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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 90, no. 2336]: December 21, 1912

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1158 RECORD AND GUIDE December 21, 1912 ESTABLISHED 1879 William P. Rae Co. Main OfQce 180 MONTAGUE STREET Uptown Branch 400 Nostrand Av., adj. Gates Av. MANAGERS APPRAISERS AUCTIONEERS BROOKLYN AND QUEENS WE REPRESENT JAMAICA HILLCREST SEA GATE N. Y. HARBOR OFFICE ON EACH PROPERTY INWOOD HILL ACTIVE. Member Brooklyn Board of R. E. Brokers David Porter Real Estate Agent Broker, Appraiser APPRAISER FOR The State of New York The City of New York The Home Trust Company The Equitable Life Assurance Society The U. S. Title Guaranty Co. 189 MONTAGUE STREET Telephone, 828 Main BROOKLYN, N. Y. Members Brooklyn Board of Real Estate Brokera BROOKLYN ESTATE MANAGERS CHAS. L. GILBERT, President NOAH CLARK, Inc. REAL ESTATE INSURANCE Water Fronts, Factory Sites, Appraisals Main Office 837 Manbattan Avenue Branches 545 Morgan Avenue 753 Nostrand Avenua BROOKLYN, N. Y. Member Brooklyn Board ot Real Estate Brokers Fenwick B. Small BROKER APPRAISER MANAGER 939 Broadway, Brooklyn, N. Y. Telephone, 5180-5181 WiUiamsburgh James L. Brumley ESTABLISHED 1888 EXPERT Real Estate Appraiser Broker and Auctioneer 189 MONTAGUE ST. Telephone BROOKLYN, N. Y. CLARENCE B. SMITH Real Estate Broker, Appraiser aad Manager Established 1890 Phonr, 661 Bedford 1424 PULTON ST, Sale of the McCreery Estate is the Pre¬ cursor of Other Transactions. The sale of about seven acres on In¬ wood Hill, at the north end of Manhat¬ tan Island, which was recorded one week ago, has attracted the attention of num¬ erous investors and speculators in real property in that part of the city. The sale was made by the James McCreery Realty Corporation to the Inwood Dock Warehouse & Markets Company, Inc., of Kerkonkson, Ulster County, N. Y. The property comprises the residence and grounds of the late James McCreery, who was famous in his day as a New York dry goods merchant. It is gen¬ erally believed that the purchasing com¬ pany represents capital much nearer Manhattan Island than that in Ulster County. The property is in the section of Inwood Hill that overlooks the Hud¬ son River; and a mortgage of $200,000 accompanies the transaction. The sale of the McCreery holdings is one of the surprises of the year in real estate cir¬ cles and it has aroused a spirit of curi¬ osity about other properties in the vici¬ nity, with the result that it is under¬ stood that a river front tract of 103 lots owned by Mitchell A. C. Levy and a tract of 30 lots owned by the Burns Realty Company has changed hands, al¬ though these sales have not been made public. In other words, a buying move¬ ment in the Inwood Hill district is under way, if all reports are correct. At the office of Mr. Levy neither confirmation or denial of the sale of his property could be obtained. There is only a total of a'bout a dozen owners in the entire Inwood Hill. One of the large owners in Cornelius Kahlen, who owns a parcel of 62 lots with ripa¬ rian rights on the river front. It is not known whether this parcel has changed hands or not. Prices of land on Inwood Hill vary in price, the highest known price that has been obtained being |S,000 a lot. A year or two ago city engineers were busy on a street system for Inwood Hill and it was submitted to a meeting of the Local Board of Washington Heights, but the plan proposed has not been adopt¬ ed. Last spring Mrs. Julia Isham Tay¬ lor gave to the city a tract of six acres on the eastern slope of Inwood Hill, which embraces one of the most, pic¬ turesque views in or near New York. The proposition has been made, from time to time, that the city should buy all of Inwood Hill for park purposes; but the proposition has not been en¬ thusiastically received. If a street sys¬ tem was built throught this attractive part of Manhattan Island it would add millions of dollars of taxable values to the city's assets. Mr. August Heckscher and His Purchase. August Heckscher, of 576 Fifth avenue, who is reported to be the controlling power in the new 734 Fifth Avenue Com¬ pany, which paid $2,000,000 for the Whit¬ ney residence at the southwest corner of Fifth avenue and S7th street, got his start in business life as a mining engineer and made his fortune in coal and zinc min¬ ing. He is a member of the executive committees of the New Jersey Zinc Company and the Central Foundry Co., a director of the Empire Zinc Co., the Central Iron & Coal Co., the La France Fire Insurance Co., and the Develop¬ ment Company of Cuba. Mr. Heckscher has turned sixty years of age and was born at Hamburg, Ger¬ many, and married Miss Annie P. At¬ kins at Pottsville, Pa. He is a member of the American Institute of Mining En¬ gineers and also of the Union Club and New York Yacht Club. The family country seat is at Huntington, L. I. He is presumed to be considering plans for the development of the corner with a business building, though he himself is an avenue householder. With 57th street holding the continuation of the Fifth avenue chain of retail shops, this corner will be the pivot on which the shopping traffic will turn in the years to come, when Fifth avenue will be the most fashionable shopping district in the world, if the skyscraper factory people are withheld from destroying its qual¬ ity. Mr. Heckscher has not invested largely in real estate hitherto as an individual, but is credited with being the principal owner of at least two other sites on Fifth avenue recently purchased. Within Mr. Heckscher's lifetime a lot on the block where the Whitney house stands sold at a corporation sale for the small sum of $575, though ten years subsequent to this sale it was estimated to ht worth ten times as much. QUEENS RAPID TRANSIT. First Definite Step Toward Construc¬ tion of Astoria and Corona Lines. The Public Service Commission has adopted resolutions calling for a public hearing on January 4, 1913, on the form of contracts for the construction of rapid transit roads on Routes Nos. 36 and 37, viz., the Astoria and the Co¬ rona rapid transit lines. These two lines are to be built by the city, and both the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company will be given operat¬ ing rights for them. The Astoria line runs from the end of the Queensboro Bridge in Queens, out Debevoise ave¬ nue to Ditmars avenue. It will have two and three- tracks and a total single track mileage of more than seven miles. The Corona line runs from the end of the Queensboro Bridge in Queens, out Queens Boulevard, Greenpoint ave¬ nue and Roosevelt avenue to Prime street. Flushing. It will have two and three tracks and a single track mileage of sixteen and one-half miles. After the public hearing, the con¬ tracts will be put in permanent form and adopted by the Commission, which will then advertise for bids for the con¬ struction of the roads. These.two roads will give the citizens of Queens Bor¬ ough connection with the existing rap¬ id transit lines of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company in Manhattan and The Bronx, and also with the pro¬ posed Broadway-Seventh avenue and S9th street subway to be operated by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. As each company will have trackage rights over the lines in Queens, it will be possible for Queens residents to reach any part of Manhattan and The Bronx on the present subway and elevated lines of the Interborough company and on the proposed subway of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. for a single fare. Both companies will run trains over these lines and across the Queensboro Bridge. The Interborough Company's trains will connect with the Second ave¬ nue elevated line and also through the Steinway tunnel with the present sub¬ way. The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. will run trains from the Broadway subway through 59th and 60th streets and across the Queensboro Bridge to and over the new lines to Astoria and Corona. The Steinway tunnel is to be extended on the Queens side of the river to a connection with the Astoria and Co¬ rona lines at tfie Queensboro Bridge plaza.