Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 39, no. 994: April 2, 1887

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April 3, 1887 The Record and Guide. 433 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broadway, 3Sr. l£r. Oar Telepbone Call in ~ - " - - JOHN 370. TERMS: OIVE TEAR, ia advance, SIX DOLLARS. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXIX. APRIL 2, 1887. No. 994 Elsewhere will be found the official text of the Tenement House law as passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. We have had many inquiries for the text of this statute, and have pub¬ lished a larger edition to meet -the demand. It is idle just now to either indorse or condemn the provisions in this enactment. It is the law of the State and must be obeyed. If the changes in the tenement system it enforces are harmful, measures can be taken to alter the law at the next winter's session of the Legislature. Here¬ after it will be difficulfc to build structures in this city which can become centres of infectious disease. But if the law is too strin¬ gent as charged, then will laboring people be forced to live beyond our city limits, for tenement houses will not be builfc unless they promise a profit to the persons who invesfc their capital. From every part of the country come reports of unusual activity in real estate buying and selling. This is as true of Boston as it is of Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Denver, Duluth and a hundred other centres of population in the South and West. Indeed, the real estate speculation just now is more general than ifc has been at any time since 1837, when the crash affected land values. The country just now is forging ahead rapidly. We are adding 2,000,000 annually to our population, and our wealth is increasing in a still greater ratio. However, let us look at the future soberly. A widespread real estate speculation will be the forerunner of a financial crisis further along, but we see no signs of any collapse this year. of the bar and the public to the evils of our system of land transfers. But when the commission was finally appointed to draft the neces¬ sary laws to effect the needed reform, he found himself alone on one special issue. He favored the block, while his colleagues insisted upon the " lot system " of indexing, claiming, whafc was true enough, that the latter was ideally the most perfect. Mr. Olmstead held, however, that it was impracticable at presenfc and would be very costly and unnecessarily confusing. The '* block system" would be comparatively inexpensive, he argued, and would furnish "defined boundaries," and thus secure greater accuracy. ---------e------.—, For a time the majority of the Land Transfer Commission had everything their own way. Many of the leading lawyers backed them up and the Real Estate Exchange indorsed the position they took. But Mr. Olmstead went to work in dead earnest, and the result is seen in the vote of last Wednesday. He has had the backing of lawyers like David Dudley Field, Luther R. Marsh, H. L. Clinton and other eminent legal lights. The bill for short forms, which was approved by all the commissions of land trans¬ fer, has been passed by the Assembly. The Senate Committee on Thursday reported the bill for block indexing favorably, and there is no doubt but this bill will be passed by the Senate, and perhaps by the Assembly. The Record and Guide has never committed itself to the advocacy of either system, for we believe the final solu¬ tion of the problem wiU be the same as that arrived at by the Tor- ren's laws in force in the Pacific Islands, or the very similar system which obtains in Prussia and other German Stales. Under these systems there are official maps which show all properties accu¬ rately surveyed, and the government for a small fee records and verifies a transfer of ownership when one takes place. As between the lofc and block system of indexing we regard the latter as being more immediately feasible as well as the least expensive, and would be well satisfied if it could be tested. The "Half Holiday" bill passed by the State Senate does not seem to us a wise enactment. Had it been confined to the summer months ic would have been unobjectionable. But the subtraction of fifty-two half days in a year from the effective labor of the State is a very serious matter and would put New York's industrial establishments at a disadvantage with those of adjoining States. Then the labor day holiday in September will be regarded, and with reason, as a piece of demagoguery. We have already too many meaningless holidays, and this making a special class of the laboring population is un-American and may lead to evil conse¬ quences. We should not recognize any classes in this country. We are all equal before the law, and our working population is not confined to those who toil with their hands. Then, why, by