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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 7, no. 155: March 4, 1871

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. VIL NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1871. No. 155. .....Published Weekly by THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION. TERMS. . Ono year, in advance......................$6 00 All communications should be addressed to C. "W. S^WEITGT. 106 Broadway, cor. of Pine Street. No receipt for money due the Real ESTATE RECORD ■wUl be acknowledged unless signed by one of our regular coUectors, Henky D. Smith or Thomas Jb'. Cummings. AU biUs for coUecfcion wiU be sent from the oflace on a regu¬ larly printed form. Patent binders for preserving the Record can be had at the ofiace, or wUl be sent to any address in the city upon the receipt of one doUar. THE INSUEANCE OF TITLES TO REAL ESTATE. A PAMPHLET by Theodore Aub, entitled "A Plan for the Insurance of Titles and Mortgages," and showing real estate transactions as they are and as they might be, has just been issued by the law-publishing firm of Baker, Voorhis &Co. The author in his preface states that the plan of a Title Warranty Company had been written ^and communicated to a small circle of friends, when the discovery was made by one of them of the charter of a Title Insurance Company among the acts of the legislative session of 1869, and he therefore does not come before the public claiming originality for the idea. What Mr. Aub does claim, and is certainly en¬ titled to, is the credit of being the first one to put the idea of a Title Warranty Company into a practical shape, and to demonstrate its neces¬ sity and feasibility. The tendency of everything iu this countiy is towards consolidation; and the maimer of transacting the business of real estate bids fair to be no exception. The vast and cumbersome . machinery now in use, and which one is com¬ pelled to bring into requisition for the purpose of. driving through a single real estate transac¬ tion, must give place to something more simple ane effective. A grand stride ia this direction win be the organization, and, successful work¬ ings of a company, organized on some plan sinailar to the scheme of Mr. Aub. Of course any plan of this kind ,^will involve the opposition of gentlemen of the legal pro¬ fession ; but with that we have nothing to do. The real estate interest demands that many of the disabilitiea under which it now labors in the shape of the embargo which lawyers and searchers,place .on every change of ownership "shaU be removed. With the rising importance of, real estate as an article in our daUy markets it becomes a great question to solve whether it cannot be placed in a more convenient and marketable form than it at present occupies. That an Insurance Company which would insure a title to real estate, and guarantee the security of a loan thereon, would be highly successful, scarce admits of a doubt. ' Capital which now dreads anything in the shape of real estate, because of the want of knowledge of its value, would be attracted immediately, were it secured by the guarantee of a corporation of recognized standing. We trust that the matter will receive attention from our real estate ope¬ rators. THE DOCK BOARD. A WRITER in the Evening Post of a recent date reviews very fully the labors of the Dock Com¬ mission, since the formation of the Board to the present time, from which we condense the following, as being of interest:— The act passed a year ago creating the new Dock Board was a part of the new city charter. It provided for the appointment of five com¬ missioners, who have exclusive charge and con¬ trol of all wharf property belonging to the city —wharves, piers, bulkheads, slips, basins,water- fi'onts, land under water, appurtenances, uses and rights of all the city now owns or may here¬ after acquire. From this the Commis.sioners of the Sinking Fund except the twenty-five ferry shps, which are held as a city franchise. For this Board Mayor HaU selected five men of the highest ability and integrity and of great experience in business and public affairs, and above aU suspicion, it is believed, of partisan ambition. He deserves credit for its high character—a Board which is to devise, con¬ struct, and control the most important work, in many of its aspects, on the continent. John T. Agnew, its president, is one of our solid citi¬ zens, for over thirty years a merchant in the export tobacco trade with foreign