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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 30, no. 750: July 29, 1882

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. Vol. XXX. NEW TOEE, SATUBDAT, JULY 29, 1882. Na 760 Published Weekly by The Real Estate Record Association TERMS: OJVE f EAR, in advance.....$6.00 Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY. Business Manager. The Record annouaced some time since that the old Arcade plan was to be revived. Mr. Melville D. Smith was the originator of that magnificent scheme. He proposed, it will be remembered, to construct a now street under Broadway which was to extend from house to house, and would accommo¬ date steam roads, carriages, vehicles of all kinds, as well as foot passengers. The Leg¬ islature approved the measure, but Governor Hoffman vetoed it. Smith and his asso¬ ciates have since then secured the Beach charter for a pneumatic railway, the pro¬ visions of which have been amended by the Legislature. The company has offices in the Boreel Building, $30,000 in its treasury, and has given a bond to the city for $100,000 to commence the work within a certain time. Mr. Smith is a man of great energy, but he will require it all to get anybody to subscribe the funds for creating a new street under the present surface of Broadway. But that avenue is certainly getting so crowded that in a few years more it will become impassa¬ ble between Chambers street and Wall. The following change has just been made in the systeai of Plumbing Inspection employed by the Board of Health of this city: Heretofore eight sanitai-}' engineers have done all the inspec¬ tion of both old and new work, in the eight dis. tricts into which the city vk-as divided. Now, five of them devote themselves wholly to new work, each having one of the five new districts into which the city has been divided, and the remaining three inspect only old work and the changes made in it, the city being divided into three districts as regards this class ot" work. The New York Times, in an editorial article referring to the new building for the Produce Exchange in that city, mentions that a process has been discovered for protecting iron from cor¬ rosion; which can Le applied on a large scale, and is considered to be far suptrior to that pract¬ ised under the Bower-Barff patents. The inven¬ tors are, it is said, about to make public exhibi¬ tion of the results attained by them, and it is claimed that a cheap and effectual mode of ac¬ complishing the loiig-desii-ed end is at last within our reach. We wish we could feel full confidence that this promise would be realized, but hope for the best, and can quite agreo with the Times, that if such a process should really come into ex¬ tensive use a new field will be opened to* the art of architecture. One of the worst obstacles to the use of iron as a means of decoration or ex¬ pression in building has always been the necessity for bedaubing it with successive coats of paint, which destroy its apparent character as a metal, without n.ssimilating it to any other class of sub¬ stances, if this objection can be removed, and iron can be employed in such a way as to exhibit lis shining surface and sharp lines, a wide range of novel and beautiful effects will be at the ser¬ vice of architects who know how to use them.— American Architect. IMPORTANT TO BUILDERS. Lawrence Weiher, a builder, commenced some time ago on the southeast corner of One Hun¬ dred and Twentieth street and Fourth avenue the erection of four tenement houses. Two of the buildings front on the avenue and the other two on the street. According to the new plumb¬ ing act, all plans for plumbing in new buildings have to be submitted to the Board of Health for approval. Weiher submitted plans for the plumbing in two of the buildings, which, on ex¬ amination by Sanitary Inspector Naalis, were de¬ cided to be of a most defective kind. The board accordingly refused to approve them. W«iher then commenced the plumbing work in the cdifaer two buildings without submitting any plan of the work to the board. He was ordered to desist, but failed to do so, and hastened the completion of the dwellings. He then, it is alleged, sought to sell them. The board, however, obtained an injunction from Judge Haight, of the Supreme Court, restraining Weiher from occupying, let¬ ting, leasing, or selling the premises. The case was argued yesterday before Judge Haight on a motion to strike out the features relating to the let¬ ting, leasing, or selling. The motion was denied. After the decision of the court had been rendered, Weiher asked the board to discontinue proceed¬ ings, offering to pay the legal costs and to com¬ ply with the directions of the board with regard to the plumbing arrangements in the four build¬ ings. This Is the first legal victory of the board in relation to the provisions of the new plumbing act. ■ ■<*►' '■-- THAT ASSESSMENT COMMISSION. The Assessment Commission announce that their next meeting will be held on Tuesday, but as ex-Mayor Cooper sails for Europe on August Itith, and as the Hon. Johu Kelly is in Saratoga, it is not likely that any business will be transact¬ ed by them before the fall. Those well-informed iu the affaij-s of