law, make these dangerous distinctions ? This act should not pass the Assembly. --------------m-------------- All well wishers of the Eepublic will hope to see the so-called Socialistic candidates defeated in Chicago afc tho next local elec¬ tion. The Democratic party is so demoralized by the revolt of the laboring people that it is unable to find a reputable standard bearer, and there is danger that the rank and file may go with the new party. We have never felt quite the same terror of the political action of working people as have the leading organs of the daily press. But a victory of the Chicago local candidates on the work¬ ingmen's ticket would be interpreted as a triumph for the detested Anarchist. This would, we think, injuriously affect the whole business of the country. The Chicago newspapers have not dealt wisely with this local political problem. They have represented the prejudices, passions and fears of the employing class, rather than their business good sense. The bitter feud between the police and the more radical working people which led to the Anarchist outbreak was largely the work of the sensational daily press which cared more for pleasing their advertisers and subscribers than for maintaining good feeling between the various vital interests of the community. But the mischief has been done, and all that remains is for a union of all conservative classes to vote down the labor candidates. ------------c----------_ The " lot system " of indexing was defeated in the Assembly on Wednesday last, receiving only thirty-nine votes out of the neces¬ sary - sixty-five. There were, however, only forty-three, votes against it. It is safe to credit this result to the personal labors of Mr. Dwight H. Olmstead. It was he who first called the attention There were some notable sales at the Real Estate Exchange during the past week. For No. 6 Bowling green $92,000 was paid. In 1834 this property sold for $25,250, and in 1818 it was purchased for $11,000. These were regarded as very high figures in those days. Bufc the estate of Patrick Dickie, subsequently sold, was a still more interesting one to real estate owners. Dickie, in the early part of this century, kept a drug store at the southwest corner of Lispenard street and Broadway. Ifc was a very popular establishment and dispensed a famous cure for colds. Mr. Dickie retired with an ample fortune in 1840. He was an enterprising person and advanced supplies to General Sam Housfcon when the latter was fighting the Mexicans in Texas. Dickie was promised millions of acres of land for his pecuniary assistance, but somehow the ungrateful Texas authorities subsequently cancelled the grant made to him. But he nevertheless left an ample fortune, as was shown at the sale which took place on Thursday of his real estate. We give the price realized^ together with the amounts originally paid, as it is amatter of curious interest to note the difference of the values of real properfcy now and in former years. Of course the buildings now on the lots were built by Mr. Dickie. Sold in ISZi. 413 Broadway, southwest corner Lispenard street.......$5,500 li50. Chamhers street, No. 144.............................. 6,000 Sold in 1887. $^35,000 Chambers street. No. 150................................ 6,000 1827. Canal street. No. 274.. .. ................................ 2,700 1835. Thirty-eighth street, No. 7 West (house coat $12,000) ... 4,000 1844. South Fif th avenue, No. 87............................... 6,000 1844. Wooster street, No. 151................................. 6,0U0 1838. Greene street. No. 127................ ............... 3,450 41,100 42,230 44,000 66,250 17,750 16,800 64,000 The World gives some figures to show that when the Central Park site was purchased, in 1856, the Twelfth, Nineteenth and Twenty-second Wards, which surrounded it, paid in taxes a little over $1,000,000, whereas the same Wards now pay Over $10,000,000 taxes. This increase in taxation it credits to the park improvement, and makes ifc an argument for the proposed immediate completion of tbe Morningside, Riverside, Mount Morris and East River Parks. Now, while we are in favor of the improvements of the parks named, ifc is an over-statement to credit all this increase of values to park improvements alone. The elevated roads have done more than the parks, and there have been other causes at work to enhance up-town values. But these park improvements are good things, and we believe the future history of the city will justify the creation of the great system of proposed parka above the Harlem River, including that much-abused Pelham Bay Park. The conversion of the trade dollars into standard dollars occurred in a very fortunate time for the business of the country. Th© Evening Post .a,nd the national bank organs bitterly opposed that provisioia of the law which added tbe trade dollars tb the 2,000,000