Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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October 23, 1886 The Record and Guide, 1295 Of Interest to Builders. An incident of last week shows thafc quick transfers of real estate can be made' in New York. A contract of sale was made on Tuesday, and the money paid and deed delivered on Saturday. The house was one of several that had been covered by the Title Guarantee and Trust Company in a single examination, and the only time necessary was for drawing the papers and continuing the searches. The builder saved twenty-five davs interest or nearly one half of 1 per cent., and the purchaser secured his house for immediate occupancy and saved the outlay for official searches that would have been necessary for a new examination. Builders are beginning to see a profit in such sales and to bring their rows of houses under the insurance system at the outset and sell them with title insured at their own expense. Now that the loaning institutions are commencing to lend on the Title Company's policies, the builders save a great deal of expense for re-examinatious of title aud recoup all their legal expenses by quicker and more advantageous sales. The principle is the same as in the building lot sales v/ith title guaranteed, and will soon become as generally appUed. Last week's Record and Guide contained advertisements of five important sales with title insured, and all have taken place this week with great success, and with far greater than could have been possible if each purchaser had had to make a separate examina¬ tion of title. Is an Apartment House a Private Dwelling. Real estate owners and builders are looking forward with very great interest to the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of the congregation Hand-in-Hand against George Muller, the builder. The synagogue of this congregation is in One Hundred and Sixteenth street, between First and Second avenues. It was covenanted in the deed by which its property was conveyed to it by Grace Episcopal Church that no buildings other than private dwellings should be erected on the adjacent lots, which were then owned by the grantor. The church afterwards sold the plot on the west side to H. L. Grant, who resold to Mr. Muller, and this last buyer com¬ menced building on it a double apartment house. Justice Potter granted a temporary injunction restraining Muller from continuing the construction of the building, but afterwards dissolved it on the ground that an apart¬ ment house is, to all intents and purposes, a private dwelling. Mr. Muller has pushed the work forward with the greatest possible speed since the injunction was dissolved. The congregation of the synagogue appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard the case and reserved its decsion. A Promising Enterprise. The New York Real Estate and Building Improvement Company has been incorporated, with a capital of $100,000. The trustees for the first year are Wallace C. Andrews, president of the New York Steam Heating Company; Ferdinand Fish, real estate agent; George E. Harney, archi¬ tect; Fred. M. Littlefield, lawyer; Thomas Dimond, iron; George W. Lith- gow, builder; Joseph C. Davis, real estate. Its objects and purposes are stated to be the purchasing, leasing, holding, altering, selling and renting of improved real estate in the city of NewYork, more particularly the alteration of warehouses in the office districts, and dwellings on Fifth avenue and other future business thoroughfares. The Streets in the Hunt's Point District. Parties interested in the changes proposed to be made in the system of streets and avenues in that portion of the " Hunt's Point District" iu the Twenty-third Ward, lying between Trinity avenue and Dawson street, and from East One Hundred and Sixty-third to East One Hundred and Fifty- sixth street, and the discontinuance of Leggett avenue between Trinity and Prospect avenues, are requested to call at the offlce of the Topographi¬ cal Engineer, Arsenal Building. Central Park, before November 1st, and examine the plan showing such changes, in order that their views in relation to the matter may be obtained before final action is taken. avoid the danger and loss of time involved in rounding this point by going through the Portage Lake and river and the short private canal which completes the waterway through Keeweenaw peninsula. The deep¬ ening of portions of the Portage Lake and river, with the straightening and widening of the tortuous " enti-y " channel, and the enlargement of the raile- and-a-half of canal at the west side of the peninsula, would shorten thou¬ sands of voyages many hours every year, and affecfc an immense saving iu expenses for fuel, wages, and other items, to say nothing of the risk and damage to vessel property which would be avoided. Nominating Directors. The following notice has been posted at the Real Estate Exchange by the Committee on Nominations: The Committee on Nomination of Directors appointed afc the Stock¬ holders' meeting held on the 12th inst., will hold a sitting afc the Exchange on Wednesday, the 27th inst., at 3 p. m., at which any stockholder who desires to be heard on the question of the new board is invited to attend. Horace S,_Ei,y, S. Van Rennsalaer Crtjger, Frederick P. Foster, E. Oppenheimer, W. C. Schermerhorn. Proposed for Annual Membership. David Kempner, of No. 602 Eighth avenue, real estate broker, has been proposed for annual membership at the Real Estate Exchange, by Theodore P. Hyatt, seconded by Ferdinand Fish. Some of our newspapers are apt to speak in a depreciatory way of our metal industries, especially the silver production, as if it was unworthy of the fostering care of the government, but, as the Mining .RecorcZ points out, between the first of March, 1878, to the first of September, 1886, we pro¬ duced §360,000,000 of silver; but this particular industry is inextricably mixed up with lead, copper and gold mining, 77^ per cent., for instance, of our total leal product comes from silver mining, as the two metals are often found together. Then 37,1^ per cent, of the copper produced is from mines where it is found with silver. Fully 30 per cent, of the gold product comes out of silver mines, such as those on the Comstock. The actual industrial result of our silver mining from the first of January, 1878, to the first of January, 1836, is as follows: Silver............................................ $334,44.3.000 Gold.............................................. 80,.5.'i7,f00 Lead............................................. .51,310.8.58 Coppper.......................................... 25 68a.l42 Total......................................... $492,000,000 It would be well to keep these facts in mind when reading the sneers of the average newspaper idiots when speaking of silver mining. There is a loud demand in the Northwest for immediate action to open the Portage waterway across the Keeweenaw peninsula. Nature has done something—private enterprise more—but the government could finish the work afc small cosfc. This peninsula projects far into the stormy depths of Lake Superior and forces every vessel laden with wheat, flour or lumber from Duluth, Superior City or Washburn and every ore carrier from Ashland to go far out of its way and run the risk of long delays or serious damage by storms. On the way up the case is jusfc as bad. No large vessel cen carry a full cargo of railroad iron, coal' or other freighfc to ports on the upper end of Lake Superior without rounding KeeWeenaw Point, the terror of lake navigators diiring the spring and fall, yet when half-laden these same vessels are a^ble to Real Estate Department. There were no sales at the Real Estate Exchange on Saturday nor Monday. Tuesday, however, was the busiest day there so far this season, no less than nine auctioneers having plots and j)arcels to offer. The most important transaction of the day was the disposal of eighty-six plots at Kingsbridge, in the Twenty-fourth Ward, belonging to the Giles' estate. Forty-three plots were sold, containing about l-^o^^ city lofcs, for a total of $35,352, or an average of $260 per lot. On June 9ch, this year, forty-seven plots, equivalent to about 100 city lots, belonging to the same estate and situated in the same locality, were sold at auction for $34,649. Two threestory brick flats, Nos. 114 and 118 East One Hundred and Tenth street, befcween Park and Lexington avenues, the former 16.8x55x100. ll, the latter 17.2x55x 100 11, sold for $9,400 each to GiUespie & Harlow. The two-story brick front frame building aud lot, 18.9x81.3, No. 23 Morton sti'eet, near Bedford street, was bought for $6,000 by Martin Edwards. This house was sold at auction in 1884 for $7,650. The sale of four new two-story cottages on Stebbins avenue and Oue Hundred and Sixty-seventh street, in the Twenty- third Ward, resulted as follows: Two on the avenue westof the streefc sold respectively for $1,425 and $1,150; the third was sold at private sale, and the fourth for $1,500. Two five-story brick aud brown stone double tene¬ ments with stores, each 25x83x100, Nos. 317 and 319 East Forty-eighth street, were bought by J. R. Terry—No. 317 for $33,000 and No. 319 for $21,500. These houses were conveyed last April for $47,900 to W. H. Tilton, of Brooklyn; No. 323 changed hands last May for $33,500. A three-story brick and frame tenement, with store on front and store on rear. No. 11 Minetta street, 25x67.6, was sold for $8,900. The three-story brick dwelling and lot, 20x45x6'), No. 1489 Broadway, west side, 20 feefc south of Forty- third street, went for $31,830 to D, S. McElroy. The three-story brick house, No. 341 Eaat Forty-fifth streefc, was withdrawn, having been sold at private sale for $8,100. A three story brick and frame dwelling, No. 174 Clermont avenue, between Myrtle and Willoughby avenues, Brooklyn, was bought by D. W. Houghton for $6,20J. One lot on the northwest corner of St. Nicholas avenue and One Hundred and Forty-seventh street, 24x11x100, was sold under foreclosure for $10,400; the sum of $3,l'i0 was due on the mortgage foreclosed. The flve-story brick store and tenement. No. aiOl Second avenue, northwest corner of One Hundred and Twenty-third street, 25.1x90, brought $28,000, John Callahan the hatter b°ing the purchaser. A plot on the northeast corner of William and New Chambers streefc, with fcwo, three and four-story buildings thereon, was sold to the J. M. Horton Ice Cream Company for $39,900; there was $44,930 due the cifcy on the mortgage foreclosed. The sale of the Bond and Great Jones streets parcels was again adjourned for one week. It is not likely, ho .vever, that the property will be again sold at auction, as we hear that the plaintiff in the partition suit, Margarefc Poster, has arranged to take it at the figures obtained on October 6th; a loan is now being negotiated for the purpose. The sale of four lots on East One Hundred and Fifteenth street, near Fourth avenue, was adjourned until November 4th. Aboufc one hundred Jersey City lofcs situated in the Thirteenth Ward, attracted but a small attendance; only seventeen lots were sold, in amounts varying from $L50 to $6.30 per lot making the total amount $3,370. Thirteen lots on Pavonia avenue, Jersey City, were not offered, having been sold afc private sale to Louis Sternberger for $750 each. The la^-gest single transaction on Wpdnesday was tho sale of the five-story brick tenement with stores, No. 63 Monroe street, 25x93.10, norfch side, between Pike and Market streets. The house was eagerly bid for, and sold for $25,500 to Matthew Brady. A plot of four lots, fronting 101.4% on Riverside Drive and 83,6>^ on Ninety-seventh street, was started at $20,000, but was withdrawn on a bid of $32,500. This plot was sold in June. 1881, by M. A. J. Lynch to E, A. Kent for $40,000. Two three-story stone front dwellings, Nos. 255 and 257 West Seventieth, streefc, norfch side, 225 east of Wesfc End avenue, were also bid in; No. 255 has a morfcgage on ifc for $13,500 afc 5 per cent., and the house adjoming a morfcgage for $13,000. The sfcreet is not built up, and the lots are nearly all vacanfc. The two houses, \ with the one adjoming, were exchanged last August at $67,500 by ij. S, fi.