this commission state that they will undoubtedly complete the business that is to come before them before the expiration of the extended time fixed for the completion of their work, which is November 1st, 1883. The Suburban Rapid Transit Company has begun the construction of its iron bridge across the Harlem River to connect with the East Side railways. The bridge is to stretch from Second avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street over the river to the line of the projected suburban route, in the vicinity of the Harlem River depot of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. It will be wide enough for a double railway track and side foot¬ ways, will be 440 feet long, and rise 30 feet above high-water mark. The" work will probably not be completed before January 1,1&84. The bridge is to cost $300,000. . ,. - ■ *-*^> It is estimated that the partial failure of the crops last season involved a loss of a greater amount than the combined valuation of all the property in the entire country at the time of the declaration of independence. This fact not only demonstrates the enormous interests involved in the agricultural departments of the country, but also satisfactorily illustrates the power of our people to withstand any extraordinary pres¬ sure to which they may be subjected. Of course, it has resulted in seriously advancing the price of provisions, but, notwithstanding this, the business interests of the country have thrived and prospered in a most remarkable degree. While meats, breadstufEs and other household necessities have reached an extravagimtlj high price and materially affected the expenses and prosperity of the skilled and unskilled labor¬ er, creating dissatisfaction and contests between labor and capital, yet amidst all this unsatisfac¬ tory episode, the business of the country has con¬ tinued in a prosperous condition and with very little apparent depression, and the people them¬ selves have not suffered to any considerable or appreciable extent, while the usual employments of the great mass of the people have not been seriously disturbed or impaired. Our stability and success as a nation has been forcibly demon strated by the events of the past year, as what would have shaken the very foundation cf society and of the government of any European nation has hardly cast a perceptible ripple on the sur face of the business interests of the great Ameri¬ can repubUc.—Lumberman's Gazette. Two brokers sold on Wednesday last the same piece of property, one at 1 o'clock, the other at 5 o'clock. The one making the latter sale notified the owner by telegraph of his transaction, while the former reported by letter—the telegraph reaching the owner first. The brokers both claim commissions on the sale, and it is said that a law suit is likely to result from the transaction. The opinion of most of our reliable dealers seems to be that the broker who used all due diUigence in making his report should be entitled to the commission, although the law regulating, or rather the construction of the law regulating real estate brokers' commissions is very defect¬ ive. If au owner places his realty in the hands of two brokers, and they both make a sale, it seems only reasonable that they should both be entitled to a commission. ANSWERS TO COBRESPONDEKTS. E. R. -E'eventh avenue vas declared open on AprU •J9th, 1874. Woik for the regulaiing, paving etc., will be commenced when the Common Council see fit to dir ct the Department of Public Works to proceed In the matter. In regard to the erection of frame buildings within the city limits we reprint the law on this subject, passed in 18Sl, and uhich was published in The Heal Estate Record of May -JSih, 1881: Section 1. Nothing in chapter six hundred and twenty-flve of the laws of eighteen hundred and sev- eniy-one. entitled "An act to amend and reduce to one act the hcver&l acts relating to buildings in the city of New York, passed May 4th, eigiiteen hundred end sixty-six, May sevenieentti. eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. and May sixth, eijihteen htmdred and sixty-eiglit." shall be so cou>trued as to prohibit the buiUib g of frame buildings with shingle roofs and eight-inch bricl< foundation walls tmder tt e same, ia the Twelf h. Tweutv-third and Twenty-£< urth wards of the city of New York, northof One Hundred and Fortieth street. Buildings of brick, not exceeding two stories in height above the basement, may also be erected iu said district, having basement walls twelve inches in thickness constructed of part brick and good mortar, ana walls above the basement eight inches in thickness constructed of part brick and good mortar. Bids will be received at the Department of Fubllo Charities and Corrections, until August 4, at 9:.% a. u., for 330 pounds chrome green. 10 barrels plaster Paris, 20 barrels Rockland lime and 20 barrels JointA lime. ^ . OUT AMONG THE BUILDERS. Bernard Havanagh will shortly commence the ered- rion of two fire-story flat houses, on the south side of Elghty-flfih street. 185 west of Third avenue. Th^ will be 35.6x91x10-2.3 each. A lodging house, of novel design, will be erected on the south side of Twenty-sixth street, east of First avenue, by the New York Fruit Mis,