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May 18, 1901.
HECOliD AN]) GUIDE.
\ F^TimisHm
ESTABUSHED-SS:
'Ull.
1868.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE Si'X DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday,
TELEPHONE, CORTLAtfOT 1370.
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16' Vesey Street.
/. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.
"Entered at ihe Post-Office of New forlc, N. T., as sccond-ciaas metier."
No. 1731,
Vol. LXVII.
MAY 18, 1901.
READY FOB DELTVEHY
On Thursday next. The NEW TENEMENT MOUSE LAW,
edited by William ./. Fryer, witli headings and complete cross-
reference index, etc., etc. Orders tikould be sent i» at once to
secure prompt delircry. This volume in an absolute iieeessiiy to
every architect, builder, engineer, real entate owner, operator and
broker. Fubltslied by ihe li'ecord and Ovide, 14 and 16 Vesey st..
Netv Tork Oity,
THOSE who imagine that prices on the stock market will
return forthwith to the levels attaine<i before the late
'panic are expecting a good deal. It is hardly in the nature ot
things speculative that disaster should he compensated so
quickly, or that one hoom should succeed another with a panic
between simply for variety or to mark time. A momeiitary
cheerfulness is given to the situation by the impression that
the struggle for the railway traffic of the Northwest has been
ended by an amicable compromise. This is the rational view
to take, but it must be borne in mind that one or the other, and
perhaps both parties to a compromise sacrifice something, and
that also, that a powerful incentive to buying has been removed
by the agreement. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that
prices for a goodly number of railroad stocks are too high for
their antecedents and for any reasonable prospects they may
have, London's late-born desire for our securities was speedily
killed by an accidental participation in the struggle for North¬
ern Pacific, and on this side there are also many people
nursing pecuniary sores. Then who are to pay for the powder
and shot expended in the late encounter? Are the stockholders
of the companies for whose benefit it was waged, or their
agents who waged it? If the former it should have an appre¬
ciable effect upon the value of their security issues, and if the
latter—of course it will not be these—a good deal of sympathy
of the cynical sort could be expressed. Another feature of the
situation that calls for attention and suggests caution is the at¬
titude of labor throughout the country. It is evident that the
workingman does not think his share of the general prospej-ity
of the country is as large as it ought to be, or rather as large
as it can be forced to be; and, if he persists in this delusion,
trouble Is likely to ensue and business be obstructed. Union
leaders, too, apparently think the time ripe to increase their
power; of which thought we have an expression right in our
midst in the attitude of the bricklayers, who seem ready at the
dictation of their leaders to sacrifice a perfectly fair and just
arrangement that has worked efficiently for sixteen years, for a
trivial grievance, if there is a grievance at all. The gold exports,
to explain away which so many efforts are being made, are sim¬
ply due to the fact that Europe has been a large seller of our
securities, while we have been buying abroad, and our mer¬
chandise exports are not as great as they were. The signifi¬
cance of this requires no comment. Outside of the laibor cloud,
the home industrial and commercial situation remains good.
/^N another page will ^be found Corporation Counsel Whalen's
^"^ opinion of the position of tenement plans flled on April
Ilth and 12th. This document is clear and free from ambiguity
and, therefore, requires no explanatory comment. It is suffi¬
cient to say that Mr. Whalen believes the plans filed on the two
days mentioned cannot share the benefit of the Kelsey amend¬
ment, unless actual physical construction was begun prior to
the passage by the Legislature of the act it amended. This opin¬
ion will guide the action of tiie Department of Buildings upon
the plans in question, and it will remain with the owners to
determine whether they will accept the interpretation of the
law therein expressed or seek that of the courts. Good authori¬
ties claim that the filing of plans is an actual commencement of
building operations, inasmuch as the law requires tbat they shall
be filed before work is begun, and they believe that the courts
will so hold. On this ground they take issue with the Corpora¬
tion Counsel.
Apartments In the Bronx.
T~\URING the next few years interest in the real estate mar-
J"-^ ket will be concentrated chiefly upon the lower part of
the city; but thereafter it will necessarily be distributed over a
much wider area. The underground road will all at once open
up for improvement large areas of vacant land on Washington
Heights and in the Bronx. It will make a good many square
miles of such property at least as accessible to the business and
shopping centers as 72d st is at present; and the important ques¬
tion upon the actual answer to which will depend the greater
or less value, of much of this vacant land is, what will be th«
general tendency of improvements in all this unoccupied terri¬
tory? Wil! the New Yorkers who settle on Washington HeighbB
and in the Bronx return to their ancestral prejudice in favor of
individual dwelling? Or will the fiat system prevail to any¬
thing like the same extent that it does on the flat lands (that ia
the lands Improved by 'â– flats") immediately nortb of Central
Park?
The answer which the course of events will make to these
questions can only be guessed; but it is possible to obtain some
clue as to the probable future of these unimproved districts br
an examination of what is already being done north of the
Harlem and on the Heights. So far as the latter is concerned,
one can predict what will take place with some certainty. Wash¬
ington Heights wili probably preserve much the same character
that has beea established along the line of Broadway, between
72d and 125th sts. The avenues will be lined with six and seven-
story flats, and the side streets, except those that are unusually
broad or lead to some bridge across the Harlem, with small
private dwellings. These dwellings will be cheaper than their
forerunners further south; but they will have three stories and
basement, rather than two stories and basement. They will
serve to accommodate people who can afford to pay from $10,004
to 515,000 for the residence in which they live.
The Bronx is subject to very different conditions from Wash¬
ington Heights. It has a considerable water-front which cam,
be used for commerce. It is the seat of important and growing
industries. Large parts of it will only be a continuation of tha
tenement-house districts of Manhattan. Of still more import¬
ance is the fact that the Bronx is a very large borough, and that
such very considerable areas of vacant land will be made com¬
paratively accessible all at once, that in the beginning unim¬
proved lots will average much cheaper than elsewhere. What will
the, tendency be as to the improvement of such lots? Will small,
two-story residences come in, or wili people who can afford
to pay from $400 to ?600 a year in rent be equally ready to oc¬
cupy apartments?
Considering the prejudices of people of Anglo-Saxon tradi¬
tions for a private dwelling, it may seem very probable that
the Bronx will be very largely encased with the kind of two-
story and basement residences which are so numerous in Brook¬
lyn. A good many such buildings have already been erected,
and doubtless more will be erected. Nevertheless, it is very
probable that if property-owners and builders go about it in
the proper way, they can make fiats as popular from choice
north of the Harlera as'they have been from necessity south of
the Harlem. And if this could be done, it would be a good thing
for property in the Bronx, for it would be worth more, as the
actual or possible location of flats, than the actual or possible
location of residences.
The point is, that an intelligent builder of an apartment-house
upon the comparatively cheap property of the Bronx could give
the tenants of the building an excellence of accommodation and
a multiplicity of conveniences at a rent which would seem ab¬
surdly low to a person accustomed to Manhattan prices, and in
this way he could maintain fiats in popular favor, although
they were no longer the economic necessity that they were
further south. The many years of experience in erecting cheap
apartment houses in Manhattan have resulted in the develop¬
ment of a type of building which, whatever its disadvantages
as a place of residence, certainly economizes space wonderfullr
well, and gives tenants advantages which held to compensate
for necessarily cramped quarters. And when operating in
the'Bronx on property one-half or a third of the value of sim¬
ilar property in Manhattan, such compensating advantages can
be enormously increased.
Builders in the Bronx are already alive to their opportunities
in this respect. The following example will show how many
conveniences and economies can be offer*-i to the tenants of