Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXII.





NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28,1878.





No. 550.





Published Weekly by

übe %ml ^sMt %tcw!:)i %5Bacmimx,

TERMS.
ONK YEAR. in advance....SlO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  AV.  SAVEET,

Nos. .145 AND 3-17 Broadwav





THE MARCH OF IMPROVEMENT.
In accordance with our custom, wo herewith
present to our readers a carefully prepared table
and analysis of building projections for which
permits have beeu granted by the Building De¬
partment during the tweive months running from
September Ist, 1S77, to September Ist, 1878. We
have chosen this nrbitrarj- period as embracing
tho work of a whole j-ear and of two distiuct
building periods. The spring and fall are looked
upon as the most invitiug as thej' are the most
aetive seasons for building projections. At the
commencement of a new period, and before its
developments have fairly presented themselves, it
may be instructive to look back over the work
that has been uudertaken within the past twelve-
month. In our aualj-sis, we have adopted a some¬
what different system of headings from that in
use in the Building Department, and we flatter
otu-selves that the subdivisions here presented will
be more intelligible and useful to the building
trade and to the general reader. There is much
of significance and Suggestion to be fouud in the
subject matter of our table; aud without further
preface, we will proceed to lay before cur readers
the result of our researches.'

SEW BUILDINGS   PROJECTED SKPT.,  1877, TO .SEPT., 1878.

1.  Private dwellings, flrst class..................    159

2.  Private dwellings, second class................    398

3.  .Vpartment houses without stores.............     22

4.  Apartment houses with stores...............       3

5.  Stores, warehouses and oflice buildings.......     54

6.  Factories and Shops..........................     <ji

7.  Tenements without Stores.....................    249

fi. Tenements with stores....................      232

9. Stables (all kinds)............................[     81

10.  Annexed district..............................   284

11.  Public buildings............................."     11

Total number.............................     1^585

General Re.marks.—We have confined our¬
selves in this statement to a record of the bare
number of buildings for which permits have been
granted. The aggregate valimtions would convej-
so little additional information, thatwe have pre-
ferred to withhold them. The aggregate number
of projections, to wit, 1,585, may seem small com¬
pared with the work of previous years, and meas-
ured by the common idea of the growth of thLs
city; but the numbers aloueconvej'-noconception
of the variety and disparity in the value and de-
sign of these buildings. The great disparity of
of values will be comprehended when we say that
the assumed cost ranges ull the way from §200,
assigned for the erection of souie shed or shop, to
the magnificent sum of Soöt), üOO, which has been
estimated as the outlay for a single apartment
house. The average cost of buildings is found to
bo somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 or
S13,000. As the cost of production varies, so do
the relative sizes. The aggregate of tbis projec¬
tion may be taken as a valuable addition to tbe





growth of the city, and as marking an unusuallj-
important step in its march of improvement.

By a Cursorj- examination of these'Ögures, it
will be seen that edifices for residence purposes
outnumber and outrank all others, together repre¬
senting two-thirds of the entire projection. Com¬
mon tenement houses maintain their predomin-
ance, and claim as their share fully one-third of
thö whole number. The contribution of 150 busi¬
ness establishments is no miean addition to tbe
commercial resources of the metropolis. A citj-
which can boast of this number of new structures
as its annual product in the way of business ac-
comraodations in a j-ear of unusual financial de¬
pression can hardly be considered commercially
in a retrograde state. The compai-ative smullness
of this projection must be attributed to the fact
that in this city new business edifices usually owe
the possibüity of their existence to the displacing
of some existing sti-uctiu'e. Scarcitj- of suitable
business sites renders the acquisition of land for
commercial purposes a costly affair and practi-
callj' restrains these projections. The ratio of
first-class private dwellings to those of the second
class, and the i-atio of both of these classes to the
common tenement are the almost fixed and con-
staut ones j-ear in and out, and may be taken as
representing the real order of the city's growth.
Anj' slight apparent increase in the number of
second-class dwellings, by which we mean those
costing less thau $10,000 apiece for house alone,
as well as the enlarged projection in the annexed
district may be taken as the ripe fruit of that
large harvest which the successful eompletion of
rapid transit is expected to bear. We bave made
no attempt to classify tbe projections in the an¬
nexed district, as the large majority are of an in-
expensive order. We content ourselves with tbe
remark that the aggregate comprises, in unequal
proportions, all kinds and qualities of buildings,
from a cowshed up to a brewery and a costly
church edifice. Dwellings of a piain and simple
tj-pe predominate largely in this number.

We will proceed to examine our Classification
more speciflcaUy.

