Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 42, no. 1070: September 15, 1888

Text version:

1108 Record and Guide. September 16, 1888 corner in them. A few powerful owners have put up the price so as to milk the Treasury of its surplus, and both President Cleveland and Candidate Harrison are in favor of pouring the money of the nation into the pockets of these " bloated bondholders." It is doubtful if these letters of acceptance will gain or lose any votes for the candidates of the two parties. The recent elections seem to indicate that the relative strength of the two parties is about what it was four years ago. If anything, the Republicans have made slight gains. The contest -will be decided by the States of Indiana, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. The result grows more doubtful every day. At present vpi-iting the chances seem to favor the re-election of President Cleveland. He has always been a lucky candidate for whatever office he ran. Apart from the vote on the Presidential ticket it looks as though a Con¬ gress will be returned favorable to protection. An TInpremeclitated Eeal Estate Movement. Tbe changes to be observed in Lafayette place dm-ing the last few years seem at first thought to be quite unaccfiuntable. A mem¬ ber of the old aristocracy who inhabited that thorouglifare when its chief distinction, after the Astor Library,was patrician dweUings of the old style would have to pinch lumself to make sure that he was awake were he now to revisit the street for the first time since his migration up town. He would at least be certain to appreciate the sensations of Rip Van "Winkle, when that distinguished person awoke from his twenty years' snooze among the Catskills, and saw around him the evidence that there had been a political earthquake. Lafayette place is now no thoroughfare in the strict sense of the term, but it is so located that it may connect with the sti-eets of which it seems to be a continuation. It is about its breadth fui-ther away from Bi-oadway than Crosby street, and to the northward its lines intersect the Stewart building. It has never offered more than an eddy for the cm-rent of traflic, and it is presumed that it wUl maintain its old position for au indefinite length of time or until Elm street is extended. Yet it is now one of the most noticeable streets of the city, not only for the rapidity of its improvement, but for the substantial character of its new structures. The tide began with the construction of the great buUding on the corner of Astor place, originally designed for a carriage factory or warehouse, but now occupied, among other publishers, by the pub¬ lishing firm of J. J. Little & Co. The Whiting JIanufacturing Com¬ pany's building, on the corner of 4th street, may have preceded the Astor place corner building by a short time, but this is a Broadway sti-ucture only extending to Lafayette place. After the buUding on the Astor place corner came the splendid Mission house of the late Father Drumgoole on the corner of Great Jones sti-eet, and, finally, two or three years ago, the improvement fever broke forth in full force, and the street is now undergoing a veritable process of trans- figm-ation. The De Vinne Press building, built about as sohdly as the great down-town sti-uctures, rears its seven story and basement walls on the northeast corner of 4th street; a substantial business structure of combined brick and u-on, extending more than 100 feet on Lafayette place, occupies the northwest corner opposite; and on the corner of Great Jones street, opposite the Mission buUding, one of the most tasteful business buildings to be found in the city will soon be completed. The architectural design of this buUding is ex¬ ceedingly picturesque and original. The material is of combined gi-anite, iron, red stoue, and brown and MUwaukee brick. The wall face rising in narrow, pUaster-shaped piers between the high and arched windows of the lower four stories, rests upon short iron columns several feet in diameter near the base, and these in turn are supported on granite phnths equaUy suggestive of strength and durabiUty. The caps of the piers at the base of the arches in the fourth story are surmounted with terra cotta bas-rehef s, representing grotesque heads, and half way down, where the piers are buttressed to project beyond the wall face, other decorations of the same ma¬ terial help to reheve the facade of any suggestion of baldness. When we add to these structures the recent extension of the Astor Library and the elegant Gothic facade of marble and MUwaukee brick, built by the late Miss Wolfe for the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church, it will be seen that Lafayette place is some¬ what more than keeping pace with the best sections of the old city. But the wonder for this sudden turn of the building movement wiU in part subside when one walks through the short street and observes the signs which denote the line of industrial and business activity which is chiefly followed. It begins to look as if Lafayette place was destined to become eventually the chief centre of the metropolitan book manufactm-ing, publishing, and literary voca¬ tion. In the first place, the library centre of New York is in the immediate neighborhood. The Astor Library is on the street, the Mercantile Library is at its terminus, the Cooper Union Library is just around the corner, and the Society Library and the Appren¬ tices' Library on 16th street are not far away. These are powerful Uterai y magnets, and for years past they