Real Estate Record
AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.
Vol. XXV.
NEW YOEK, SATUBDAT, APRIL 17, 1880.
No. 631
Published Weekly by
TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to
C. W^. SWEET,
No. 137 Broadwav.
AN EXHIBITION MOEE IMPORTANT THAN
THE WORLD'S FAIR.
There is now awaiting action before the Execu¬
tive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce a
communication from Secretary of State Evarts of
fa)- greater importance to the enterprising capi¬
talists of not only this city but of the entire coun¬
try than any scheme that may or may not be sue-
cessM for the holding of a great World's Fair in
this city in 1883. It is a demand for the construc¬
tion of a mammoth building in New York to ex¬
hibit samples of wares and merchandise required
by the various nations of the world, notably those
in .\sia, Africa aud South America.
At first glance, some of our hot-headed and yet
energetic fellow citizens may possibly belittle such
an enterprise. Looking at it calmly however and
studiously, it will be found that such an establish¬
ment fostered by the General Government is only
one, still a very important, link in the great chain
tlip.t must bo forged ere long to readjust our com¬
mercial system and to attain for this country, and
aboye all for our own city, that supremacy to
which both arc entitled. The Real Estate Eec¬
obd, ever on the alert for those waves that occa¬
sionally disturb material prosperity, has heretofore
pointed out how in order to prevent periodical
panics, our eutire commercial Hystem needed re¬
adjustment. Not only State legislation but fed¬
eral aid was invoked for this systematizing of all
ol our industries. We have shown how this coun¬
try required better navigation laws ; why this
State should do its utmost to remove the burden
now resting on manufacturing capital and throw
its portals wide open to those men irom New Eng¬
land and other "States anxious to make their wares
and notions in the immediate vicinity of this great
shipping point. We have also spoken of the cli¬
matic mfiuences that bear on certain industries,
as exemplified by the success that has followed
the establishment of cotton factories in the South
Dext to the cotton fields. By-and-bye not only
legislators in Washington but those in the various
State capitals will learn what is best for their res¬
pective sections, and how in a vast territory such
as is covered by this Eepublic, tLe proper read¬
justment of our commercial system, bo as to cre¬
ate the greatest possible prosperity for the country
in general and the .various States in particular,
will be che greatest problera to solve during the
next quarter century. It would be plain fallacy
to presume that all this can be done at the twink¬
ling of an eye. Study and constant application of
new methods are required before the final goal can
ue reached. When once we as a commercial,
niamifacturing and agricultural country have
learned wherein we have failed heretofore, then
there is a prospect of permanent amelioration and
hope for a constancy in prosperity, which then no
nation can wrest from us.
New York City, as the fountain-head of this Union,
has a deeper interest in the success of the bet¬
ter readjustment of our commercial and industri¬
al system than any other city in the country. Our
owners of property dream of El Dorados in the
great and distant future, while they sit by listlessly
when the plain path to that future is cautiously
pointed out to them by those who seek nothing but
greatness for this city, and yet are willing to profit
by the experience of the past. We might go into
an elaborate discourse to prove that agriculture,
for our own State, for instance, has ceased to be
profitable, and might repeat at length the thread¬
bare arguments to show how other cities on the At¬
lantic seaboard are trying to come up to us—if they
can. All this, however, is superfluous. We have
come to a period where we, here in New York City
and State, must make up our minds to live in and
among beehives, where everybody is at work, and
makes with his own hands, or with machinery cre¬
ated by his hands, manufactured products that in
our State, at least, will outrival the products of the
soil. We have made wonderful progress in this
respect during the past few years—the hard times
since 1873 having indeed proved ''a blessing in
disguise "—but our manufacturers have yet agreat
deal to learn. It is that which Mr. Evarts pi'oposes
to teach them. Never having been educated to
make manufactures one of the reliable mainstays
of our prosperity, we have heretofore been content
in making whatever we liked to make, and how we
liked to make it, as we always could sell all we
made in our own country. The accumulation of