countries; Wilson Gr. Hunt, long known as an able and high-toned merchant in commission dry goods ; WilHam Wood, for a long period of the firm of Dennistoiin & Wood, bankers, and one of the most competent men in our Board of Education; Hugh Smith, proprietor of the Madison avenue line of stages, a, man of superior capacity and judgment in business ; and Richard M. Henry, a la-wyer ■ of abihty and good standing. Mr. Smith, from pressure of private affairs, was compelled to resign, and is succeeded by Mr. Henry A. Smith, a man of high integrity and exceUent business character. The Board ap¬ pointed Major-General George B. M'CleUan its chief engineer, who is. devoting aU his time and eminent talents to the work. WHAT IT HAS DONE. In eight months after the organization, since May, 1870, it has coUected rents aud dockage, and paid over to, the Commissioners of the Sink¬ ing Fund.$261,361. It has issued dock bonds to the amount of $500,000. It began active work abont the 15th of August last, and has expended since then $250,000. A new system of piers could not be begun at once, but only after the. .most careful surveys and weU-ma- tured, plans. But to provide for our shipping adequate facilities, while it continues under the old systeni, it has made thorough examina¬ tion of every pier and sUp on both sides of the city; it has made thorough repairs of forty- five piers and bulkheads, in.many cases entirely rebuUding them; it has expended $40,000 to $50,000 in dredging around docks and in slips most seriously obstructed; it has made six lines of soundings, from' Ninety-second street on the East Eiver around to Sixtieth street on the Hudson River, and for two months past has had two steam machines boring through the mud. to measure the depth of the hardpan, along the entire water front of the city. In these soundings and surveys the most intricate points connected -with the channels and cur¬ rents of the rivers have received careful study. The most difficult problems have been solved, a complete map of the water-front has been made, and the plans of the Board aro rapidly maturing. These plans cannot yet be made pubhc ; but the sohdity of piers and the method of construction, and the breadth of the river street, as foreshadowed in a recent speech of the Mayor, 'wdU be adequate to the transporta¬ tion of freight and passengers around the whole island. The piers wfil have an average length of about five hundred feet. They wUl be con¬ nected -with the bulkhead by soUd iron bridges, leaving an open space along its entire front for the free flow and ebb of the tide, and the piers wUl be specially adapted to the business for which they are to be used. The large steatners 'will have piers from eighty to one hundred feet in width, with all the faciUties needed for land¬ ing goods rapidly; and passenger steamers wUl have perfect protection for passengers, from heat or storm. It proposes to give a certain section of water¬ front to the grain trade, and also a certain sec¬ tion to the coal trade, where every facility wiU be given, in elevators and other machinery, for quick receipt and despatch of cargo. The system of hydrauUc machinery and power used in London, or its like, -wiU probably be adopted. In Liverpool and London the rise and faU of the tide is from twenty to twenty- five feet, whereas in New Tork the average rise and faU is only four to five feet. Hence our system wiU be far less expensive. We need no such pro'vision to float large vessels and steamers into our docks at high water. Under our old system of piers the new Board have no power to alter the wharfage, but of the new piers they -will have entire control of rates. They hold the opinion that ships should pay a dockage as low as possible, and that goods should pay a moderate wharfage, as in Boston, and thus equalize the burden. MECHANICS' LIENS AGAINST BUILDINGS IN NEW YORK CITY. Note.—The dates 24, 25, 27, and 28, placed before the Uens, are for Feb. The others are for March. Peb. and March. 24 A Av., E. s. (ifTos. 28 and 30). Cok- nelius Vreeland. agt. R. C. Bolton. $92 00 25 FOKTT-SEVENTH ST., S. S., 75 E. 8th av. Robert Heam agt. P. Blaney 60 00 Fortieth st., n. s., 39S e. 2dav.. ' Qrj FOBTT-FIRST ST., S. S., 398 E. 2d "*' av..................___...;... And 11 HOUSES on new st., run- j ning from 40th st...............J Thomas & Michael Maher agfc. W. L. Cutting (Ex.).................. 300 75 28 Forty-eighth st., s. s., 2 houses, com. 100 e. 3d av. Jos. Marren agt. John Sexton..................... 490 qQ