1. Private Dwellings — Hrst-c(ass. — The
casual reader, wbo is unfamiliar witb the build¬
ing developments of the city, may indulge in
astonishment at tbe comparatively small number
assigned to tbis class of buildings. In point of
fact, tbe projection is nearly, if not quite, up to
the average of tbe most aetive years. Tbe de¬
mand for private houses at tbe reduced prices
wbicb now prevail, has been aetive, almost to
briskness, for the past two j'ears, a fact w^hicb
political economists may accoimt for at their
leisure. This demand bas brought about a recov¬
ery of building iudustry sooner than was once
expected. It is somewhat unfortunate that, of
tbe limited number projected, an undue propor¬
tiou are what are termed building loan transac¬
tions—a type of buüding Operation with wbicb
tbe rtaders of tbis paper are more or less familiär.
Such Operations are apt to be unproätable and
unsatisfactory to all coneerned, and can rarely
be taken as indicative of healtby activity. Still,
in its past bistory, New York owes a large share
of its building growth to speculativo builders,
and particolarly tö those who bave operated witb
buüding loans.   "Wiofvrjw Joses, ths.cilyAt large





is the gainer bj- the erection of these buildings in
quantity if not in quality. There is little likeli¬
hood that the future growth of the citj- will be
developed imJer any different auspices. About
one-third of the.se projections are in the hauds of
legitimate speculative builders w^ho build witb
their own 'capital. It is a fact which builders
will do well to lay to heart that these latter trans¬
actions, of late years, have been moderately If
not invariablj' successful. The projections as¬
signed to this class are to be found in the new and
old building quarters together extending from
Fortj'-second to Eightj'-sixtb street and from
Fourth to Sixth avenue and Central Park. This
number includes manj- pi-ojections of a very
meritorious charactei-, conspicuously exhibiting
tbe mechanical skill and colossal enterprise of
New York builders. It also includes projections
made by private ownera under the direction of
architects ; and these are so uncoramonly nume¬
rous and form such prominent features of current
building activitj-, that we will take the liberty to
State them in detail. Without exception these
private projections are of a high order of merit
and excellence, beiug the embodiments of indi¬
vidual conception of hoines and statelj' mansions.
In some cases these projections represent the
unaided and carefullj' studied conceptions of our
leading architects.

The most conspicuous and remarkable struc¬
tures, as far as may be determiued by their pres¬
ent progress, are those of Mr. Braem, Mr. Dick¬
erson, Mr. Arnold, Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Ehret.

1.  Frederic Bronson, Madison av, next to northwest

cor33d St.

2.  Egerton L. Winthrop, Madison av, northwest cor

33d st.

3.  E. N. Dickerson, 34th st, bet. Madison and Park
. avs.

4.  H. A. Braem, S6tb st, bet. Flfth and Madison avs.
B. James Morris. Madison av, bet. 40tb and 41st sts.

6.  George Mosle. 51st st, bet. Sth and 6th avs.

7.  E. V. Loew, Sth av, bet. ö2d and 53d sts.

8.  B. Brewster, Sth av, bet. 54th aud SSth sts.

9.  George Kemp, Sth av. northwest cor 56th st.

10.  Jas. Rufus Smith. Sth av, bet. 57th and SSth sts.

11.  Jabez A. Bostwick. Sth av, northeast cor 6Ist st.

12.  Richard Arnold. Sth av, northeast cor 83d st.

13.  J. II. Bonnell. 63d st. bet. Sth and Madisou avs.

14.  W. H. S. Wood. 63d st, bet. Sth and Madison avs.
iS. Chas. E. Cornish, 63d st, bet. öth aud Madison avs.

16.  John D. Crimmins, 6Sth st, bet. Madi-son and 4th

avs.

17.  George Ehret, 4th av, southeast cor 94th st.

Of speculative projections by buüders, the fol¬
lowing are noteworthy:

Lynd Bros., 54th st, Sth and 6th avs, 5 houses.
Duggin & Crossman, Madison av, SSth and 56th sts,

10 honses.
Duggin & Crossman, Madison av, 49th st. 6 houses.
McCiiffertj' & Bucklej', SSth st, bet. Madison and 4th

avs. 4 houses.
McKenna. SSth st, bet. Sth and 6th avs, 2 houses.
McManus, SSth st. bet. Sth and 6th av.s. 4 houses.
Kilpatrick. 63d st, bet. Sth and Madison avs. 8 houses.
Williams, 68th st, bet. Madison and 4th avs, 3 houses.
Muldoon Se Mowbray, 68tli st, southwest cor Madison

av, 10 houses.

On Observatory HiU, Madison avenue and
Eighty-first street, Arnold & Constable are erect¬
ing a number of piain and attractive houses,
which will be offered to rent. Tbis locfdity might
be properly caUed Arnold Constablevüle.

2. Privatb Dwkllings —iSeco«<i-<Aiss,—This
number is made up of projections of two aud
three-story houses, and of an occasional four-
story, varying in width from tweive to twenty
feet, rarely exceeding the latter width. and scat¬
tered tbronghout all parts of the city outside of
the new and old fashionable quarters.   They «re