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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1837: May 30, 1903

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May 30, 1903- RECORD AND GUIDE 1073 ESTABUSHED-^ ttM^H 21^^ 1 as 8. IkuM> P RW- E^«E ■ BU!LDIJ/G ApJ^idTECTURE .t{cjUSEli01D DEBQ^Hia;. ^iisafeas Alto Themes op GafeR^. iKrER;^!; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS Published eVers Saturday Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New Yorfc 1. T. LINDSEY, Bualneas Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered ai ihe Post OMce ai New York. N. T., as second-olasa matter." Vol. LXXI. MAY 30, 1903. No. 1837 THE condition of the stocli; Diarliet continues to be irregular and unsettled. Any movement in prices one way or the other is entirely superficial and tentative. General conditions indeed seem to favor higher prices, and it is not easy to find a solid explanation as to why, for instance, a stock paying 6 or 7 per cent, and likely to continue to do so, remains without pur¬ chasers at a price considerably lower than the figures that ex¬ isted wlien the stock itseJf was yielding a smaller return. Un¬ doubtedly, local financial conditions at the moment are opposed to any considerable advance, and, as we pointed out last week, even big banking houses, which would benefit most from a rise in quotations of securities, do uot encourage such a movement just now. Uuder tliese circumstances the market is likely to re¬ main in an uncertain state, but the speculative side of our pros¬ perity, which has been uppermost for so long, is undoubtedly being replaced by a very decided tendency toward conservatism. This conservatism, moreover, is intensified rather than other¬ wise by the unsettled condition of the labor situation and by the crop prospects. This cautious attitude usually makes for lower prices and possibly in this fact we have the best explanation of the present condition of the stock market. THE little local celebration which New York has been hav¬ ing during the past week in order to commemorate the 2a0th anniversary of its incorporation as a city suggests the desirability of holding a more elaborate celebration four years from now in order to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson by Henry Hudson. We do not mean even to bint that these exercises should take the form of anything so costly and formidable, as a world's fair. Even if New York desired the bother and the work of organizing such an exhibition, the time necessarily selected would be altogether too soon after the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition. We might, indeed, follow the example of St. Louis and Chicago and cele¬ brate the occasion a year or more after the anniversary of the event; but we do not believe that such a proposal would find many supporters in this or any other city. It should, however, be possible to get up a small compact and distinctive local ex¬ position, designed particularly to show the achievements of the city during the past century, and also to give the visitors to New York during that period a particularly good time. Or, it would be worth considering whether something might not be done by the associated art societies of New York to get up the most complete and representative exhibition of American art tbat has yet been seen. It cannot be said that such an exhibi¬ tion would be appropriate; but It would most assuredly be timely, for there can be no doubt that the city is becoming more aud more the art centre of the country. In getting up such a celebration New York has a great advantage over any other city in the country, not only because there are such an enor¬ mous number of people living within a radius of flfty miles from the City Hall, but because it is becoming more and more the habit of comparatively well-to-do people from all over the country to visit New York. They find here more opportunities for business and amusement than anywhere else in the country; and in visiting this city they would be traveling a familiar road and could be sure both of good accommodations and a good time. Since there bas been no talk about it hitherto, it is improbable that public opinion will be sufficiently interested to countenance anything but a literary celebration of Henry Hudson's dis¬ covery; but we feel assured that before many years are out New York's increasing sense of her metropolitan eminence and dis¬ tinction will receive some kind of an expression. The veritable consolidation of the Greater New York, wbich will be brought about by the operation of the bridges and tunnels now under construction, will so increase the momentum and efieetiveness of the city's life that in the end the, impulse to publish and commemorate its expansion will become irresistible. -KW R. ANDREW H. GREEN'S suggestion that all tbe pro- IJtl. posed sites for a new municipal building should be abandoned, and that a site in one of several tenement-house districts should be selected, has been received witb something worse than disapproval; it-has been received with absolute in¬ difference. Of course, the situation he proposes would be cheap enough, and they are not so far away as to be hopelessly in¬ convenient; but at tbe same time they do not and cannot excite the least interest. If the property on Chambers street is very costly its cost is determined by the value it has for private business; and if business men can afford to pay these prices for offices in that neighborhood surely the corporation of the city of New York can afford to pay the same prices. The property is valuable because it is conveniently and centrally situated; and it would be more conveniently and centrally situated for the offices of the city tban it would be for the offices of a savings bank or a news company. Moreover, a city like New York, which has just been congratulaUng itself over its wealth and grandeur, must keep up appearances. To seek the site of its new offlce building in a section now devoted to loft buildings and tenements would be to show a very poor and parochial spirit. If it were possible to move all the city departments to some handsome central, convenient" and economical site north of Fourteenth street the idea of deserting the neighborhood of the present City Hall might be worth considering, but since tbe present City Hall is an old and very beautiful building, and since it is the home of valuable and time-honored civic associa¬ tions, no such removal is worth serious consideration. No! The city of New York must find the site for its new municipal building in the immediate neighborhood of its present City Hail, and it must spend money freely to make that neighbor¬ hood worthy of its function. That with terminal and other improvements it will be possible little by little to make tbat neighborhood spacious, handsome and acceptable in every way, and it is to that end that the efforts of local offlcials and patriotic New Yorkers should be directed. Real Estate Situation. In a recent financial article in the "Sun" we find the follow¬ ing comment on the real estate situation in this city: "The remark is frequently heard here in bank parlors and other im- . . portant quarters that the building strike in Speculation O'Ji" city is a blessing in disguise, in that it in has stopped the building craze which has gone Real Estate on uninterruptedly for a long time and has and put a curb upon speculation in real estate that Building. 2^3g ^ggj^ jjjyj,^ wilder than tbat in cotton." If this is the kind of remark that is being passed In "bank parlors and otber important quarters" the hankers and the other inhabitants of these "quarters" betray an amusing ignorance of tbe existing situation. There has been no "building craze" in New York City—if by "building craze" is meant an amount of new building not warranted by the increase in the population and trade of the city. During the years 1901 and 1902 there was indeed a good deal of building of all kinds, but particularly of office huildings, loft buildings, apartment hotels and expensive residences. In the flrst two of the classes there has certainly been no over-building, because as soon as the new buildings are erected they are rented. It is possible that in the vicinity of Twenty-third street tbe supply has run ahead of the demand, but if so the excess is local and unimport¬ ant. In the case of the apartment hotels, also, there is no sign of over-building. The new apartments are rented jtistas soon as they are finished, and while they may not prove to be per¬ manently popular the presejit demand fully justifies the amount of new building. In the case of expensive residences, some of the speculative builders are perhaps over-loaded; but the diffi¬ culty, if it exists, is confined to only a few people. As to flats and tenements, so far frora there being any over-building, there is an actual dearth of new accommodations, and if the strike ■continues, so that there will be no new buildings offered for rent next fall, there promises to be an actual and a severe house famine. It will take several years of heavy construction in order to place tbe supply as much ahead of the demand as it was in 1900. As it is with building, so it is wifh real estate. There have been enormous increases in value of recent years in the financial district and along the line of Fifth avenue; but specu- ■ lators would have been powerless,to make or hold these prizes, had not tbe wealthiest and most conservative financial institu¬ tions been willing-to pay prices as large if not larger. It is a firm like Tiffany^ Co. W has paid tjie highest prices fpr