Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

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482 RECORD AND GUIDE. October 4, 1902. price Is reported at $125,000, by E. C. M. Fitzgerald, of the Mc¬ Nulty & Fitzgerald Company, through whom the deal was ef¬ fected. "Wood, Harmon & Co. are said to be the buyers. The Wood-Harmon Company, of New Tork City, was incor¬ porated at Albany, on Monday, with a capital of $2,000,000, to deal in real estate and to "construct buildings, railways, docks, piers, washouts, canals, subways and other works or con¬ veniences of public utility." The directors are William E. Har¬ mon, Benjamin H. Knowles, Arthur D. Moore, Leonidas Keever, Alfred Muller and William H. Milner, of New Tork Cily, and R. H. Lee Martin, of Larchmont. The notices of the death of Col. Thomas A. Kerrigan have re¬ ferred chiefly to him as a politician. It must not be forgotten, also, that he was a real estale man of long standing ajid success, part of which only was due lo his political connections. He es¬ tablished his auction room in Willoughby st, first at No. 35, then at No. 13, and finally at No. 9, and the sales there were marked by as much publicity and honesty as those made elsewhere in this borough. It may be said it was part of a bad and imperfect system of selling property by legal process, but that is all that can be said against it. Col. Kerrigan was as highly respected by his business as by his political acquaintances and connec¬ tions. He was genial and cheery, and in his long career made many friends. naterial Market. LUMBER. The fine business of the summer continues with even added vigor into the fall. A firm on lower Broadway expressed the opinion yesterday that every wholesaler Is doing a larger busi¬ ness than he ever did before. Whenever there is any movement in lumber it is upward. This has been the general rule for a series of years, but it has not lessened, apparently, the aggregate of orders, as compared with previous periods. The proportion of demand to supply has really made the price, independently of the resolutions of associations; but if the available supply were larger and the natural price twenty-five per cent, or more lower, what would not be the magnitude of the requirement? Unques¬ tionably, much construction is being postponed by the extreme cost of materials. In most suburban communities, where dwell¬ ings are principally built of wood, there is a marked diminution of building operations. This may not be apparent lo the whole¬ saler on lower Broadway, but it is a visible and tangible reality to the retailer in small cities and towns. There is a town on the Hudson River that for a number of years anterior lo 1892 built at the rate of almost one house every working day. Since then—that is, since the panic, and since the rise in lumber values—the town has not erected ten build¬ ings in a year. "It would not pay to build; lumber is too high." the speculators residing there say. "We cannot afford it," is the reason others give for putting off necessary improvements. It follows that the current request for lumber is mainly from the larger class of cities, and is of a compulsory nature. Vast as the demand is, it is far from being what it would be if prices were not so high. An amount of rural construction beyond all estimate awaits a receding price list, but who can tell when that will come? Holding off in a market like this defeats its own purpose. The knowledge that there is an avalanche of business wailing nul¬ lifies any tendency to cheapness. Life is short, and in our opin¬ ion those who are waiting to build when lumber prices return to the level of five years ago will be disappointed and annoyed. In times of national depression we lack the ability to build, and the only real relief that the public can expect is from an en¬ largement of production. A paper company has just bought from Dr. Seward Webb twenty million feet of spruce logs, paying the highest price on record, $15. Since September 1 there have been advances in a large number of item.?. The cut of two cents in railroad rates that went into effect last May has been terminated, and the rate from Minneapolis points to Chicago has been advanced from ten to ewelve cents. In consequence of these changes the West¬ ern lumber associations are issuing new classification books. IRON AND STEEL. The increasing volume of importations is the newest remarka¬ ble thing in this remarkable industry. Not merely manufactured shapes, and not merely pig iron and steel billets are being brought from abroad, bul iron ore. Not only our mills, but our mines have more orders than they can fill within the time de¬ sired. The requirement here for raw material, as well as for manufactured goods, is enormous, and this has affected Scotch, German, Belgium, English and even Russian iron centres, by In¬ creasing prices considerably. The iron and steel men of Europe view the condition of busi¬ ness in America wilh some complacency and satisfaction, as they believe they have presented to