Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 33, no. 843: May 10, 1884

Text version:

May id, 1884 The Record and Guide 49l> THE RECORD AND GUIDE. Published every Saturday. 191 Broadwray, N. Y. TERMS: ONE ¥E:AR, in advance, SIX DOLLARS. Conmiumcations should be addressed to C, W, SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. MAY 10, 1884. A picture of the new Eeal Estate Exchange, corner of Liberty street and Liberty court, toill be given as a supplement to The Record and Guide on May 24. As there will be a large extra edition published, this loill afford an excellent opportunity for real estate dealers, builders, furnishers of material, arcliitects and others interested in realty, to make their zoants and iinshes Jcnotim through the medium of our advertising columns. A third edition of Benner's Prophecies has just been puhlisJied. We have refen-ed so often to this remarkable book that inquiries have heen sent to us from time to time to know where it could be procured. We are now able to announce that it tvill be for sale at The Record and Guide office after next Wednesday. Jtsprice will be one dollar. Every one interested in speculative sales of stocks, cotton, grain or provisions, cannot afford to be without this inter¬ esting brochure. ----------•---------- Tbe defeat of the Morrison tariff bill would have been the signal for a spurt in prices on the Stock Exchange, for there were many factors favoring a hopeful view of the immediate situation, but nowadays all the accidents favor the bears, and the Marine Bank disaster came like a thunderclap in a clear sky and sent prices rat¬ tling down again. There is no immediate hope for the market, but aralty in prices willcortainly come some time within the next eix weeks, unless the unexpected should again happen. Should the Republican party make a wise nomination for the presidency, it would probably be the signal for an advance in prices, the same as occurred when Garfield was selected in June, 1880. The new surface railway law is not all that it should be, but it will be a benefit to New York in the long run. It concedes altogether too much to the existing h«rse car monopolies, and does not provide for a system of exchange checks which would allow a passenger to reach any part of the city for five cents. Then it does not provide for other than horse power. The plan proposed by tlie Rapid Transit Commiasion would havft given us a complete system of intermural travel at a uniform rate of five cents to ^uy part of the city. There will probably be a legal contest [as'^to" the rights of the newly formed cable company under thejiaw of 1875. However it may end, New York city is tolerably well_as3ured of abundant means of internal transit. The west side and the northern parts of New York will no longer be neglectiBd because of the want of horse car facilities. Owners of realty are to be congratulated upon the prospect. The elevated roads seem to be in a worse muddle than ever. It was considered monstrous for Gould, Sage and Field to attempt to coerce] the Metropolitan stockholders into taking less than the teTms of their lease, without their consent. But wliat ia to bo said of the new arrangement, by which the Noav York Elevated Com¬ pany proposes to give 0 per cent, to tho Manhattan stockholders, who really own nothing but a charter and two leases, the obligations of which it cannot fulfill? There is no equity in the transaction, and so the courts will doubtless hold, whenever the matter is ad¬ judicated. There is a silly law on our statute booka prohibiting the consolidation of competing roads, and this enacfrment is to blame for the present legal tangle in the elevated road system. The Manhattan s^ock was created for the purpose of running fhe two roads under one management, as clearly ought to be done and must bo done in some final settlement of the imbroglio. The sen¬ sible thing would be for tbe three companies to refer the matter to arbitrators and abide by their decision. So long as the litigation is continued in the courts the stockholders of all the companies are being plundered for the benefit of the legal harpies who are being paid such enormous bills to continue thia eenseless quarrel. forced to pay a portion of its gross receipts Into the city treasury. Iu the new street railway law it is provided that every company organized under the act shalllpay three per cent, of its gross earn¬ ings for three years, aud five per cent, after five years, into tha city treasury. Had tbis iirovision been inserted in the charters of all our ferry, gas and horse-car companies, the city would be relieved of at least one-third of its taxes. But better late than never, -----------a • And now General Grant thinks tho constitution of the United Statts ought to berevised. The presidential term, he