Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
October 8, 1910.
RECORD AND GUIDE
565
^ ,SSTABIJSHED^(AM<f'H2l*v^l868,
J^i6iE& TO RekL ESTMt.BuiLDIf/G AftP^rrECTURE .KousEHoiB DEQaHMlc<.
BUsofess jufo Themes Of GEiJER^lirfttRfsXi
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE BIOHT DOLLARS
Communications should ba addressed t»
C. W. SWEET
Published EVerg Saturdag
By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO.
FreaWent, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE
Vlce-Proa. & Gecl. Mgr., H, W. DESMOND Secretary. F. T. MILLBE
Nob. 11 to 15 Eaat a4th Street, New York City
(Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.)
"Entered at the Post
Off
CB at New
Tork.
N.
Y..
as
second-rlass matter."
Copyrigiited.
1010. by
The
Record
Se
Guide Co.
Vol.
LXXXVl.
OCTOBER
8.
1910.
No. 2 221
BENJAMIN Altman is to be congratulated upon obtain¬
ing possessian of the whole block bounded by Fifth
and Madison avenues, 3 4 th ahd iiSth streets. He has ac¬
quired incomparably the finest site in New York for a
drygoods store of the better class, and his success in doing
so is a credit to his foresight. He began the long and ex¬
pensive process of buying the block at a time when the
future of the ave,uue was still uncertain; and in this way
some of his early purchases were made on very advantageous
terms. Of course, he was obliged to pay extremely high
prices for certain of tbe parcels, which were bought later
in the day, but his total outlay for the block must be con¬
siderably smaller than Its present value. It will be quite
impossible for any of his competitors to purchase a site,
either as larg;,e or as well situated except at a prohibitive
cost. No firm or corporation could afford hereafter to buy
a whole block front on Fifth avenue as well as a whole front¬
age on the most desirable cross-town street, in the city.
The Altman block will in all probability remain, the best
retail site in Manhattan for an indefinite period, because
while ths retail business will continue to move northward
to a certain extent, it will liave no reason hereafter entirely
to desert its accustomed anchorage—as it bas so frequently
done in the past. The influence of the population living
in New Jersey and Long Island will be sufficient to keep
it centralized between 2 3d and 59th streets. It is to Mr.
Altman's credit, however, ,not only that he selected at an
early date the best site in Manhattan for his store, but
that he improved the location with a building worthy of
its site. As a matter of design there are a number of
smaller stores in Manhattan—the one belonging to the Gor¬
ham company, for insta,nce—which have received more gen¬
era! approval; but that is the fault of the architect rather
than the owner. Mr. Altman wanted to build a store which
would be au architectural credit to tbe city, as well as a
fitting habitation for his own business, and he has succeeded
in his purpose. Partly because of the very beautiful ma¬
terial of wliich it is built the Altman store is worthy of
its site, and if otber storekeepers had only do.ne anything
like as well New York would be very much more dis¬
tinguished and metropolitan in its appearance.
to raise the architectural average of the avenue. It is
owners of this class who are behind the attempt to secure
some uniformity of architectural treatment and to estab¬
lish certain standards of architectural design. But they
will ,not have very much success, because they will flnd
it hard to convince owners that space in a good building
rents quicker or at any larger prices than space in an ordi¬
nary commercial structure. While it may pay Tiffany & Co. or
any of their competitors to increase their rental for the sake
of making their places attractive, the ordinary shopkeeper
does not feel the force of a similar motive to anything like
the same extent. Hence, frivolous and vulgar buildings,
like the one inhabited by the International Sleeping Car
Company,, rant quite as well as their better looking neigh¬
bors. At the present time one of the shrewdest operators
in New York is erecting a new building on one of the most
valuable corners of Fifth avenue, the southeast corner of
42d street, and it is significant that he is putting up a cheap
and wholly u.nattractive building. In this particular case
the new building is probably intended only as a temporary
occupant of the site, but it is wholly improbable that the
owner of the, corner will ever lose a dollar in rent because
lie has erected a cheap and unattractive structure. The con¬
sequence is that'architecture on Fifth avenue divides itself
into two classes. Whenever a site is improved by a retail
firm which is trying to build up a permanent and select
body of customers the new building is usually designed by
a good architect and contributes to the better appearance
of the avenue. On the other hand, sites that are owned
and improved by operating companies or by ordinary owners
are usually as vulgar and uninteresting as the ordinary
run of such buildings throughout the city, a.nd no group of
owners or architects wiil be able to change this general
tendency by means of merely persuasive methods.
