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January 20, 190G
KECORD AND GUIDE
97
^ ESTABUSHED'^ MARpH^U.^ 186S.
Dented p f^L EsTAlT,BuiLdi>''c %&>(itecti:r,e ,}{ausEUOLD DECOfiATioi*,
BOSII/eSS AffcTHEMEii orGEjiERfiV ll^TEI^EST.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS
Pubtisfied eVere Saturday
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street. New York
Telopboiio. Cortlandt 3157
"Entered at ihe fosl O.'Sice al New Yorli, if. Y., as secored-dass mailer,"
Vol. LXXVIL
JANUARY 20, 1906.
No. 1975
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.
Page. Page.
Cement ...................xxvil Law......................xiii
Clay Products.............xxvl Machinery..................iv
Consulting Engineers..........ix Metal Work................xxlii
Contractors and Builders .......x Quick Job Directory........xxxi
Electrical Interests ...........vi Real Estate.................xv
Fireproofing .................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials, .xii
Granite.................xxviii Slone....................xxviii
Heating...................xxiv "Wood Products.............xxx
Iron and Steel.............xxii
WHILE the current stock market is undoubtedly one in
which stocks bought at a lower level are being distrih-
uted, it by no means follows that there is anything insecure
about the current situation. The process of gradually increasing
the price of securities has occupied about eighteen months, and
the process of distributing them widely at the present or at a
higher level may well take a year. It all depends, of course,
upon tlie maintenance of earnings, the course of general busi¬
ness, and the degree of caution with which the bull campaign ,'b
continued. As to the course of general business, there la no
reason to anticipate any diminution of activity during the com¬
ing spring and the early summer, A crop failure might there¬
after give a decided check to tlie expanding earnings of the rail¬
roads and to the purchasing power of their customers, btit no
one can anticipate what may take place in business six months
ahead. It is sufficient that business is active and profitable at
the present time without any obvious signs of inflation. If.
consequently, the stock market becomes dangerous during tlie
next few months, it will be because prices are being forced up
too rapidly, antl are allowed to depart too far from a conserva¬
tive estimate of current values. We do not believe that any
such condition has occurred as yet. It may have taken place In
a few securities, but, as a rule, the current level of values af¬
fords room for further advances, provided they are cautiously
brought about. There has been no indication of a runaway
market during the week. Certain securities have made sharp
advances; but those are just the securities in which advances
were most justified. The buying, while large, is by no means
indiscriminate. There are undoubtedly a large number of
people who believe that prices will reach a somewhat higher
level, and who have the money and the will to back their con¬
victions. They are likely to control the stock market some time
to come.
THE most noticeable development recently in the real estate
market has been the buying for improvement in the vic¬
inity of Broadway and Cortlandt street, to which more speciiic
reference is made elsewhere. There has also been some very
good buying on some of the side streets down town, and most
of this purchasing has been done by speculators and operators
with a view to improvements. The only other center of pro¬
nounced speculative activity continues to be the district in the
vicinity of the Pennsylvania and the trolley terminals. The
tunnel company keep adding to the list of properties which it
needs for its station, and it is stated that negotiations are under
way for the erection of a department store over its train shed.
That some such disposition will be made of the property seems
inevitable; but it is probable that no decision in reference lo
the matter can be made yet. Speculative buying continues to be
lively on Seventh avenue and on the side streets in that vicinity,
and prices are steadily advancing, A number of loft buildings
will probably be erected on tlie side streets during the coming
spring, and the whole neighborhood will receive a further boost
as soon as the contracts are let for the Seventh avenue-Broadway
Subway. Old tenements on the middle East and West Sides are
also being sold in large numbers, and many indications of act¬
ivity may be noted on Ninth avenue between 14th and 34th
streets. It is one of the most wholesome signs of the existing
condition of real estate in New York that property on streets
and avenues which has been dead for years is again showing
symptoms of life.
THIS Is the time of year when the purchases of property
are made down town for the purpose of building offi^.e
buildings during the summer, and from the announcements
which have recently been made it is apparent that there will be
a good deal of activity during 1906 in this class of building.
Apparently both the Adams Express Company and the Singer
Manufacturing Company will improve their holdings on Broad¬
way, while other offices will shortly be erected on Broad street
near Beaver, aud on Wall street near William. But most of the
building will take place somewhat further north. There has
been comparatively little new construction of late immediately
norlh of Maiden lane; but the scarcity of available sites further
south is concentrating attention on this part of Broadway and
its vicinity. The example of the Title Guarantee & Trust Co.
is being followed. The City Investing Company has pieced to¬
gether a fine and large site on Cortlandt street and Greenwich
street, aud the United States Realty Co. has been buying on
Broadway between Cortlandt and Dey. All of these plots may
not be improved during the current year; but they are certainly
being bought because the existing buildings are out of date, and
tlie erection of new ones will not be long delayed. There is
every reason why new skyscrapers should be constructed in good
central locations. The ever-Increasing business of the financial
district is again insistently demanding more space for its use,
aud the activity of general business keeps existing buildings very
full. During the next two months many additional announce¬
ments of this kind may be confidently expected.
LITTLE by little it is being divulged in the daily papers what
the City of New York has to expect by way of increased
rapid transit from the Belraont-Ryan combination. The officials
of the companies frankly state that it was the desire to avoid
building competing and unprofilable lines, which was the chief
motive of the consolidation, and that the combination has no
intention of bidding upon all the new routes laid out by the
Commission. The only new subways in which it is interested are
a three-track line running up the East Side from 42d along Lex¬
ington avenue aud a four-track line south from 42d street on
Seventh and Eighth avenues and Broadway. This announce¬
ment will disappoint many property owners who are interested
in some of the other proposed routes; but it cannot be said that
the decision is unreasonable. The immediate construction of
all the proposed subways would certainly be a very unprofitable
business, and one cannot ask capitalists to invest money without
the expectation of a substantial return. The upper Bast Side and
the lower West Side routes mentioned above are the subways
most urgently needed at the present time, and if this city can
secure their early construction from the rapid transit company
on favorable terms, it will have obtained as much as can be ex¬
pected for the next two or three years. The question is, whether
the combination is prepared to offer sufficiently favorable terms,
and this question cannot be answered with any certainty. The
only inducements which the combination will offer are, accord¬
ing to the newspapers, (1) the construction of the subways with¬
out the use of the city's credit, and (2) certain unspecified trans¬
fer privileges. These are all very well, but they do not touch
the heart of tne matter. What the public wants to know is.
How long the operating contract will run, and how much rent
will be paid? The success of the existing subway has been such
that the city has every reason to demand a larger compensation
than the one which it is now receiving. The profit on this con-
ti'act has already amounted to about $50,000,000, and no one
can tell how much more it will become during the next seventy-
five years. The lease must be for a shorter term, and there must
be periodical readjustments of the rental charge. The contract
with the New Jersey Tunnel Co. for the Sixth Avenue Subway
contained provisions looking in this direction, and the new
longitudinal subways now proposed should be worth more than
the short tunnel under Sixth avenue from Ninth street to
Greeley square. It Js very much to be hoped that the officials
of the traction companies will agree to pay a fair value for these
new subways.
THE Bridge Commissioner, Mr. Stevenson, stated his deter¬
mination recently to do away entirely with the terminals,
which encumbered the plans of his predecessor, and this decision
is worthy of all approval. But we fear that he will have some
difficulty in making it good. The terminals cannot be dispensed
with except by means of connecting rapid transit tracks, run-