

Flreproofing  .................ii

Granite   ..................xxiv

Heating  ....................xx

Iron and Steel.............xviii





Page.
Law   .........................X

Machinery   ..................v

Metal   Work   ...............xix

Stone   .:...................XXiV

Quick Job Directory.......xxvi

Real Estate .................xii

Wood   Products   ............xxv





THERE is no cause for alaroj about the reaction" on the stock
market which has been taking place during the past
week. When rates for call money become as high as 15 per
cent, it would be an unwholesome sign unless a reaction did
occur; and it is Just such a set-back which affords a good
opportunity for people who can afford it to 'buy stocks. It is
said that certain conservative interests have been buying stead¬
ily ihut quietly on the decline; and the course of prices indi¬
cates the existence ol such underlying support. It looks as
if the next few weeks would afford many opportunities to pick
up stocks at prices which will assuredly yield good profits some
time during the winter. Nothing has happened to affect the
prevailing -conviction jthat busiiuess will conitinue excellent
'Oiroughout the first half of 1903





INTEREST has been shifted during the past week from im¬
proved to unimproved rea! estate. The first of several im¬
portant sales of Bronx property was held at the auction room,
and was attended with considerable success. The prices for
tte parcels on Jerome av did not come up to anticipations;
.but those on the less important adjoining avenues and streets
were all that could be expected and more. The sellers are
said to have reaped a profit of about $75,000 in less than a
year from their purchase^which indicates that the subsidence
of actual speculation in Bronx vacant land has not been at¬
tended by any shrinkage of values. The great strength of
Bronx real estate consists in the fact that it is to such a lar^e
extent t)oiight and held by small local investors. In iMan-
hattan operations in real estate have passed into the hands
largely of professionals, and such operations require generally
a very considerable amount cf capital. But in the Bronx, par¬
ticularly in the relatively unimproved sections thereof, every
man with a little money takes an interest in real estate, and
wants to reap his share of the profit which will result from
the rapid growth of the borough. These are the people who
buy freely and confidently at the auction sales; and many of
them are in a very much better position to wait a number of
years for their profits than are the professional operators in
Manhattan. The -way in which they flocked to the Bruner
sale is an excellent augury for the success cf the other sales
which are to follow. Neither js it Bronx property alone which
is becoming more active. There are signs of increasing life
both on Washington Heights and in the Dyckman tract. It is
only a month or two now before the subway trains will be run¬
ning to Kingsbridge. and this event should be the signal for
renewed speculation along the upper end of the route. There
:is, we believe, more room for a further advance of prices in
that region than iu any part of the city which has been opened
for early improvement by the subway.





T AWYERS and real estate operators are naturally very
^-^ mitch exercised over the wretched condition of business at
the Register's office;, but it should be clearly understood that the
Register and his assistants are uot responsible either for the de¬
lays attending the :returns of papers or the failure to maintain
the Block Indes.    .As everyone familiar with real estate knows





IT is impossible to tell just at present what the effect of tho
election will be upon the Mortgage Tax. The issue could
not be raised decisively during a campaign which necessarily
turned to so large an extent upon local questions. One result,
however, is certain: ali the Assemblymen elected from New
York City, whether Democrats or Republicans, are pledged
to work for the repeal of the tax; and if they stand together
on this matter, and present their demands vigorously, they may
well be able to secure the action for which they are pledged.
But even if the tax is not repealed at the coming session of the
Legislature, the fight will not be abandoned. The real test will
come at the State election next fall, and, if necessary, at that
election the "Allied Real Estate Interests" will spread its work
throughout the entire State. The records of each succeeding
week show even more conclusively that the tax is paid and
will continue to be paid by the person who borrows the money,
and that consequently it is a tax chiefly upon those owners of
real estate who cannot afford to carry it without a mortgage.
Such owners will, of course, seek to reim^burse themselves, if
possible, at the expense of their tenants; and in so far as
they succeed the tax will be au actual benefit to the property-
owners who can afford to carry their holdings without a mort¬
gage. For they will reap in the benefit of a higher level of
rentals, even if they have not the same motive for demanding
such an increased return.





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NOW that the Board of Aldermen has been carried by the
Hearst-Republican combination, the threat is fully made
that the Legislature will restore to that body tbe power to
grant franchises. It is scarcely possible, however, that Gover¬
nor Higgins would countenance such a flagrant misuse of legis¬
lative authority. The power to grant franchises was taken
away from the Board of Aldermen and granted to the Board
of Estimate, not because the Aldermen were Tammany men,
but because they had ahused the power they had possessed.
They had made it the excuse for holding up many desirarble
franchises, and had shown unmistakably that their action was
dictated not hy the city's interest, hut by subterranean political,
personal, and possibly financial motives. The Aldermen repre¬
sented their districts, their party and their local leaders, and
they neglected again and again the best interests of the city.
The Board cf Estimate, on the other hand, is responsible either
to the whole electorate of New York, or else to the electorate
of on'3 entire borough, and their action takes place in the open
and is determined by public motives. To deprive them of the
franchise-granting power would be a partisan act of the most
inexcusable character, and it would bring the people who could
perpetrate it into s.till worse repute in New York than that
which they enjoy at present.





THE Record and Guide publishes herein a drawing of one of
the facades of the new Chemical National Bank; and it
will be seen from these drawings that the architects, Messrs.
Trowbridge & Livingston, have prepared a design which ad¬
heres to the best prevailing tradition of bank architecture.
The new Chemical N.'itional Bank will be a low building of
Renaissance design, with a dome over tho main banking of¬
flce. The plot on which it is being erected faces 25 ft, on Broad¬
way, and connects with a mucli larger plot, 70x100, on Chambers
St. The main banking office, with its dome, will consequently
be situated on the Chambers st lot, and ■will be entered both
from Broadway and from the side street. The building wiil
for the most part consist of a sub-'basement, a basement and
la main floor; hut on the rear of the Broadway lot a 4-sty
building will be erected, which will contain the directors' room,
the   officers   and   the   clerks'   dining-rooms,   and   the   janitor's





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