978





RECORD AND  GUIDE





April 30, 1904





One advantage, however, of the routes selected by the Com¬
mission is that they leave space for two four-track tunnels loop¬
ing at the Battery—one on First Avenue connecting with the
Bridges, and one on Eighth Avenue and Hudson Street; and it
is upon tunnels built along these routes which the Bronx and
Westchester will have to depend for their future development.





THE precise value of the rapid transit extensions will, under
(be scheme outlined by the committee's report, depend
upon Llie results of the bidding; and it is interesting to inquire
just what the Manhattan rapid transit system would amoimt to
under each of the alternative possibilities. If the bid of the
New York City Railway Company proves to be more attractive,
we shall have a Lexington Avenue and Broadway tunnel,
which will practically parallel the existing subway south of
Forty-Sfcond Street. This is not an ideal arrangement, particu¬
larly as the parallel lines run only one block apart; but in
adopting it, the committee wished to connect the East Side
with tbe dry goods district. And this could be done only by
means of a Broadway tunnel. The arrangement may be neces¬
sary, but it has the great drawback of duplicating transit ac¬
commodations for several miles in the center of Manhattan and
of leaving the lower East Side, the most congested part of the
borough, wholly unprovided witb additional means of transit.
It will also create a peculiar situation on the West Side, in that
the lower West Side will be connected with the upper East
Side by means of Thirty-fourth Street aud Lexington Avenue
and the upper West Side will be connected with the lower East
Side by way of Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue; but
tbe uppdr West Side will have no connection at all with the lower
West Side. Under these conditions, whatever advantages tbe
city would obtain from transfers between the surface cars and
the new subway system, tbat system would be far from being
a very satisfactory or economical solution of the transit problem.
On the other hand, in case the bid of the Interborough Com¬
pany should prove to be more attractive, Manbattan would have
two parallel tunnels some half a mile or more apart, and con¬
nected by cross-town tunnels at Forty-second Street, Thirty-
fourth Street, Chambers Street, and by a loop at the Battery.
This would, apart from tbe transfer question, be both a more
economical and a better planned subway system than the alter¬
native outlined above, and in considering tbe bids of the two
companies, this fact should enter into calculation of comparative
advantages. The Interborough Company should be able to
make a stiff fight for the adoption of its plan in spite of the
enormous advantage which its transfer offer gives to the New
York City Railway Company.





The  Northerly   Hovement of the   Fifth
Avenue Business District.

X S every one knows who has followed the real estate mar-
■^"^ ket for the past year, it is only oa Thirty-fourth Street
and on Fifth Avenue that high-priced property has shown any¬
thing like the activity of tbe two preceding years. While the
other centers of former speculation have been extremely quiet,
real es:ate on Fifth Avenue has been in lively demand and at
advancing prices. This statement is not, indeed, true of that
part of the Avenue north of Fiftieth Street, devoted to resi¬
dential purposes. Neither is it true of that part of the A3'e-
nue south of Twenty-third Street which is devoted chiefly to the
wholesale trade. But it is true of about twenty-flve blocks be¬
tween Twenty-fifth St. and some street near Fiftieth Street. It is
this part of the Avenue which has been selected for the so-called
carriage trade—for sboiis. that is, wbich are snported chiefly by
rich people, and make a point of selling high-priced goods.
During the preceding years a great many firms, formerly situ¬
ated in the neighborhood of Twenty-third Street and Broadway,
such .ii3 the Aeolian Company, Kaskel & Kaskel, and the like,
bought or leased permanent locations on the Avenue; and the
whole movement culminated last spring when the Gorham and
Tiffany companies began to build handsome buildings on the
corners of Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Streets. Tbe erection
of such stores as these meant tbat for fifty years at least Fifth
Avenue was to be the thoroughfare on which almost all the
best shops in New York would have to find a location; and it
behooved every firm that was looking for the carriage trade,
to secure some permanent seat for Its business. This, a great
many of them have been assiduously doing with the result that
prices have now reached price a level, which is unprecedented
for property of this kind. Throughout the whole of this dis¬
trict lots with old buildings seil for not less than one hundred
dollars per square foot, and some times for a good deal more,
and the end is not yet.   Tbe demand is still active, being made





so by the fact that business firms who need or will need a Fifth ■
Avenue location, are looliing for sites immediately, lest they
should have to pay more a few years later. Besides this there
are several large deals underway which will develop shortly,
and 3vbich will help to increase the pressure as soon as they are
announced.

