Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 34, no. 854: July 26, 1884

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July 28, 1584 The Record and Guide. 785 THE RECORD AND GUIDE. PuMishad every Saiurdav. 191 Broadwray, N. Y. TERMS: ONE TEAR, in advance^ SIX DOLLARS. ConununicatioDs should be addressed to C. W, SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager. JtrLT 26, 1884. The Btock market h&s been buoyant for several days past; pre¬ viously it was dull but etrotig. During June we ventured to predict a hfgher rauge of stock valuea in July and we judge that Auguat will see a still better market. The great small grain crop which has been gathered and the hope of the largest corn crop ever grown will naturally lead to the buying and appreciation of our railway shares and bonds. Should all t^o crop expectatione be ful¬ filled tlie improved couditiou of affairs will tilso shovr itself in the real estate market thia fall. At first it seemed as if the majority of the builders were disposed to give in to Lh© strikers who demanded ten hours' pay for nine hours' work, but a more stubborn feeling was developed towards the close of the week. Work has been stopped in many instances, and our news-gatherers report that scarcely any new buildings are being contracted for, nor will there bo any activity until the work- ingmen become more reasonable. The time for this strike was ill- choeen, as most of the bosses were so fixed that they could suspend work without material loss. The terms of many of the building contracts contained provisions permitting the stoppage of work while a strike was under way. In view of the recent decision against the elevated roads by Judge Van Hoeaen, ordering the company to remove its station from the corner of Greenwich and Warren streets, it would seem that the time has come whoo the elevated companies should own the hnuses adjoining their stations. The travelling public is an ungrateful beast, Tho elevated roads have showered untold blesa- inga on New York and its inhabitania. It gives us the finest system of intermural traffic of any city in the world. It is continually increasing the taxable value of New York city, yet nearly every so- called organ of public opinion and all the demagogues are howling at the elevated roada. The companiea are harrassed by vexatious euits; they are unjustly taxed, and have no friends anywhere, although they have doubled the commission hours, which they sre not required to do by law, and have only charged ten cents, when they could legally exact seventeen. After tbe tax dispute is settled, the roads should purchase the oornera at which their stations are aiiuated, re-arrauga the property thus secured and give passengera the advantage of elevators. It may be that the $1,000,- 000 of second mortgage bonds which the Manhattan Company is now listing may be for the purpose of making the improvements suggested above. It la over seven weeks since the cholera first appeared at Toulon and it is some five weeks since it commenced its ratifies at Mar¬ seilles, but up to date it has practically been confined to those cities and their neighborhood. From this fact it has been argued that it may noi spread to Paris, Vienna, London, or the other large cities of Europe. But tbere is ecarcely a doubt that already other I centres of infection have been established, and it will probably I appear shortly in a virulent form in widely separated localities, I Dr. Bo'jchardet. one of the most famous French phyaicianfl, how¬ ever, gives it as his impression that this visitation of cholera will be short-lived. A cholera epidemic, according to him, never lasts I longer than eighteen months after leaving India. The cholera now . at work in France is in ics third summer season, and is the same ■ that was so virulent in Egypt last year. This theory, if true, is ■ important to ua, as we may escape thia plague altogether. It is ; not likely in any event to effect a lodgement upon this continent before the coming of cold weather. Business men can afford to leave it out of their calculations until, say, next June. The season , is too far advanced for the eatablishment of any centre of infection that will do us much harm, on merit without reference to political considerations. The swaima of local politicians will now begin to disappear. The Halls will be deserted and the bosaea be left without followers. Thia end will not be reached this year or next, but it will come, and our local contests will be aimplified and purified by eliminating from the problem the office-holding and the office-seeking factors. The change will be gradual, but, as we have aaid, will work a revolu¬ tion, and a very desirable one, in our whole municipal machinery. The estimates of the wheat crop varies very greatly. The statis¬ tician of the Produce Exchange thinks the yield may not exceed 470,000,000 bushels, but there are Western authorities which put the flgure as high aa 563,000,000 