July 14, 1906





RECORD AND  GUIDE





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Vol.




LXXVHI-














JULY 14,




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No. 20U0





INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertising Section.

Page.                                                     Page.

Cement   ....................ixlll  Law.........................il

Consulting   Engineers   ..........x   Lumber..................ixvlU

Clay Products  ................xxll   Machinery   ...................Iv

Contractors  and   Builders   ......v   Metal  Work   ................xvll

Electrical   Interests   ..........viil   Quick Job Directory  ........xitvil

Fireproofing   .................11   Real Estate  .................xiv

Granite   ....................xxlv   Roofers & Roofing Materials.xxvi

Heating   ....................xx   Stone   .....................xxiv

Iron  and  Steel   ..............xvlil   Wood Products   ...........xxviii

The Record and Oiiide has opened an Uptown Office in the

Metropolitan "Annex,'" Nos. 11-13 East 2'lth Street, in order
to accommodate its customers, so many of whom are located in
the central and northern parts of the city, and at the same time
to provide additional quarters for its oton increased staff and
for the Architectural Record and "iS'wceCs" Index.





O UMMER liulness characterizes the stock market, which acts
^-^ decidedly as though the turning-point had been passed,
and without new hear ammunition it shoultl gradually advance.
The average rise in the principal stocks of three points or more
since the low prices of a fortnight ago has been maintained.
Money is easier, and ought to cease to be a matter of fear. In
the year 1903 the same money conditions prevailed in July.
Time money then was difficult to obtain, rates being 6 per cent,
for even short time loans. Lenders with the recollection of the
high call rates of 1902 behind them were unwilling to put out
their funds on time, looking forward, if not hoping, for a repeti¬
tion of the squeeze in the autumn of 1903. The result was that
call money was a drag, ranging from II/2 to 2^ per cent., and
the expected squeeze never came. That year the banks specu-
Sated in money and lost, and this year it is not unlikely they
may do the same. The money markets of the world have often
settled down into a conviction and then waited for the event
that failed to materialize. Railroad earnings continue phenom¬
enally large, and it would seem they must so continue. The
absence of paralleling by reason of adverse railroad legislation
leaves the existing railroads in indisputed possession of their
respective fields, and so it may happen that what seemed to be
for the worst may turn out to be the best for the railroads,
because it is a certainty that during the first years of the Work¬
ing and the test of the new rate law not one dollar of capital Can
be obtained for a new railroad. The great good luck of the
country "with respect to crops continues. The wheat crop not
only promises to be, with one exception, the largest in the his-
ftory of the country, but the quality is the best. The figures
indicated are 723,000,000 bushels. The greatest year was the
harvest of 1901, when the yield was 749,000,000 bushels,





A COMPARISON of the building operations in the first half
■*^ of this year with the operations of the corresponding por¬
tion of last year, as represented by the records on file, discloses
that in value the works ot 1906 exceed those of the first half
of 1905 by some fourteen million dollars, but that in the num¬
ber of new buildings projected the two periods are about equal
This IS -taking into account Brooklyn and the Bronx as well
as Manhattan. As 1905 was the most wonderful year in building
that New York has yet known, the fact that, measured by the
value of the works projected, the current year has thus far sur¬
passed It,; is highly significant to business interests at large
Capacity after it has once been enlarged to meet requirements
needs thereafter be fully employed in order to avert losses;
^nd_.the capacity of the building and allied industries of New
York ha^ been so greatly extended of late that a lowering of
the rate of building would be a serious matter. Statistics do,
not always reveal the full  and real inwardness of things aadl





observation must then supplement them. In this case, it may
be said that they stand for projects rather than fulfilments, and
that in actual labor and material put forth there may have
been, and probably was, a difference in favor of the first half of
1905 over the first half of 1906; for the letting down in some
lines during the months of May and June was generally re-
markefl, and ascribed to the effects of the new mortgage law.
During the s-ui'oud quarter of Uie year plans were filed in Man¬
hattan for 596 new buildings of a value of 539,047,430, as against
723 new buildings of a value of $o5,697,212, during the second
quarter of 1905. The number of tenements planned during the
three months just past was 397, as against 362 in the correspond¬
ing period of 1905. The number of office buildings planned was
tbe same in each quarter, but there was a great difference in
value in favor of those planned this year. The alteration work
scheduled in April, May and June of this year exceeded in value
the alterations planned in the corresponding months of 1905, but
affected a fewer number of buildings. The total value of thp
building work planned in Manhattan during the last qiuarter
was $44,891,925, to compare with $40,915,531, which was the rec¬
ord made in the second quarter of 1905. For the first three
months of this year the buildiiig operations of Manhattan (in¬
cluding both new structures and alterations) amounted in esti¬
mated cost to $40,206,746, while for the similar period in 1905
the total estimated cost of all operations in this borough was
but ?28,]31,714. The grand total for 1906, from January 1 to
July 1, of all operations in Manhattan is eighty-five million dol¬
lars, as against sixty-nine millioa for 1905. With the annua!
mortgage tax law out of existence, tlie difficulties connected with
financing operations, so far as they were interfered with by the
old law, should disappear, and with the new capital that the
exempt mortgage securities of this city should attract, we can
foresee nothing but a continuance of good conditions, and very
probably a better record for the full year than was credited to
1905.





TT is admitted that negotiations are well advanced towards the
■^ purchase of the Burton property on Fifth avenue between
Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth streets by a retail house now
doing business below Twenty-third street. It is possible that
the present negotiations wili fall through; but there can be no
doubt that some such disposition will be made of this property.
It ia one of the few plots on Fifth avenue owned by one interest,
which, when improved, would be large enough to accommodate
the business of a big genera! store. Containing as it does some
27,000 Square feet, it would, when improved with a ten-story
building, contain abundant space for the business such as Van-
tine's or Arnold & Constable's, and there is not another plot
on the avenue of which the same statement would be true.
When Mr. Altman completed his purchases, he also secured the
block front owned by the late Marshall Field, doubtless for the
purpose of anticipating any possible competition; and it may
be doubted whether another large plot could be pieced together
except at an Impossible cost. It took Mr. Altman many years of
patient accumulation to buy up the site on which he is building
at present, and prices have advanced considerably since he com¬
pleted his purchases- The Burton plot is doubtless held at a
good, stiff figure, but it was for the most part accumulated at
lower prices, and its owners should be able to realize a hand¬
some profit Without asking a sum which even a large and profit¬
able business could not afford to pay. One thing which makes
it so difflcult to secure a large plot on Fifth avenue is the in¬
creasing number of ta!! buildings that are being erected. Three
years ago the avenue was improved for the most part with re¬
constructed four and five-story brownstone houses, but since
then increasing values have compelled the building of sky¬
scrapers, particularly on the corners; and these skyscrapers are
generally leased in part for periods of twenty years or longer.
The business men who several years ago had the forethought to
secure permanent locations are now being rewarded, while those
who neglected to do so are being correspondingly punished.
The pressure is becoming so great that doubtless the tide of
Fifth avenue business will soon begin to overflow not only, as
at present, to the side streets, but to Madison avenue, at least
between Twenty-sixth and Thirty-fourth streets. It is only
necessary for some important shop to secure a location on this
part of Madison avenue and the others will soon follow along.





NOW tbat the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has
approved the routes for new subways laid out by the Rapid
Transit Commission, all the legal formalities necessary to the
establishing of the new routes have been complied with.
What now remains to be seen is whether the new system has
been framed so as to tempt private capital. Nobody expects,
of course, that bidders will be found for all of the routes that
have just been approved.   The plan was framed at a time when