We call attention to these facts again because they have an
important bearing upon the prospective events of the next few .
weeks. Up to tbe present time business has not displaced resi- '
dences on Fifth Avenue above Forty-seventh Street to any great
extent; but the demand for advantageous sites by firms with
a Fifth Avenue trade is so great that it looks as if the blocks as
far north as Fiftieth Street would have to succumb little by
little lo the business pressure. Above Fiftieth Street the large
Vanderbilt holdings and the Cathedral will long act as an
absolute barrier to the incursions of business; but below Fiftieth
Street several events of recent occurrence will contribute to the
transformation of these blocks into business streets. In the long
run the selling of the Columbia College leaseholds on the West
Side to the leaseholders, can hardly have any other effect, while
on the East Side a great deal will depend on tbe outcome of
the sale of the Fifth Avenue property by the Kemp estate, which
is advertised to be held about the middle of May. Of course
it may be that the heirs of the estate are putting up the property
at auction merely to obtain a set of values on the basis of
which they can divide the estate; but even then, unless the
estate is kept together by means of a real estate company, its
partition will accelerate the distribution of the property.

The Kemp estate includes Nos, 57G and 57S Fifth Avenue, a
plot, 50.5x100, on the southwest corner of Forty-seventh Street
and Fifth Avenue, with a three and a four-story building oa it.
These properties are, of course, well within tbe existing busi¬
ness section. The corner. No, 578, is now assessed at $290,000,
and ths other lot at $200,000, thus making a valuation, accord¬
ing to ;he official calculation, of $490,000 for the whole property.
It will be interesting to see how near this estimate will be to the
prices actually obtained. The estate also includes another par- .
eel which is just as decisively out of the business part of the
Avenue as the Forty-seventh Street parcel is within it. This is
Nos. 'i20 and 722 Fifth Avenue, on the northwest corner of Fifty-
sixth Street, a iilot, 50.5x100, with two four-story buildings on
it. In 1S()9 and 1870 the late Mr. Kemp bought these two lots for
$85,500; they are assessed at the present time for $535,000. Aa we
have said, this property will assuredly remain residential prop¬
erty, and its offer at auction will disclose the fact whether the
demand for eligible sites in the district devoted to high-priced
residences is good enough to absorb such a corner as this—un¬
questionably one of tbe best in the city.

Tbe property, however, in which we are particularly interested
in this connection consists of Nos. 611, 613, 615, 619 and 621
Fifth Avenue, constituting the block front between Forty-niath
aad Fiftieth Street, on the east side, barring only 617, which be-
longis to the Democratic Club. Tbese lots are improved at the
present time with the Buclvingbam Hotel and the Belgravia
apartment house buildings, which yield a very good income,
and wbich being comparatively modern structures, will stand
iu the way of any reimprovement of the property. Together
with some lots on the street, these parcels are assessed for a
total of $3,165,000. Upon the disposition of this property will
depend tbe immediate future of the several blocks from Forty-
seventh to Fiftieth Street. While it is decidedly improbable
that any purchaser will be found for it who will propose to use
it immediately for business purpose, still if it passes into the
bands of owners who will hold it merely for investment, it
will probably eventually undergo the same sort of a transforma¬
tion as the old Hotel Bristol on the corner of Forty-second
Street ta? recently undergone. If the large property-owners in
the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral wish to keep the neigh¬
borhood free from any trace of a business atmosphere, they
should take steps to control this property, because with two huge
hotels at Fifty-fifth Street and Fifth Avenue, and with business
necessities exerting a constant pressure from the south, it will
require forcible measures to keep this block front in anything
like its present condition.





—In December, 1890, as we find in reading an old supplement of
the Record and Guide. Mr. F. R. Houghton was quoted as say¬
ing: "Central Park West seems to have only one future—it is
destined to become an avenue of grand apartment houses and
hotels. Everything tends that way. It is too public a thorough¬
fare to become a private residence avenue. Central Park West
ought to have been restricted from one end to the other, but this
was neglected owing to the want of foresight ou the part of the
owners." This has turned out to 'be a very correct prophesy.
Mr. Houghton has done many thing to improve the Weat Side.
For instance, be was one of the prime movers in transforming