Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 66, no. 1701: October 20, 1900

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i90 RECORD AND GUIDE. October 20, 1900. increasing number of moderately rich men. Such men when they want a house of a special design and plan are often obliged to tear down some existing brown stone residence in order to get tt, and In this way a good many blocks are being transformed in sections which are quite untouched by the pressure of busi¬ ness. No doubt the process will be indefinitely continued. Fourth Avenue. WHAT WILL THB NEAR FUTURE DO FOR IT? THERE is no up-and-down—as distinguished from cross- town—thoroughlare that is so reluctant to respond to the modern demand lor change as Fourth avenue. Here and there it has the appearance of having been prodded into tem¬ porary wakefulness, but as a whole it Is sluggish and sleepy, while parallel arteries ol travel are lully aiive and undergoing rapid translormation in response to the active spirit of the times. Most ol the abutting buildings look like mines lor pro¬ ducing the avenue's principal staple of industry—antique fur¬ niture and bric-a-brac—and which will not change until they are worked out and all their produce sold. Meanwhile, how¬ ever, the thoroughfare itself is rapidly increasing in traffic, though a traffic largely originated elsewhere, and the fact that the rapid transit railroad is to run under it with stations at Fourteenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-third and Twenty-eighth and Thirty-third streets, suggests the query whether tlie abutting property is not also about to receive its awakening. It may be as well to state that we are aware that the condi¬ tions under which much of the property on Fourth avenue is held account for its dullness. There are a good many leased parcels and restrictive covenants that block certain kinds of improvement. Possibly few are aware that there is a restriction against noxious and manufacturing businesses on all the Bast Side from about Twenty-second to Thirtieth street. These restric¬ tions were contained in deeds of the executors of the will of Mrs. Ann Rogers, who died some time in the early part of the century. The property disposed of by the will consisted of the Rose Hill Farm, which extended from Fourth avenue along the line already indicated, which was its broadest part, back to the East River, where it was narrowest. How obstructive of im¬ provements such covenants can become in the course of time is shown by the fact that owing to the discovery of this one, the plans of the American Lithographic Co., who originally intended to locate on the Cooper property between Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth streets, were changed and the company forced to go elsewhere; so that, practically, Mrs. Ann Rogers, who died when the century was infantine, eighty or ninety years later pre¬ vented a great corporation from enjoying an appropriate site for their intended building. Besides the many present holders of this tract of land are limited in its use by the notions of that lady as to what would be an inappropriate improvement. Notwith¬ standing these facts, there is still room to hope for liveliness • on the avenue, because technical and legal obstacles generally vanish when it pays to get rid ol them, and with what may truly be called the extraordinary developments that are going on in this section, the ghost of Mrs, Ann Rogers which haunts hall a mile of building front and scares ofl improvers, and all other technical ghosts may be laid. Since what was known as the Cyclorama site was occupied, the only remaining vacant parcel on Fourth avenue is that on the southwest corner of Thirteenth street, which has long existed only for the delectation of bill posters, though there are other parcels that would he better to have not been improved at all, seeing what might be, compared with what is done with them. Between Ninth and Fourteenth streets there are a number of modern stores and lolts doing well, especially two of those which are located on the east side of the avenue. Above Fourteenth sti-eet the modern improvements are in spots and, witii some conspicuous exceptions, are experimental. Nothing reveals bet¬ ter the hesitation that has been for many years characteristic of Fourth avenue, than the development of the four Twenty-third street corners. There we have the old Columbia College Med¬ ical Department Building, which was inaugurated Jan. 22, 1856; the Academy of Design of 1862, which is to-day forlornly appeal¬ ing for a new tenant, the Young Men's Christian Association Buildiug of 1869, and after an interval of more than twenty years the only really up-to-date structure, the home of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The erection of the last mentioned building was so nearly accom¬ panied by the "United Charities Building, the Church Missions House, and the Bank for Savings, that it aroused the hope that the day of recrudescense