THE Record aud Guide has every sympathy with the cora¬
mittee of eminent architects who propose by means
of moral suasion and prizes to improve the architectural
appearance of Fifth avenue, but we are very much afraid
that very little will be accomplished in this way. U,ntil
for some reason good architecture pays, the property owner
on Fifth avenue will continue to employ good or bad, expen¬
sive or inexpensive architects according to his opinion of
the return in cash. For example, there have been certain
owners, such as the Knickerbocker Trust Company, Tiffauy
&. Co,, the Gorham Company, and Aitman & Co., who have
believed that the expense of a well-designed building was a
good investment. These owners were probably right i-n
spending their money on an excellent design and on ex¬
pensive materials, because they appeal to a class of customers
who would be attracted by a beautiful building. In such
cases the habitatioru is merely an appropriate expression of
the ambition of the business firm to obtain a reputation
for distinction, and personal pride forms an element in the
motives which lead them to spend the money. More
receotly Best & Co. have also erected a building, which
while of no great merit, is dignified and quiet and tends
THE extension of the Altman store over tbe Madison ave-
frontage from 34th to 35th street, will contribute
effectually to the process of commercializing that avenue.
Business has now taken possession of it from SSth to iOth
streets, and within a few years It may well move up to
36th and down to 39th streets. The other three blocks
will, however, probably bold out much longer. Mr. J, P.
Morgan is a very obstinate as well as a very rich man. He
is extremely attached to the present location of his house
and his library and he has spent a great deal of money in
buying adjoining property. In all probably he will hold oo
as long as he lives. After that no one can tell how soon
this last remnant of the old fashionable Murray Hill resi¬
dential district will hold out. No other property owrner
has anything like the same interest in preventing the intru¬
sion of business as has Mr. Morgan, and the majority of
them are likely soon to follow the example of Mr. Speyer
and go elsewhere. But it must be remembered that the
process cannot proceed very fast. Madison avenue lots on
these few blocks are extremely valuable merely for resi¬
dential purposes, and only in exceptional cases are they yet
as valuable for business. In the course of time they will
become more valuable for business, because Fifth av&nue
will not be large enough to accommodate all the business
firms that need locations in this particular neighborhood.
The tide will spread irresistibly over the avenue to the east,
unless something should happen in the meantime to divert
it, and nothing is likely to happen. On the contrary, the
development of the Grand Central station as a traffic centre
will inevitably give both Park and Madison avenues just
south of 4 2d street a wholly business character. The fact
that both subways will have express stations at this point,
and tbat it wi]! be the beginning for the McAdoo system
and the Steinway Tunnel will give 42d street an enormous
advantage over any other cross-town street—an advantage
which may be partially counteracted in the case of 34th
street by the establishment of an express station at 34th
street and Seventh avenue when the West Side Subway is
built. But the whole area immediately around 42d street
a,nd Park avenue will have such great value for retail and
other business purposes that the whole of Murray Hill will
be needed for trade. It may well take, however, another
fifteen or twe.nty years before the transformation is entirely
accomplished.
THE real estate market has not begun the current sea¬
son with au exhibition of much energy and confidence
on the part of buyers. The transactions are few in number,
and fail to indicate any novel or even any very conspicuous
tendencies. It is distinctly a waiting market, and it un-