RECORD AND  GinDE





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ESTABUSHED-^ W^RRPH 2isr^ 1868.
Dev&ieD p Re\L Estah . Boi Lotflc Ap,crfrrEeTdR.E ,t{cfUsnJOLD DEedRATiorf.
Birsif/ESSAf/DThemes OF GejJei^'^1 Ii^ei^est.

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN    ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS

Published  eVerg  Saturdag

Communications should bo addressed to

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

Telephone, Cortlandt 3157





"Entered al the Post O.ffice at New York, N. Y. as second-claKx mallei:"





Vol,   LXXVL





DECEMBER 2, 1905.





No. 1968.





INDEX TO  DEPARTMENTS.

Advertising Section.
Page,





Cement....................xxv

Clay Products............xxiv

Contractors   and   Builders, .viii

' Electrical   Interests.........x

Fireproofins................iii

Granite...................xxvi

Heating...................xxii

Iron and Steel...............sx





Page.

Law.......................xii

Machinery..................vi

Metal Work...............xxi

Quick  Job  Directory.......xxix

Real   Estate................xiv

Stone....................xxvi

Wood   Products..........xxviii





ONE of the most noticeable features of the real estate market
during the past week has been the considerable number of
private dwellings which have been reported sold. These dwell¬
ings, while situated in all parts of the city, have as usual been
located in most instances to the east or southeast of Central
Park; aud time only confirms the popularity of that region as
the neighborhood particularly of handsome individual resi¬
dences. The demands for sucb buildings is so good at present
that there is likely to be a revival of interest in this class of
improvement on the part of builders. Indeed the records for
the year now drawing to a close indicate the existence already
of a much livelier interest in private residences. Last year
plans were filed for 61 private dwellings to be erected in Mau¬
battan at a cost of $2,014,500, while the corresponding figures
for 1903 were 56 residences to be erected at an estimated cost
of $2,881,000. During the current year on the other hand, plans
have already been filed for 86 private dwellings, which are
estimated to cost some $4,023,000, The increase is not very
considerable, and the totals do not compare with those of 1901
and 1902; but it shows a tendency towards improvement; and
there is every reason to believe that this tendency will gather
headway duriug 1906. There is, however, very little indication
of any revival in the construction of low-priced dwellings.
Plans have been filed for only two rows of dwellings to be built on
Washington Heights—twenty-nine buildings in all—while dur¬
ing the same period about $30,000,000 has been invested in tene¬
ments in the same section. It should be added that of the higher
priced dwellings, very few are being erected for sale by specula¬
tive builders; and their construction consequently will not add
to the stock of expensive houses, which are being offered for
sale. That stock has been very much reduced of late, aud
doubtless during the coming year something will be done to
replenish it.





THB purchase by the New York and New Jersey Tunnel Com¬
pany of three lots in the plot which it requires for its
terminal at Broadway and 33d st, indicates that the company
proposes to carry out its plans, iu spite of the opposition of the
property owners, and presumably it will succeed in doing so,
even though it is involved thereby in prolonged litigation. But
in any event the property will cost the company considerably
higher prices than those at which it has been valued by the
corporations' appraisers, and it follows that ia order to get this
money back, the company will be obliged to use the property
which it is acquiring to the very best advantage. But how can
the property be used to the very best advantage? This is a
question in which the other property-owners of the neighbor¬
hood are vitally interested, and the answer to which they
will await with the liveliest interest. There is, of course, every
reason to believe that the trolley company will arrange for the
improvement of the land it buys with something more than a
station. All that it needs for terminal purposes is the space
below the street levels and just as down-town is proposing to
build sky-scrapers above its train-shed, so up-town it will
adopt some similar means of making its expensive investments
in real estate pay. Furthermore it looks as if, between the
.Pennsylvania Railroad and the trolley company, the whole block





between 32d and 33d sts, Broadway and Tth ave would be occu¬
pied below the surface by railroad tracks.; and on this part o£
its property the Pennsylvania also will not need for the trafflc
purposes to build above the surface. Its actual station will be
erected on the west side of Seventh ave; and the land on the
east side is only needed so as to have sufflcient room to dis¬
tribute its tracks. Consequently, inasmuch as the two com¬
panies- are co-operating, ■ the whole block described above will
be available for some kind of big building; and the future de¬
velopment of the neighborhood will depend to some extent on
the kind of big building it will be.





IT would seem as if this site could not be used except Eor one
of two purposes. It is a matter either of a huge place of
amusement or of a department store; and of the two a depart¬
ment store possesses apparently the best chance of being a re¬
munerative enterprise. By virtue of its railroad connection this
block would become more accessible for more people than
any other block in Manhattan, The tunnel to Long Island
will put it in immediate connection with the population served
by the Long Island Railroad. The Pennsylvania and the trolley
tunnels will make it peculiarly convenient to tbe suburban
residents of New Jersey. The Subway across 34th st will con¬
nect with the longitudinal tunnels which have been or will be
built in Manhattan, and it looks furthermore as if Subways
will be constructed both on Broadway and Seventh ave—
connecting, that is, with both ends of the block. A site which
has been rendered as convenient as this will be from all parts
of New York and its neighborhood would be wasted, unless it
were used for some eiJlgrprise depending upon the support, of
as many people as possible; and "soiji-an enterprise conld not
be anything but a department store or a piact--at,.amuspffi£'ir!!'
But what purveyor of amusement could use such an enormous
areas. New York already has a Madison Square Garden and a
Hippodrome, and these two enterprises could not be duplicated
without ruinous competition. On the other hand, before the
railroads will nave their new termini in full operation. New
York will have added six or seven hundred thousand people to
its population, and will be in a position to support another de¬
partment store as large as any now in existence. The possibil¬
ities and advantages of such a use of the site are so obvious
that, if our premises concerning the intentions of the railroad
companies are correct, it seems almost inevitable that this most
accessible of all sites would be used for the sort of business
enterprise, which depends upon the support of a larger number
of people than any other. The Hippodrome attracts at the most
10,000 people a day, whereas a big department store attracts
50,000.





IT is generally admitted that trust companies are working a
revolution in American banking. The trust company is the
logical evolution of the bank, but the former's advantages are
not as well known or as widely understood as they should be.
The trust company is an admirably organized institution. It
combines under one roof many departments under highly
specialized management, offering to its customers banking
transfer, real estate, bond, trust and foreign departments, thus
uniting the functions of a bank and the functions of an incor¬
porated trustee. Another distinguishing feature is that in many
instances it permits customers to participate in the profits of
the corporation. Last year the trust companies in the State of
New York distributed in dividends to their stockholders up¬
wards of nine million and a half dollars. Depositors also re¬
ceived in interest the sum of twenty-six million dollars. Thus
depositors without the responsibilities of management share in
the successful business of the trust company and have a pro¬
found interest in its progress. As regards a real estate de¬
partment in a trust company the practice in New York differs
somewhat from that of some Western cities. In New York
nearly every trust company has a greater or lesser volume of
real estate business but the management of such property in
order to obtain the best results for clients is frequently turned
over to real estate agents, brokers and firms of the highest
standing and experience. This rule does not apply to matters
of minor detail which may be looked after directly from the com¬
pany's office. The president and executive officers of the company
naturally exercise a direct supervision over all such property,
giving their special instructions to agents and brokers in whose
hands it may be placed. The Western Trust Company's method,
regarding real estate as exemplified by the Mercantile Trust
Company of St. Louis, is to have a regularly equipped real
estate department with appraisers, salesmen and rent collectors
and thus avoid the necessity of seeking outside assistance in
the management of the real property belonging to an estate in