August 13, 1910.





RECORD   AND   GmDE





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Vol.   LXXXVl,





AUGUST   13,   1910.





No.   2213





IN the last issue of the Record and Guide Mr. Alfred H.
Taylor made a valuable suggestion as to the architec¬
tural treatment of the roofs of apartment houses, hotels
and oflice buildings. When residential New York con¬
sisted of three or four-story brownstone houses there was
no particular reason to consider a flat roof either from the
aesthetic or the practical point of view. But now that
the private residences are disappearing, and the smallest
Building unit is coming to be an elevator apartment-house
erected on three or four lots, the roof, particularly of a flat-
roofed building, is becoming of the utmost aesthetic and
practical importance. Ir.s increased practical importauce
is due chiefly to the fact that the hygienic, value of fresh
and good air is much more highly appreciated than it used
to be. The top of every large apartment-house should be
converted into a playground for children. A playground
of this kind would be more accessible than a public park,
and by proper planning and organization might be made
more useful, both to the younger and the older children.
In the same way the top of office and loft buildings should
be used as a place in which the employees of the estab¬
lishment, during the period allowed for lunch, could obtain
good air and a little exercise. Some such development
as this is plainly indicated by the increasing over-crowding
of the streets and the way they are being deprived of light
and good air. Furthermore, any structures erected on the
roofs to meet these practical needs would have a distinct
architectural value. The great need of a tallish flat-roofed
building is some perpendicular projection, which breaks the
skyline. Even the pent-houses and water-tanks of the present
day, ugly as they are, frequently afford a welcome relief
to the monotony cf the skyline of a big fiat-roofed build¬
ing. If, as Mr. Taylor suggests, such structures were made
of cement, and given an outline of some architectural mean¬
ing, they could be used, not only as part of the furniture
of the roof, but also as a contribution to the appearance
of the building from the street—^provided the building were
no more than about twelve stories high.





IN a recent interview in the New York Times iVIr. Joseph
P. Day made an extremely useful suggestion. He
pointed out that as the population of the city spread further
north, the local authorities had made uo provision for mar¬
kets accessible to the new residential districts. At the
present time the markets are of practically no use to the
ordinary retail purchaser In Manhattan. They are used
only or chiefly by the restaurants and hotels; and the pur¬
chaser in small quantities is practically obliged to deal with
the local tradesmen. When one remembers the extent to
which the markets are used by small retail purchasers in
some of the other American cities and in the great majority
of foreign cities, one begins to realize what the New York
housewife loses because of the lack of markets, ' An ac¬
cessible aud well-supplied market does more than offer the
small purchaser retail goods at somewhere near wholesale
prices. It tends by its competition to keep down the retail
prices of local tradesmen. The help that it gives the small
purchaser in buying somewhat more cheaply is a great boon,
and now that attention is being called from every direction
So the extortions practiced by local tradesmen, possible reme¬
dies should be seriously considered by the municipal govern¬
ment. Could not, for instance, a plant for a new municipal
market be  included  in   Mr.   Tomkins'  proposal   looking to¬





wards some more economical method of handling freight
in Manhattan? This proposal depends for its success en¬
tirely by the co-operation of the railroads, aud it looks as
If some arrangement might be made with the railroad com¬
panies ,to supply a market situated somewhere up town
and not too far from a subway. But, of course, the creation
of new markets should not be confined to Manhattan. The
outer parts of Brooklyn are lacking in such accommoda¬
tions; and the same is the case with Queens and the Bronx.
In the case of these outlying boroughs the organization of
some method whereby these markets could be supplied with
eggs, butter, poultry, vegetables and the like from neigh¬
boring farms would l)e au easier matter than it would be in
the case of Manhattan, It fs a singlar fact that a service
which the municipality used to perform for its citizens should
have become -so completely neglected. Doubtless Chicago
beef and cold storage methods has something to do with
the decline of produce markets, but they do not account
for  their  complete  neglect.





THB   Record   and   Guide   is  in   receipt   of  the   following
letter:

'Sir: In your issue of fith inst. we notice that you do not agree
with the "Outlook," in the solution of the subway problem In
this city. It seems strange to us that two so admittedly well
informed publications are so much at variance in this matter.
After giving proper thought to both arguments, we have to
align ourselves on the side of the "Outlook," and for the fol¬
lowing reasons: Every man and woman in the Bronx who uses
the subway is tired out protesting against the overcrowded con¬
ditions of the trains—especially in rush hours. This fact is
so well impressed on the minds—and bodies—of Bronxites par¬
ticularly that it should be unnecessary to again repeat it. Then,
why under those manifestly intolerable conditions do you advo¬
cate "extensions" the effect of which would be to still further
crowd the overcrowded trains?

In the morning rush hours the trains are packed before leav¬
ing litlth sireet; and still more and more passengers are pushed
in until DUth street is reached, when the jam is so great that
passengers are unable to leave tlie cars except at the risk to
their clothing and person. This condition of affairs should
move you to advocate the plan which will be of most benefit to
the traveling puhlic, and it is not hard to see that this plan
is the one for a new East Side subway serving the East Side
of Manhattan and the Hunt's Point and Westchester sections
of the Bronx, the two latter being greatly in need of this ac¬
commodation.

You mention that $70,000,000 only is available for subway
construction now. We have heard the suggestion to build in
sections, and when those are completed more money will be
available. What objection could be raised to this plan, as the
entire cost of the subway is not needed before commencing the
work? If you think, we have not unduly trespassed on your
time, we would wish to suggest a remedy for the crowded con¬
dition at 149th street in the transfer of passengers from the
subway to tlie "L," and vice versa. The running of the Second
<or Third) avenue trains through to West Farms would obviate
all the unbearable crush from the subway to the "L" and vice
versa at that station. It was for that use the section of-the
"L" on W'estchester avenue from Third to Brook avenue was
built. Why is it not used for this purpose? We are aware of
the powerful influence of your advocacy at this critical period,
and hope it will be thrown on the side of new subways—the
lasting solution of the present transit problem.   Respectfully,

McSORLET'S   SONS.

(Real Estate Brokers.)
We trust we can convince our correspondents that the
plans of the Interborougb Company would, when carried out,
do just as much to relieve the existing congestion in the
Bronx as would the plan of the Public Service Commission.
One reason for the congestion in the Bronx is that,
whereas north of 69th street there are two subways each
serving a densely populated territory, south of 9 6th street
there is only one subway. Trains cannot be run any more
frequently than they are on the Lenox avenue-Bronx line,
because there is no room for them on the Broadway-Fourth
avenue line soutli of 9 6th street. Any improvement of
service in the Bronx depends, consequently, not merely upon
the construction of new routes in that borough, but also
upon the provision which is made to take care of the Bronx
passengers in Manhattan.





T F our correspondents will examine the two different sets
1 of plans, they will see that each of them provides pre¬
cisely the same increase of subway trackage in Manhattan.
In both cases four new tracks will be built from the Har¬
lem River to the City Hall. According to the commission's
project, these four new tracks will run down Lexington
avenue   and   Broadway.       According  to    the    luterborough