Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 44, no. 1124: September 28, 1889

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September 28, 1889 Record and Guide. 1289 ^^^ Dz/oteD to I^e^L Estme . BuiLdi^o Ap,ci{iTE:cTd[\E ,Housei1old DEooi^noti. Biisit^ESS Afio Themes of GEfJEfv^l 1^tei\es-j PRICE, PER VEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published evei-y Saturday. TELEPHONE, - . JOHN 370. CoBiniuiiications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway, A T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XLIV. SEPTEMBER 28, 1889. No. 1,134 A Valuable Map, We shall issue next week as a supplement to The Record and G-TjiDE, a map showing the lines of the Harlem Hiver Improve- memt and alt that section of Manhattan Island, as far south as 173d street. The ma}) is in part a facsimile of the Govern¬ ment's map noiv in the Chief Engineer's department at Washing¬ ton, and can be relied upon as being correct. The boundaries of the property at Inwood. which were considered as a site for the World's Fair, arc also shown. Owners and brokers desiring quan¬ tities of the maps shoidd send in their orders at once. They will be suppUed at $4.00 per hundred. General business throughout the country during the past week, while not up to the pitch of the previous one, is still very good, and there is every indication that the season will end very satis¬ factorily. Tlie oue adverse fiictor is tiie cIosene.ss of money, which is now at a very uncomfortable figure for tliose jjeople whose necessities require them to go into the market for borrowing piu-- poses. In the stock market-prices for good securities have shown alternate weakness a.nd firmness, while sucli uncertain stuff as Atchison, Sugar Ti-ust, and one or two fancies have suffered con¬ siderably in the figures marking values. Tlie Union Pacific Compauy is reported to have plans in railway paralleling, which, if carried out, will end by stranding the compauy just as the Atchison Company was wrecked by reckless management. There is some queer stock jobbing going on now in connection witli Union Pacific. Not a great wliile ago Charles Fi-ancis Adams stated m a report that the Oregon Railway Navigation lease would lose for tlie Union Pacific Company a million of dollars this year. At the time tliis state¬ ment was made tlie Oregon Transcontinental Company owned a large amount of the Navigation stock, aud Mr. Adams' assertion so affected the price that the quotations rau down to below 85. At this figure buyers appeared. Shortly afterward iVtr. Adams and his friends Avere repoi'ted to hold large amoimts of it, and now the price is quoted at 103. The Union Pacific jDeople, who some time ago said the Oregon Navigation lease would cost the Union Pacific a million of dollars, now state that this same lease will prove a source of proflt. Everyone who wishes to see the World's Fair held in New York in 1892, and held with success and credit to the city, should accept the decision made by the Committee on Site as decisive, Lookiug broadly at the matter it is biiyond all fair controversy that the site is a good one, aud, despite tlie wrangling of newspapers, tlie selec¬ tion undoubtedly has the approval of the pubhc at large. Admit¬ tedly it ia more central and accessible than any other available sit:?, and these two essential qualifications, when duly considered, will be regarded by al! intelligent persons as sulHcient to outweigh what¬ ever other advantages are possessed by other sites that have been named. .--------,--------a——-—■ Very little stock should be taken in tbe bickering about the matter that fills more si^ace than it merits in the daily papers. The editorial quarrel—for it has become such—is solely about the pro- iwsition of tlie committee that as much as may be needed of the northernmost end of Central Park should be taken for the purjioses of the Exposition. Unquestionably the peojile of New York -would be i)i-actical!y unanimous in opposi'ig any scheme that would lead to the permanent disfigurement of any part of the park, or any destruction of what has cost them so much to obtain ; but no sensible estimate of public opinion on the matter will say that it runs to the extent of the fanaticism of the Evening Post, the World and the Tribune, which would make people believe that even the shadow of an Exposition building would blast the trees and every natural beauty, and leave the park a desolate and irreclaimable waste. -----------a----------- The common sense of the matter is to be found, and will yet be found, between the extreme views of those who would use the park as the principal site for the Exijosition buildings aud those who would not have a single square foot of it huilt upon for any purpose whatsoever. There are certain jjarts of the northern end of the park tliat could be used as sites for certain buildings of a certain size without imiiairing the beauty of the park in the least. Mr, Fi-ederick Law Olmstead, the