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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 76, no. 1960: October 7, 1905

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October 7, 1905 RECORD AND GUTDE 529 mm. ,^ ___________ (^ftBPHSi'i^tsee. Dd&IED to RfA,L ^ATE. einLDI>'G %cKrTECTURE .KoUSOlOUl DieOFiATBMt) Bi/sn/Ess AtJoTheses of GEjJEiy.1 lUto^Esi,; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published eVerg Saturdag Communications should no ailiJrasasd to C. W- SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New York Telephona. Cortlandt 3157 ^"Entered at tha Post Cffice at New York. N. Y., aa second-class mailer." Copyrisbt by tha Real Estate Record and Bnilflers' Guide Company. Vol. LXXVI, OCTOBER 7, 1905. No. laCiO, INDBX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page Cpment ....................xxv Clay Products .............xxiv Contractors and Builders,.. .vil Fireprooflng .................ii Granite ...................JiViii Heating ...................xxii Iron and Stee!................xx Page Law .........................is Machinery....................v Melal Work .................xxl Slone .....................xviil Quick ,Tob Directory.......xxvii Real Esiate ...................x Wood Produ'cts ............xxvi THE bulk of the week's trading in realty was again in flats and tnesments. witli a few deals in mercantile protjert? find private dwellings. A considerable number of flats in. the easterly part of Harlem were sold to builders for improvement. In the Washington Heights district there were a few sales of lots, and one sale reported from the Dyckman section. While there has not been a single building operation, in this latter section, and there have been very few recent sales, tbe prop¬ erty is firmly held, with the expectation that the opening of the suhway wil be the beginning of a very active movement. In the auction marltet the event of the week was the sale of one hundred and eighty-one lots by R, E. Simon, of L. J. Phil¬ lips & Co. The buyers were nearly all Bronx residents, and the prices they paid were far beyond what most judges of prop¬ erty in the section thought they were worth. Bryan L. Ken- nelly's offering of Washington Heights and Dyeltman lots, which were offered to settle a partnership, were all bought by parties In interest. TWENTY years from now it looks as if many western cities would be housing almost as large a proportion of their population in tenements and flats as New York does at present. During the past five years the growth of cities such as Cleve¬ land, Buffalo, St. Louis and Baltimore has been outstripping their means of communication. A business man can no longer find a site in the newer districts which is easily accessible by trolley cars; and the consequence is that residential property in the older districts is increasing so much in value tbat the newer houses are more often flats than private residences. These flats differ, of course, entirely from those which are erected in New York. Tbey are generally suburban in charac¬ ter—that is, they are surrounded by open spaces and are only at the most four stories high. But in the course of time they are bound to become higher as well as more numerous; and dur¬ ing the life of the existing generation the urban population of the United States will have largely ceased to occupy individual dwellings. Of course, well-to-do people will continue to occupy houses of their own, because tbey are able in their automobiles to travel ten or fifteen miles to their places of business, and this fact has encouraged the use of motor-cars in the larger western cities to an extent which is unparalleled in the east. But it may be doubted whether motor-cars will ever be so cheap (hat people who pay less than $500 a year in rent can afford them, and until they do, there seems no escape from the mul¬ tiple dwelling in the larger American cities. SOME months ago the Record and Guide pointed out that the municipal election in Noverpber would be complicated by a.number ot wholly un-municipal considerations. The voters of New York City will be asked to keep Mayor McCIellan iu his present position for four years; but it is very doubtful whether the Mayor himself will take advantage of bis re-elec¬ tion to serve out his term. "Ifhe"sbould be re-elected by a large majority, he will be a prominent, almost an inevitable;-Demo- dratic candidate" for "Governor.'" He could "not-beexpected; of-his own initiative to decline t^s honor, in case it were offered to him, because, if nominated, he would have a fair chance of elec¬ tion; and if elected he would he on the high-road for the Dem¬ ocratic Presidential nomination. All this would be very pleas¬ ant for the Mayor; but it would not be so' pleasant for some o£ his local supporters. Tbe usual