thinks, should be extended to seven years. The laws relating ^to the election of a President ehould be revised so as to avoid any such entanglement as occurred iu 1870, and then when appropriations are not passed through a congressional deadlock, tbose enacted by a previous Congress should remain in force. When The Record and Guide first suggested the meeting of a national convention to revise our very imperfect fundamental law there was scarcely any response, but recently the necessity of such a revision is being very generally recognized, The failure to pass the Jlorrison tariff bill puts the Democracy in an equivocal position before the country. Revenue reform was the only live issue they had to present to the couutry, for the atti¬ tude of the party on civil service reform was, to say the least, un¬ fortunate. Nor are they to blame for this. It is too much to ask of any parfcy that it should pledge itself, after carrying an election, to keep their opponents in office. If the Democracy can rise to the height of the great argument they will, on the meeting of their National Convention, adopt a stiff revenue reform platform, nomi¬ nate Carlisle or Morrison for President, and appeal to Free Trade Republicans for support. If there is any equivocation on the main issue, the Republicans will carry the election with a hurrah. As we have said before, when the Democrats next wish to reform our tariS they should adopt the tactics of Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, aud effect the reforms by piecemeal. No complete tariff reform bill bas ever passed Congress, and probably never will. The interests at¬ tacked are so powerful^that they cannot be successfully overcome en masse. All attempts made to reform our city charter in a wholesale way have met ivith ignoininioua failure. To divide and conquer was the maxim of the municipal reformers, and their ex¬ ample should bo followed by the tariff reformers. TaE Rucobd AMD GmDE alone of the cit;f papers insisted that auy cprporation hereafter chartered, in using our streets, should be New Real Estate Investors. It is a notable circumstance that Samuel J. Tilden, while selling his Union Pacific and AVestem Union, is beginning to purchase real estate. In our official list of conveyances it will be noticed that Mr. Tilden has recently taken title to the house No. 88 West .Thirty-eighth street, and it is Understood that others have been bargained foi' and will soon be olficially recorded, But this is not the only conspicuous case of a disposition to leave Wail street and invest in real property on this ialand. Only a few years back, when our merchants and otiier business men made money in their several occupations, they went to Wall street and not only took "flyers "in tbe current speculations but invested largely of their surplus in standard securitiea. But Wall street is no longer an. attraction, while the real estate market is. The members of the firm of Arnold, Constable & Co. are all large inve3tor3 in real estate and have beeu for some yeara. Isaac Stern, of the firm of Stern Brothers, has recently purchased the block bounded by Sb. Nicholaa and Seventh avenues and One Hundred and Eleventh and One Hun¬ dred and Twelfth streets. Tbe brewers of this city and the vicinity, all cf whom are getting very rich from the increasing popularity of lager beer, havo been investing heavily of late yeara in New York realty. Among the names which frequently appear ia the Register's office records are Geo. Ehret, Jacob Ruppert, Tracy & Russell and Henry Liebmann, of Brooklyu. Among the bankers who have been large investors receLtly are J. H. Schiff and Henry Bischoff. Jamea McUraery, the dry-goods merciaut, bjs recently bought a block bounded by Fifth aad Madison avenues and One Hundred and Fifth aud One Hundred and Sixth streets. Pomeroy * & Plummer, tbe woollen merchants, have purchased largely of late, as have alao E. G. B'ackf n-d. Fish Cjmmi,isi. nerand merchant; Henry Welsh, grocer; E. D. Farrell, the furniture dealer; B. F. Spink, the jeweler; M. & H. Schedlinsky, furriers; J, Pluuket, cigar manufacturer ; C. A. H. Bartlett, lawyer ; Frank Tilford, of Park & Tilford, grocers and liquor dealers ; Henry S. Strausa, cor¬ sets ; Stephen Barker, rubber goods ; Hotchkiss, Field & Co., con¬ tractors ; John E. Kaughran, dry-goods, and John F. Halsted, president of Fireman's Insurance Company. This list might be indefinitely extended, but it shows "that all sorts and conditions of men" are investing in business and other property on this island. Notonly aro tbese new buyerp, but the old estates are adding to their possessions. The Astors are constantly in the market. Amos R. Eno is a steady purchaser, and John H, Sherwood buys—but never sells—vacant property. These facts go to show that men who have teen suceesfful I^