highest atitliority on the subject, is of this opinion. His words are worth quoting. He says: "fi apipears jwobable to me that good use might be made of some local¬ ities of the park for the exhibition of objects not needed to be brouglit within any of the larger buildings of the Fair. If the Fair is to centre on a plot connecting Riverside and Morningside Parks. the Central Park will be a fine attachment to it, and it is probable that loeahties coidd be fonnd in the park for the exliibition of objects not required to stand in systematic connectiou with any of the classified exhibits." The quick of the entire matter then is this : What portions of the nortliern part of tiie |>ark do the committee think should be used ? " j^ much as is needed," they say, but it is an unknown quantity, and until some definite information h forth¬ coming, argument, denunciatiou and editorial anger is very much a beating of the wind. ----------■---------- Another matter to be decided before the question can be intel¬ ligently discussed is the size of the Exposition. Is the P. T, Barnum idea of a " biggest show on eai'th " to prevail, or ai'e we to have a Fair limited in size but excellent iu its arrangement aud the quality of the exhibits. Everyone at present is playing ou the big drnm about tlie Exposition, but when our ears are quite tired of the noise a little thinking may be done, and theu perhaps the ideal of an Exposition a trifle above the siiowman's may receive considera- lion. There is nothing tobe gained by a chaotic display of mer¬ chandise in huge buildings that have to be traversed on a railway to be seen. Buildings slightly smaller would be better, and if this idea were adopted there is plenty of laud in the Riverside-Moruing- side site proper, witbout encroaching to auy really dangerous extent upon Central Park, The Art Gallery or the Horticultural buildiug ndght be erected in tlie open spaces at tbe northern end without damaging the park in the least. There is no reason, moreover, why the Exposition buildings must be grouped together. They could be put iu different parts of the city with advantage. The Agricul¬ tural Hall could be erected at Inwood, Machiuery Hall on tlie Riv¬ erside-Morningside site, the Naval Exhibit or a Fishery Exhibit in Pelham Bay Park, and so on. One building is as much as auy person can see comfortably and completely in a day, and variety would be added to the inspection if the buildings were scattered m different parts of the city. The discomfort of the crush of a large crowd in summer time would be removed, the exhibits woukl be more completely inspected, whatever educational benefits are to be derived from an Exposition would be increased, and the advan¬ tages which it is supposed real estate will reap from the Fair would be diffused instead of concentrated in a single locality. There is one proposition, however,' which has been connected with the choice of a site wiiich cannot be too severely discounte¬ nanced and denounced. It is the proposition to add to Central Park all tbe land north of it, between UOth and USth atreets, 5th and Stb avenues, after the plot has been used for the Exposition. It may weil be that this proposition was made in good faith without any ulterior pm-pose ; but it is certainly one of those suggestions which the public always receive ■\vith suspicion and refuse to accept for their " face value." Including streets there are about fifty-five acres of land in this plot, which at present prices is worth between five and six milhou dollars. The 3,807 acres of new park land beyond the Harlem cost tbe city only about 1^9,000,000, and the idea of burdening the city now with §6,000,000 for fifty-five acres is too absurd for a moment's consideration. The city is now well supplied with parks ; but if any more money must be STsent it should be used for the purchase of small opeu spaces or squares in the overcrowded tenement districts. There is one suggestion that this controversy as to Central Park aud tbe site for the Exposition lias brought out whicb has not received the attention it deserves. Mr. Olmsted proposes that the reservoir in the park be floored over and used as a site for some of the main buildings. At first glance the proposition may appear to some to be extravagant; hut if there are no engineering difficulties too great or too costly to be overcome, it will bear serious consider¬ ation. The site would bean excellent one, and in using it none of the " natural beauties " of the park would be impaired. Chicago is very much excited over the question of municipal gas works just now. In 1887 tbere were eight gas companies doing biisiness in ths city. Charter after charter had heen given away, each \v'ith the delusive hope that it woitld bring cheap gas to the comtiumity. The companies were waging fierce war one with the other, and rates conseipiently were relatively low. The usual result followed. Tbe comimuiea combined, issued )i;]8,000,000 of bonds