bushels. Of course the exact number of bushels is guess work as yet, but after having consulted the best authorities we judge the yield will exceed that of 1883, when a crop of 504,000,000 bushels was gathered. There are probably 60,000,000 bushels left over from the last crop, and allowing for home consumption, seed and necessary surplus we shall have over 200,000,000 bushels to export. It ia now tiertain that if we lYish to sell our grain we must accept low figures. There will be no com¬ petition from India this year, but European crops are fair, and there is a surplus still to use up. Then the spread of the cholera throughout the continent will check the consumption of food. Ia the calculation of chances our corn crop this year should he a large One—the largest, indeed, ever grown. This is satisfactory as far as it goes, but good crops alone do not insure good times. In 1883 we had the largeat wheat crop ever gi own in the country up fo that time, but 1883 was a year of shrinkage and business distress. Still good crops are not bad things in themselves, and we ought to be better off in 1885 than we have been so far in 18S4. The new civil service rules applied fo municipalities in this State will in a very"few years entirely revolutionize our local politics. Heretofore the local political machines have been kept in existence by two classes—tbe office-holders f nd the more numerous class who were candidates for office—but hereafter there are to be no remov¬ als except for cause, and no appointments to minor poaitions except The Tiffany House. The manaion of Mr. Tiffany at Madison avenue and Seventy" second street ia virtually completed as to its exterior. It must be almost, if not quite, the largest private dweUing in New York, measuring 100x100 on the ground, and thus filling four lots. The northernmost 20 feet on the avenue side are given up, apparently, to another house, which, however, counts architecturally aa part of ths main building. There is a basement of a story and a-half, three full stories below the cornice aud one full story above, lighted on one aide from tho main gable, and on the other from openings in smaller gables and by dormer windows. The main ridge runs east and west, and the pitch of the main roof is steep. The foot of the gable is 80 feet wide, and being above the fifth story its crest can¬ not be very much leaa than 100 feet from the ground. Theae dimensions would suffice to make the house very con¬ spicuous. It is further made conspiououa by its unusual material, the basement being of rock-faced blue stone, the walls above of a yellowish brown clay curiously speckled with black, which is used both in brick and terra cotta, and the roof is of glazed and corru gated black tile. It is only the novelty of this material tbat makes it conspicuous. It is quiet in color and its mottled surface offers a very efliectjve contrast to the blue stone of the basement. It has the great advantage of making a brand new building look as if it might be old, without invoking any trickery tothatpurpose. Upon the aelcction and arrangement of material in their work at least the architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, are to be heartily congratulated. The composition of the Madison avanue front is broad and simple, perhaps too sin-pie for its dimensiona and tending to monotony, but this, aa our buildinga go, is a fault on the right side. At the] street corner there is above the basement an attached turret, carried on a heavily but simply moulded corbel of blue stone. The openings in the basement are square-headed, treated with entire simplicity so as to give additional value to the massiveness of the masonry, and surmounted by a moulded string course, repeated a foot or two above in the brickwork, which might properly have been moulded more emphatically, Nevertlieleaa, there is no niggling in the handling anywhere, and the rocky fiald of wall has its full value and becomes not only an impressive but a very agreeable object. It is in the brickwork tiiat the simplicity of the general compo¬ sition tends to monotony, while there is here a niggling in the treatment of detail that contradicts to aome extent the absolute magnitude and the broad treatment of the masses. There is no "rhythm," as the Germans aay, in the arrangement of the open¬ ings, and one source of effect is thua foregone. Fortunately the lateral piers are kept ample, and the expanse of wall ia so great that many more holes migiit be punched in it without seeming to weaken it. The openings themaelves, except in the gable, are cov¬ ered with flat arches in narrow bricka, carrying each a series of mouldings, and these same mouldings are repeated down the jambs, while the sills also are in brickwork. It is this minute treatment, repeated everywhere, that gives the effect of niggling. The features of thia front are a balcony, withahrick " breasting" apparently corbelled out in brickwork, that ia projected from the