opposition to Tammany has been very much attenuated this fall, because of the personal popular¬ ity of the Mayor; and it looks as if this popularity would be used to carry a Tammany administration into power, which might not be either as well-intentioned or as independent as Mr. McCIellan has proved to be. Should Mr, McCIellan resign, tbe city would be governed by the Tammany nominees for Con¬ troller and President of the Board of Aldermen, and by a sub¬ stitute for the latter elected by ths Aldermen themselves. These officials would control the Board of Estimate, and consequently the whole financial and business policy of the city. No harm may come ot this; but it is not precisely the result for which a gopd many supporters of Mayor McCIellan wili vote. Inas¬ much as such is the case, and inasmuch as it is openly stated that Tammany will not renominate Mr. Jerome, because he might be an effective candidate for the Governorship against Mr, McCIellan, we believe that tbe independent supporters of the Mayor ought to seek some pledge from him that if elected he will serve out his term. ^ An Obnoxious Imposition. TN another column of this issue will be found interviews with ^ architects and others in regard to "flreproof wood." It la hardly necessary to tell readers of the "Record and Guide" that fireproof wood does not, at the present moment, enjoy in this city any very high degree of popularity among those who are concerned with building. Indeed, that materia! seems to have lost in the last few years whatever reputation it once possessed, and certainly the manner in which the promoters of the product have sought to advance its interests illustrates very well how bent some people are in seeking success by necessarily unsuc- ces.'^.ful methods. The fireproofing of wood is not a new thing. It has been at¬ tempted over and over again by methods that are, in general, analogous to those that prevail among fireproof wood manu¬ facturers to-day. If any change or progress has been effected, the improvement lies, essentially, in the choice of some different chemical. Like perpetual motion, the fireproofing of wood has been the dreanj of many enthusiasts. Perhaps to them there has been something of an allurement in the endeavor to realize a sort of contradictiou, for, on the face of it, it is as illogical to speak of "fireproof wood" as it is to speak of a heatless fire, or an imponderable substance. There is no such thing as "flreproof" wood so long as wood remains wood. Tbe con¬ version of wood into something else might do the trick, and; as a matter of fact, onr fireproof wood, so called, is a flre re- tardant only in proportion to the degree in which its cubical contents have been converted into something else. In the course of the present attack upon fireproof wood, we have heard and we shall no doubt in the near future hear a great deal of controversy as to tbe degree of flre resistance possessed by tbe material, but the readers of the "Record and Guide" will do well if they keep entirely out of that technical and cloudy side of the discussion and devote their attention and energies entirely to the one subject about which there can be, in our judgment, no Question whatsoever. Fireproof wood is imposed upon our architects, builders and owners by the Building Code, Wb will not inquire how this imposition crept into the Code, Certainly it did not get there for any purely humanitarian rea¬ son, nor at the dictate of experts, nor because of the demands of public opinion. Nobody—architect, builder, owner or citi- .:en—wanted tho material—in the law. Nobody has objected to the treated wood merely as a building material, be it good or be it bad, and noTie to-day should object to it except for the reason that it is foisted upon the public by legal enactment. The value of flre-proof X?) wood as an "elective" in building construction may be considered in a very different temper of mind than is at all possible when considered as a "legal imperative" foisted upon the public at so much per thousand feet by legislation. An. article that deserves such special treatment should clearly be of supreme merit, and not even the manufacturers of flreproof wood make that claim, for their xn'oduct. Just as it has been said that no man who needs a monument ought ever to get one. so it may be said that any building material that needs legis¬ lation to sell it ought not toi be sold—by legislation. If fireproof wood were a material of supreme or even of high im¬ portance.,, Xhfi architects and builders of this city would have adopted it without legislation; for, mind you, the law does not I'equire its use in tho iower grade of tenement bouses, where the danger of fire is-greatest, or in our most'flimsy and inflammable" structures, but in our great ofiice buildings and edifices of a