their view the answer to a prob¬ lem concerning which they have had dark apprehensions. Hith¬ erto they have looked upon this country as a rival for the trade of their home markets, and as possibly in the future an overwhelming one. But they perceive now, or think they do, that the expanding American iron and steel industry will in the future be kept sufficiently employed by a constantly in¬ creasing domestic consumption, which, in good limes, will be satisfied wilh nothing less than the whole output of our mines and furnaces, and that Europe will not be asked for orders ex¬ cept in periods of general business depression, when a surplus may accumulate here, and be offered for sale in the markets across the water. This is a vast domain; its capacity for con¬ sumption as ivell as production in the zone of iron and steel is enormous, and it is apparent that the demand, which for awhile was not so swift in the race as the supply, has at the begin¬ ning of the twentieth century actually run ahead. We have become Europe's customer, instead of her provider, and that' relation will continue so long as good times favor us. Inferen- . tially, then, the iron and steel trade of Europe will be a bene¬ ficiary of American prosperity. So long as we shall have a use for all the rails, billets, wire, structural material, ship- plates, and even pig iron, that can be produced within our bounds, the centres of production elsewhere will not be dis¬ turbed by competition from any surplus of ours; and we should consider that foreign business leaders have a reason to aid in promoting such a condition of affairs on this side of the Atlantic that our mills will have enough to do to supply the home re¬ quirement. FIREPROOFING. The material commonly called "flreproofing" has become famil¬ iar to the eye. In the congested districts it is seen nearly as often as brick, and to no small extent has taken the place of brick. Floor-arches and partition walls that once were constructed of brickare now composed of terra cotta in oneor other of its forms. The proportion in which terra cotta is employed in contempo¬ rary construction has an example in the "Flatiron," which is absolutely fireproofed throughout wilh tile and terra cotta; and above the fourth story the exterior walls are faced wilh a terra cotta counterfeit of Indiana limestone. Once the highest and best structures had not only exterior bul also interior walls of common brick, but the modem office building is practically the product of the fireproofer. Brick has been eliminated so thoroughly that in an eighteen-story ediflce jurt finished in Chicago there are no bricks at all, except a few that were used to fill chinks behind the external terra cotta walls. Fireproofing lo be effective must not only resist fire, but protect the steel, from rust as well as heat. The terra cotta shapes are laid in Portland cemeni mortar, which fills all the space be¬ tween the terra cotta and the sleel. A cement coaling Is one of the surest means of preventing corrosion. The George A. Fuller Company say that with the latest per¬ fection of the art of fireprooflng, il is possible to make a steel- constructed building that cannot be destroyed by any kind of fire. Many of our so-called fireproofed buildings are not so con¬ structed, but the best of them are perfectly fireproof. In the opinion of this company, the porous, burned, flre clay terra cotta of good thickness seems to afford the best protection. The porosity of the material prevents cracking and crumbling through unequal expansion, while the hollow character makes It nearly equal to two separate walls. A consulting architecl remarked: "The flrst great change after the all-steel skeleton arrived was the substituting of the hollow fire brick or "hollow tile,' as it is called, for the common brick. This is the material which has actually developed the high of¬ fice building as we flnd il to-day. When flreproofing with clay products is specified the lowest bidder who receives the con¬ tract executes il with the kind of material he can make with the clay he happens to mine. The clay may be suitable for a high-grade, porous terra cotta, or only for hard-burned tile. But the best material can only be produced by mixing clays, which in their natural state are not suitable. Some clays may resist heat, but, lacking toughness, are not fit for hollow tiles with thin walls. Too little attention has been paid lo burned clay fire¬ proofing. I know of some buildings in which the clay used was not above the grade of that used for ordinary flower-pots. But as a matter of fact most of the buildings fireproofed with burned clay contain the highest grade of material. "Owing to recent inventions, wood can almost be dispensed with in constructing office buildings. There is no longer any necessity for wooden floors. If marble and tile are too expensive, cement will do. A good substitute for cement finish is called monolith. Doors need no longer be made of varnished wood, bul of common wood covered with brass and hung to metallic