seem to have been drawing the book manufacturers to the neighborhood. On Broadway, between Clinton place and Waverly place there are no less than a score of pubhshers of books, magazines and other period¬ icals, the list including the large firms of Scribner's Sons, and Dodd, Mead & Co. On Astor place one shoemaker holds the fort in the big building on the corner of Lafayette place ; but almost every other kind of trade except book manufactm-ing has been expelled, and there are possibly a dozen diffei-ent pubUshing fii-ms clustered right here in a body. When you pass around the corner into Lafayette place you find the same story continued. The signs of bookbinders, electi'otypers, and stereotypers meet you at evei-y turn, and the editor seems to be ubiquitous. FinaUy, you reach the great De Vinne Press building, where the Centwy magazine has recently burrowed, and given up the attempt at remaining in the outer currents of the maelsti-om. Everything seems di-awing towards this common vortex. The Appletons are not far away, and would be just in the swim were Lafayette place cut through to Bond street. The Bible House, w^hich sends out its miUion books a year, is right at hand, and it is even a common rumor that Mrs. Fi-ank Leslie intends to occupy the elegant new building at the corner of Lafayette place and Great Jones street. But this rumor is appa¬ rently only an on dit which is proverbiaUy unreliable. It will be well to know what business is likely to thrive in this old street which is now becoming so wonderfuUy new. It would evidently not be a good place to locate a dry-goods' store, and some observers suspect that the large clothing firm which occupies the new buUding on the corner of Fourth street will eventually find itself misplaced. More Good Money Wanted, "^Vllen, before he took Iiis seat in the White House, President¬ elect Cleveland caUed upon Congi-ess to repeal the SUver Coinage Act, it was evident he thought there was such a tiling as too much currency in the channels of trade; but he seems to have learnt something since his occupancy of the Presidential chair. In his letter of acceptance he says : It is a great mistake to suppose tbat tbe consequences which follow tbe continual withdrawal and hoarding by the government of the currency of . tbe people ai-e not of immediate importance to the mass of om- citizens, and only concerns those engaged in large financial transactions. In the rest¬ less enterprise and activity which free and ready money among tbe people produces, is found tbat opportunity for labor and employment and tbat impetus to business and production which bring in their train prosperity to our citizens iu every station and vocation. New ventures, uew invest¬ ments in business and mauufactm-e, the consti-uction of new and important works, and the enlargement of enterprises ah-eady established, depend largely upon obtainmg money upou easy terms with fau- security; and all these things are stimulated by an abundant volume of cu-culating medium. Even the harvested grain of tbe farmer remains without a market unless money is forthcoming for its movement and transportation to the seaboard. There is more to the same effect. It is well that the Executive sees the necessity for an abundant supply of real money. Had the coinage law been repealed our population would have gone on increasing without any con-espondtng addition to the cu-culating medium. As the President points out; " It is quite apparent that when tills perfectly natural, if not inevitable, stage is reached, depression in all business aud enterprise wiU, as a necessary conse¬ quence, lessen the opportunity for work and employment, and reduce salaries and the wages of labor." The present activity in business is clearly due to the emission of sUver certificates based on tbe coined sUver doUars which Mr, Cleveland was so earnestly and mistakenly desirous of stopping when he took his place in the Wliite House. As we have often said, no nation can have too much gold and silver currency ; and it is stUl better off when it has a paper cui-rency convertible into the precious metals. What we uow need is the putting of silver on the same plane as gold. There should be as free coinage of one as of the other precious metal. Something must be done to reUeve traffic on Broadway below the City Hall Park, There is a congestion of vehicles there from eight o'clock in the morning to seven at night. Mayor Hewitt would do weU to appoint a commission of experts to see what could be done to facihtate the transit of wagons, carts, trucks and the like in the lower part of the city. How would it do to take a portion of the sidewalk and so add to the width of the thoroughfare for vehi¬ cles? Then, to make room for pedestrians, why not have a walk or a pathway constructed on a level with the second story of stores from say Wall street to Ann or Vesey streets? This structure could be made ornamental and would protect the first story and the front of the stores from storms. Something of the same kind might be done in Greenwich street and CoUege place, where there is often a congestion of vehicular travel. So gorged is lower Broad¬ way that passengers on the cars often lose a half an hour in travel¬ ing from Wall street to the Post-office. Something must be done to reUeve Uiat thoroughfare, and that before very long. ----------•---------- There, of course, is no danger of the spread of yellow fever in this city. Even if there were a dozen or twenty cases it need' not aJarm the bulk of our citizens, as the fiirst touch of cold weather ,