stocks on hand, however, aye, the increase of cap¬
ital, and also of mechanical skill, made American
manufacturers seek foreign or rather neutral mar¬
kets. This has been going on now to a considera¬
ble extent lor three years, and yet we are not mak¬
ing in that particular line tho headway to which
American ingenuity is entitled. The truth is, our
manufacturers have been too aelf-opiniated ou the
one side and too ignorant on the other. The Fed¬
eral Government, seeing the importance of foster¬
ing the export trade of our manufacttired products,
has decided to come to our rescue by gathering,
through the aid of our Consuls in foreign lands,
samples of wares and merchandise such as are ac¬
tually wanted there. It will not do to tell other
nations that the styles, shapes, sizes, etc., of our
products are far preferable over the styles, shapes
and sizes they call for. We cannot sell them only,
what we make, we must sell them what they re¬
quire. It is that which our State Department is now
anxious to show to American manufacturers, and
what better centre can be selected for such an ex¬
hibition than our own city of New York. A build¬
ing fully as large as the Madison Square Garden
may be required for the purpose, but tbe indirect
value that will ultimately accrue to the realty of
our city from such a permanent exhibition, will
compensate for any sacrifice that may have to be
made at the outset, to give the Federal Govern¬
ment ample space in our midst for sitch a wise in¬
novation—that will indeed prove a new era in the
permanency of commercial prosperity.
NEXT TUESDAY'S GREAT SALE.
The important real estate sale ordered by the
Mutual Life Insurance Company, to be con¬
ducted by Messrs. A. H. Muller & Son, will take
place on Tuesday next, 20th instant, at the Ex¬
change Salesroom. During the past week the
demand for maps on the part of those desirous of
investing has been unprecedented in the annals
of the real estate market, and this, too, at a
time when the lull of the past few weeks had not
yet entirely disappeared. At the company's
offices, also, there were any number of applicants
for certain eligible parcels, but in not a single
instance did the officers of the institution show a
disposition to disturb the programme previously
agreed upon. We know positively that since the
sale has been advertised, the company was offered
its own price for three distinct parcels—that is to
say, the price at which these parcels were held
before the auction was ordered—but not disposed
to break the sale or in any manner to interfere
•with it, these offers were all declined. It will be
understood then by this time that this sale, which,
more than any other will test the real estate
market, will give capitalists and investors an op¬
portunity to demonstrate the amount of confi¬
dence they actually pjssess in the future of the
American Metropolis. It must not be said that
only the remnants of the real estate held by this
institution are to be thrown on the market. A
glance at the excellent map, gotten up by the
auctioneers, will soon dispel that idea, and the
improved, as well as the unimproved property is
located in some of the very best sections of the
city. As to the former, intending purchasers
can readily ascertain, without our guidance, the
nature of the property offered. We will content
ourselves, therefore, with giving some explana¬
tions of interest to those desirous of investing in
the vacant lots that are to be sold by the Messrs.
Muller, for the Mutual, on Tuesday next.
Sixty-sixth street, west of the Boulevard,
where six lots are offered, is finished, except aa
to paving. Some of these lots contain rock, others
are on a good grade, and the Tenth avenue, which
is 135 feet west of these lots, is paved. The Tenth
avenue lot is on the east side, 25 feet south of
Sixty-seventh street. On the rear of this lot is
rock, about six feet above the grade. Blasting is
now going on on the adjoining lots.
The five lots on Boulevard and Sixty-ninth
street contain a good deal of rock, about six feet
high.
Four lots on the easterly side of Tenth avenue,
south of Seventy-fourth street, are five feet above
the grade. There is one brick front dwelling and
a small brick building on these lots. The avenue
here is finished except as to paving. The locality
is in excellent condition for immediate improve¬
ment.
The entire front on the east side of Tenth
avenue, between Seventy-sixth and Seventy-
seventh streets (eight lots), is about ten feet above
grade. Seventy-sixth street, it should be remem¬
bered, has a Belgian pavement and Seventy-
seventh street, in this locality, is curbed, guttered
and flagged. One or two of these lots on the
latter street contain rock, the rest are on good
grade.