had come, but a long time elapsed be¬ fore new life was put Into tfils section by the purchaseand build¬ ing for the American Lithographic Co. on the southwest corner of Nineteenth street. The southeast corner ol the same street is an excellent illustration ol the difflculty that seems always to have arisen as to what was an appropriate improvement lor a Fourth avenue site. Here was located the parcel that was as¬ sociated with the show that occupied it lor a comparatively brief period. Endless were the destinies proclaimed for it. The ad¬ joining successful apartment-house suggested a rational solution of the problem, especially to those who believed that downtown apartments were needed, but it flnally devolved to a store and loft building which so far has not-been a success, judging by the proportions of the rentable space therein still untenanted; though it would be altogether unreasonable to believe, seeing how rapidly business is growing in that section, that it will not finally prove one. Perhaps the most encouraging and suggestive feature of this thoroughfare, is the number of apparently successful small hotels that'are scattered along its length. Besides two large ones at either end, there are half-a-dozen or more small ones, not counting any classed as hotels by grace of the Raines Law, that have a fairly prosperous air; in some this prosperity is evidenced by their having spread, as time went on, into several adjacent residences. The latest experiment is a bachelor apart¬ ment-house, near the northern end, composed of one and two- room and bath apartments, Intended, like the small hotels pre¬ viously referred to, for people of smaller means, than those who occupy the gorgeously appointed and decorated hotels or houses of like design, that have come into vogue of late years. This house, though only just completed, is under agreement for lease entire, and will doubtless be appreciated by people of moderate means. Another feature to be noted is that among the names of the buyers of the comparatively few Fourth avenue parcels that have come on the market in the past two years, are those ol several well-known professional operators, which fact, taken with the other main fact that the thoroughlare forms part of the line of the route ol the rapid transit railroad, and will con¬ tain five stations ol that road, suggests that Fourth avenue realty is soon to experience new life, and join the other main arteries of city travel in the modern re-building movement. A GROSS city budget in the neighborhood of $105,000,000 is expected by competent estimators, and while this will be reduced considerably by the general fund, the net budget for next year must be much larger than the one property owners are now paying taxes to meet. The actual reductions cannot be told yet hy any one, as they will be created by circumstances yet to arise, but they cannot in any case offset the increases in ex¬ penditure that the budget will reveal. The question tlien arises, how will these increases be met? The problem is one for which no one can give the solution at the moment, but the tax authori¬ ties are already considering how they can reach more personal property for taxation and so avoid the necessity of making fur¬ ther large additions to the tax values of realty. Something is hoped for, too, from increases in the franchise tax valuations. THE claim presented to the Comptroller this week, which revived recollections of what was known as the Orchard street disaster, and which it was erroneously reported involved the question of the responsibility of the Department of Buildings for the stability of construction done under plans approved by them, appears to be really only a claim for the return of money deposited for work done by the department and which the de¬ positor claims the department ought to have done without charge. As is well known, when the department, in the exer¬ cise of tbeir discretion, do anything in or about a building to protect the public from probable injury, they make the owner pay the cost. In some recent cases the department's right to do this has been contested on the ground that what was done in the interest of the public should be paid for by the public. In the Orchard street case the department required tbe owner to pay for the shoring, etc., done, and, as appears, an attempt is to be made to recover tbis money. WANTED, BATHING FACILITIES. Commissioner Kearny has furnished to the Mun!'.i,.ijl A^sem- Vly some statistics showing that in the Fifteenth As.sfmhly Dis¬ trict there are only 1,037 bathtubs to 8,176 families, or an aver¬ age of about one bathtub to every right families, "West i^f 9th av there are in a certain city area only 270 bathtuiJs for 3,334 families. In this district one bathtub lias to do duty for eighteen families. West of lltb av there are only flve bathtubs for the use of 416 families. These flgures are intended to support an ap¬ plication for the establishment of a pubiic bath in this district.