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February 9, 1907
RECORD AND GUIDE
305
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Vol. LXXIX.
FEBRUARY 9, 1907.
INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS.
Advertisine Section.
Pago Pago
Cement ..............'.......xvli Lumber ......................xxii
Consulting Engineers .........viii Machinery....................iii
Clay Products ..................y Metal Work..................xvl
Contractors and Builders......iv Quick Job Directory........xxlil
Electrical Intereste ...........vi Real Estate ..................xl
Fireprooflng ..................11 Roofers & Rooflng Materials.. .xx
Granite ....................xviil Stone.....................xvlll
Iron and Steel..................ix Wood Products ...............xxii
THERE has been nothing either new or remarkable in the
action ol the stock market this week. Boar doctors
and bull doctors disagree. On the one hand we are told
that the market must go up occasionally that hears may
have something to sell on, aud on the other that oue flue
morning the extensive short interests will realize their posi¬
tion and win he tumbling over oue another in their efforts to
cover. The market cannot always go down, just as it can¬
not always go up, a fact which some people disregard entirely
and thereby manage to lose more or less money. Would-be
prophets on both sides of the accounts profess to see indica¬
tions of a better state of things in the near future. One of
these straws Is that on Wednesday last the market became
dull on tlte recession iu prices, while ordinarily dullness has
followed rallies. This fact may be a crumb of comfort to
some operators, hut as all experiences and precedents appar¬
ently go for nought in Wall Street iu this twentieth century,
it is safer to follow the late Josh Billings' advice and not
to prophesy unless you know. There is undoubtedly a large
short interest in the market which should result in an ad¬
vance ia prices, though how long such a recovery would last
would depend on the amount of new buying. Certain stocks
Lave been features during the week, but it can scarcely be
said that their movements up or down have had much signifi¬
cance. Missouri Pacific broke on a report that the company
was to borrow fifty millions ou short-time notes. The rumor,
while not confirmed, had its effect on the list and Great
Northern made a new low record, but recovered. Thus Wall
Street would seem to be for the time being a pretty good
place for the average operator to keep out of until the mar¬
ket begins to act in a logical manner aud more consistent with
fundamental conditions. It is encouraging to real estate and
building interests to know that time money is daily becoming
easier, and that the demand for it is consequently more ac¬
tive. Iu connection with this burning money question it may
be said that Wall Street and banking sentiment is still hope¬
ful about immediate Congressional legislation regarding the
currency.
Everett House, following soon after the report of the
Court House site commission, might be hailed as the begin¬
ning of a revival for Union Square, if it were yet assured
that the recommendation of the commission is to be ac¬
cepted. Sales'of small apartment houses oa the west side oE
Manhattan and of huilding lots and private dwellings iu the
Bronx have this week been more numerous than usual, and
can mostly be ascribed to public interest. Fulton street near
the McAdoo terminal announces an important sale to add to
a number of others that have taken place recently, and to
give evidence of the quiet campaign which is going on in that
quarter. Statistics for Jauuary printed iu this paper last
week disclosed that the number of conveyances in Manhat¬
tan during that month were about fifty per cent, less than in
the first month of 1906, and the building projects announced
were only one-third as many. In the Brons plans for 13
more buildiugs were filed in Jauuary this year than were
filed in January last year aud in Brooklyn about two hun¬
dred more than last year. With mortgage money accessible
on fair terms, Brooklyn and the Bronx, as well as Queens,
win carry on au enormous amount of building this year.
No. 2030
FEBRUARY'S flrst week has given the i-eal estate market
a foretaste of spring activity. From time out of mind
February has always been the starting point for the season's
real business throughout the whole country. Though there
have heen in New York City some local modiflcations of the
custom, iu general it is true of February that it is the month
when landlord aud tenant are expected to arrange with each
other for another year or term of years; and out of this fact
grows a widespread activity in all the departments of real
estate and buildiug. It is therefore significant that the very
first week of February, 1907, has brought to Manhattan and
the Bronx an exceptional amount of business and public in¬
terest in real estate, as it can be taken as a prophecy of a
normal and satisfactory spring market. Several features of
the week's transactions stand out prominently. The sud¬
den activity iu Thirty-third street east of Fifth avenue points
plainly to a continued enlargement of commercial interests
iu the region around the Waldorf-Astoria. The sale of the
IT is very much to be hoped that the Board of Estimate
will not alter the site of the new Court House chosen
by the Commission. Public opinion in the county, particu¬
larly the opinion of those people most immediately and spe¬
cially interested, is unanimous in its favor. The judges, the
lawyers, and tbe press have all approved; and unless better
reasons can be given tban any which have yet been alleged,
their approval is justified. The site will be expensive, of
course, but no cheaper site of similar area and similar ex¬
cellence of location could be found in Manhattan. The only
alternative plan proposed is wholly undesirable. This plan
is, as we understand it, to buy the remainder of the block
between the Hall of Records aud Broadway and erect there¬
on a structure large enough both for a court house and a
municipal ofiice building. Such a course would be a mis¬
take, both as a matter of architecture and as a matter of
economy. A municipal office buildiug is all very well; and
we know of no good reason why a municipal office building
should not be a skyscraper. But there has always been a
tradition that court bouses should he buildings of some
architectural propriety and dignity; and this tradition is a
good one, because an appropriately stately habitation for a
court of justice assuredly increases the respect for the law
in the public mind. To herd the supreme and county courts
in a big skyscraper, together witb the tax and water de¬
partments, would be a grave impropriety, and vfhen to this
consideration is added the importance of giving the court
rooms quiet surroundings, the Chambers Street plan looks
ill-advised. If the city needs an office building, in addition
to a court-house, why not erect such a building on land
which the city is already acquiring? There is no engineer¬
ing reason to prevent the construction of a 30-story sky¬
scraper on the tliree triangular blocks, which wiil contain
the new Brooklyn Bridge terminal, aud it would he a real
economy to put this expensive land to such good use. The
city could get more room, and room better adapted for its
purposes, at about the same expense hy using the Union
Square site for the Court House, and the terminal property
for a skyscraper than by purchasing tbe enormously expen¬
sive Chambers Street site and building upon it exclusively.
THE controversy as to whether an express station on the
new East Side subway shall be situated at Fourteenth
or Twenty-third Street ought to lead to a declaration on
the part of the Rapid Transit Commission as to the proper
principle governing the selection of streets for express sta¬
tions. The question at bottom is whether express stations
ou the different longitudinal routes should be located at
the same or at different important streets, and the advocates
of the station.at Fourteenth Street, would do well to argue
in favor of the general principle of one street for all ex¬
press stations rather than to argue in favor of the peculiar
availability of Fourteenth Street. Of course Fourteenth
Street is convenient for a great many people; but a station
at Twenty-third Street would be convenient for even more
at the present time, and by the end of ten years it would
serve fully double the husiness population. The convenience
of Twenty-third Street to a comparatively larger number of
people is so manifest to any but prejudiced people that the
only reason which can be alleged in favor of the Fourteenth
Street station is the desirability of enabling people to trans¬
fer from an express or local train ou one route to an expresr