Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 74, no. 1897: July 23, 1904

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July 23,-1904 RECORD AND GIJIDE Detail TD f^pAj. Estate. Building Apc^rrEcruRE ,h{ousnJ0LD DK3CfifTOM(. Busu/ess Alio Themes Of GeWer^I Vtee^st. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS published eVery Saturday Communications stiould be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14'16 Vesey Street, New YorK J. T. LINDSEY, Buainess Manager ^ Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at Ihe Post Office at New York. N. T., as second-olass matter." would be so largely used by women; but as long as the authori¬ ties object to a shallow tunnel for the New Jersey trolley cars, it is fortunate that the company can see its way clear to coa- structiilg a deeper subway profitably. We have dwelt so often on the value of this connection along Sixth avenue that we shall not repeat the arguments here, but we fully believ? that this Sixth avenue troiley tunnel will eventually be of more use to more people than any Manhattan subway which may be con¬ structed above it. Be it added that the use of deeper Sixth avenue for this purpose should be no reason for the abandon¬ ment of the 9th street connection. Both would be useful and de¬ sirable feeders to the New Jersey tunnel. Vol. LXXIV. JULY 23, 1904. IN spite of reactions, Wall Street is evidently working itself up into a belief in higher prices, and its speculators are mailing steady progress in their effort to mark tip quotations. They should beware, however, of going too fast. General con¬ ditions favor a gradual rather than a rapid recovery of purchas¬ ing power. Any effort to send prices up on the jump, while it might succeed for a while, would, in the end, be disastrous. The business temper of the country is plainly and rightly conserva¬ tive. It does not favor extensive improvements, or the creation of any obligations other than those absolutely necessary. It favors rather the establishment of strong cash reserves and the reorganization of industries that were partly disorganized by a period of exhausting production. Moreover, during the fall an unusually large supply of money will be needed for moving the crops, and the high money rates which will ensue would put a quietus on any speculative movement. A complete restoration of values should not be anticipated until the new year, by which time the process of financial and industrial recuperation will have had time really to accomplish its purpose. THE Rapid Transit Commission has performed a tardy act of justice to the Bronx in authorizing the construction of elevated roads on Jerome and Boston avenues. The importance of such extensions to the proper expansion of population In the Bronx cannot be over-estiniated. The Borough differs from Man¬ hattan in that it is very wide, and will need a large number ot parallel and transverse rapid transit routes, in order fully to open up its territory. At present there is one elevated road in operation, which supplies a very insufficient service, and another - soon to be in operation which will supply a better service. Ad¬ ditional lines on Jerome and Boston avenues will open up dis¬ tricts which are now comparatively inaccessible, and together with the improvemeuts being made by the Central, the Harlem and the New Haven roads, and the prospective Portchester or Westchester company's tracks, should supply the needs of the Bronx for the next ten years, when it is likely to have a popula¬ tion of 750,000. What we do not quite understand, however, is how the large number of passengers collected by these six or seven transit routes north of the Harlem wili be carried to the business district. Everything really depends upon this connec¬ tion, because such a large proportion both of salaried employees and of employers necessarily work in the office and loft build¬ ings of the lower part of Manhattan. Yet so far the provision made for carrying these passengers to tSe City Hall by means of an express service has been totally inadequate. The existing subway has two express tracks, but the proposed extension can have at most only one express track, which will prove to be a source of the utmost embarrassment when the road comes to be operated later. The difficulty is, of course, to find thoroughfares in^Manhattan which will accommodate four trades from one end of the island to the other; but there are at any rate two such thoroughfares, First avenue on the east side, and Central Park West, Eight avenue and Hudson street on the West. Four-track subways on these avenues will be necessary before the passen¬ gers collected in the Bronx can be properly transported to the Manhattan financial district. "T" HE Rapid Transit Commission" are to be congi-aUilated on ^ the new offer of the New York and New Jersey Tunnel Ccmpany to connect their trolley tunnel wlith a terminus at ^3rd street and Sixth avenue. The company, in offering t> conttruct the subway twenty feet below the surface, and to make itcajable of sustaining, if necessary, another subway above, has surel; disarmed all plausible opposition. For our own part we believi that a shallow tunnel along Sixth avenue would be very preferible, particularly in viewof the fact that the stations The Subway Opening. ■^p HE definite assurance that the subway wil! be opened as ■^ far north as 145th street by September 1st has been re¬ ceived with the utmost satisfaction by the people of New York. They have had to submit to so many disappointments and delays in the past year that probably few west side business men be¬ lieved that they would he riding underground to their offices by the time the cold weather began; but now there seems to be no reasonable chance for much further delay, and the subway will be operated through the larger part of its length in time to handle the heavy fall traffic. That it will be a success, so far as it goes, does not admit of a doubt. It will afford to the people of New York a clear, attractive, comfortable and safe means of transit, and they have confidence that it will be oper¬ ated with the same freedom from serious accident characteristic of the operation of the Manhattan elevated roads. Of course, it wiill soon he very much overcrowded; but at least it will be overcrowded to some purpose. It will be adequate, if not in the quantity of accommodation it affords, at least in the quality of that accommodation. It will restore to the people of New York an abundance of comparatively cheap residential land within the old city limits, and will thus constitute the first step in the emancipation of the average New Yorker from the famine ot ■ accessible house-room under which he has suffered for, more than a decade. The probable effect of the subway and its subsequent exten¬ sions upon the domestic habits of the New Yorker Is a fascinat¬ ing subject for speculation; but for the present it is, of course, a mere matter of guess-work. That it will distribute population over a wider area is, of course, manifest, but how far New York will continue to be a city of tenement houses and how far it will drift into the condition of suburban bliss after the manner of so many western cities, all these are matters which will probably turn out very different from our predictions. What can be traced pretty well, however, is the effect which the sub¬ way has already had upon the trend of real estate and building operations in Manhattan and the Bronx. This effect has been surprisingly small, considering the great necessity of the underground road, and the expectations which might have been based on its construction. Along its im¬ mediate route its effect has been so far depressing. The prop¬ erty-owners ou Elm street have, through the construction of the tunnel, suffered years of cruel loss, for which there is no compensation as yet in sight. Those on 4th avenue, owing to the great width of that thoroughfare, have suffered less actual loss than the owners of real estate along other portions of its route; but, on the other hand, 4th avenue, during a period in which values in the central part of the city have been jumping, has not participated in the upward movement. It should be added, however, that certain cross-town streets in this vicinity on which stations are situated, such as 28th street, have been benefited somewhat by the prospective effects of the tunnel. On 42d street the property-owners have suffered heavily from the construction of the tunnel; but in this case there have been considerable compensations in the shape of increased values. How far these increased values would have in any event been achieved is an open quesiion; but it is interesting that property- owners on 34th street have received even larger increases without any accompanying deductions. As to the Long Acre Square move¬ ment, that was undoubtedly influenced to some extent by the course of the subway down Broadway to 42d street and then east; but even if the tunnel had taken a different route, real estate in this district was obviously in the line of promotion. The subway was intended particularly for the benefit of the v/est side, including Washington Heights; but it is a singular fact that during the whole period of construction real estate on the old w.est side has been duller than formerly. In 1S99 a con¬ siderable building movement was in progress, particularly along the line of Broadway, and this movement has been subsiding ever since. While many owners of apartment houses on Broad¬ way have lost many tenants because of subway construction, it