Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

The Record and guide: v. 36, no. 906: July 25, 1885

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July ^r,, 188.) The Record and Guide. 831 THE RECORD AND GUIDE, Published every Saturday. 191 Broadv^av, 3>^. '^^ Our Teleplioue Call Is.....JOHN 370, TERMS: Oi\E YEAR, in adrance, SIX DOLLARS. Conimiuiicatious should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 191 Broadway. J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager. Vol. XXXVI. JULY 35, 1385. No. 906 If the remains of General Grant are to be placed in any one of the parks of our city, by all means let it be the park of the people— Central Park. This, however, is open to the serious objection that pleasure parks are for the living, not for the dead. No man ever died who is more worthy of a burial in any one of them than the dead General, but it is establishing a precedent Avhich may become troublesome to those who follow us if the barrier is broken down in any one instance. General Grant should have a statue in Central Park second to none in the world, but Ave doubt the Avisdom of burying him there. The best way to secure peace, it is said, is to be prepared for war. However this may be, the best Avay to make peace is not always to continue fighting. During a few days past we have been treated to very pleasantly-sounding reports of an alliance between the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads. They are to cease making war upon each other and bend their vast resources to the work of restoring the demoralized railway traffic of the country to a more healthful condition. But, reading almost between the lines, comes also another report that the two giants mean mischief to the Baltimore & Ohio road, a road which is struggling very properly and legitimately to secure a terminus on New YorkI liarbor. A hint is given that it is the purpose of the new allies to| prevent the trains of the Baltimore & Ohio road from reaching New York over any existing lines. This does not sound like a railway peace. There are five trunk line railroads, properly so called, without counting the Canada road or the West Shore| road, between the East and West; and when we talk of a combina tion between two of these roads bringing peace, it is too much like expecting one swallow to make a summer. It might even happen that Bitch an event would intensify the war. The West Shore road, which has no territory of its own and no connections to render it formidable, must die, and the sooner the better ; but aU the othei parties in the controversy are independent sovereigns, rxiling over their own local domains, and their rights should be respected if railway managers are working honestly for peace. --------«--------- There is something very funny about the controversy between the Commissioner of Public Works and Mr. Jacob Sharp. Mr Sharp had evidently formed, from looking about New Y'ork, the impression that anybody who had any use for the road-bed of anv one of the public streets had only to rip up the streets to suit hisf~ convenience. That is the impression that anybody naturally would form. Accordingly Mr. Sharp, finding that some new track and a tnrn-table would be useful to him proceeded to rip up the! streets and put down the track and turn-table. Very likely the turn-table would serve the public convenience as well as that of Mr. Sharp, and ought to be authorized. But outside of this remarkable city that fact would not be considered by any private citizen as a reason why be should take possession of the public property and| use it as bis own without any authorization from anybody. When^ Mr. Squire in his turn tore up Mr. Sharp's turn-table and replaced the pavement, Mr. Sharp was doubtless not only surprised and dis gusted but filled with righteous indignation. He was so far froml having thought that any authorization was rerjuisite tliat when he was brought to book the only pretext of authorization he had to| show vf as an injunction issued in the year 1878. Ito be looked for in a system of subways constructed by the city and ■leased to private corporations that require them. The intolerable ■condition of things for the past few years may have been useful if lit tends to hasten the building of the subways. Seeing that Mr. Sharp is not a lawyer, his belief that the street s| are free to anybody to do as he likes with and his touching con fidence in a stale injunction are not surprising. For the last threel or four years the streets have been promiscuously ripped up for all! kinds of purposes. To take an example, it would be rash to affirmj that Liberty street, between Broadway and Nassau, has been undis¬ turbed within that period for a single month at a time. For weeks! together it has been " no thoroughfare." and the people doing business} in it have had their places of business made practically inacessible. No doubt most of the disturbers had more color of law than Mr.| Sharp thought necessary, but they should not have had. The ques¬ tion of pavements cannot be tolerably solved until it is made sure] that a pavement once laid shall not be taken up except upon some] real emergency, The ultimate solution of the question is no dou'^. The work of organizing new telegraph companies and tJien con- isolidating them, by one means or another, with the Western Union |Company, has been so long continued that men have lost confidence in the ability of any new organization to compete successfully with the old monopoly. It is possible, indeed, that in the telegraphic service competition is impossible. The field is peculiar. The local territory held in a more or less exclusive possession by the railways, and by most industrial or commercial concerns, is entirely lacking in telegraphic enterprises. It is always a question of two or more competing lines between two or more cities, with offices located side by side at all intermediate stations, and drawing upon pre¬ cisely the same people for their custom. Metaphorically speaking, telegraph lines belonging to different companies are a bundle of New York Central and West Shore railroads, extending as far over the Union as the resources of the weaker companies will permit. The lion's share of the business must go to the company possessing the largest facilities, for men are never sentimentalists in their offices. They may hate a monopoly, but they never fail to avail themselves of its services when they find it for their profit or con¬ venience. The American Rapid Company is the last kite to be devoured by the Western Union Company, and with it will go a number of tails that probably never had much vitality. The Bal¬ timore & Ohio Company is still in the field, but for how long a time is very uncertain. --------«-------- Recent Building in Harlem. To the surprise, probably, of most of the people who undertook to discount in real estate operations the effect of the elevated roads, their first effect was lo build up not the region at the jfcerminus, but an intermediate tract of territory. It was not Harlem, but Y'orkville that profited first and most by the comple- jtion of the Third Avenue road. Harlem for a long time afterwards looked very much as it had looked for a long time befare, while Yorkville was in three or f-..ur years transformed altogether, and an |extraordinary building activity even yet prevails there. More recently the building activity of Harlem began, although it has not yet revolutionized the aspect of Harlem. As is apt to be the case, the architectural visitor finds it remarkable that so much building activity should be accompanied by so little architectural interest. A walk about Harlem, however, repays curiosity. Besides ine or two good churches, ten years old or raore, tbe most con¬ spicuous building in Harlem is, perhaps, the Mount Morris Bank, with an apartment liouse above it, which was noticed and praised with some reservations in these columns a year or more ago. It is noticeable, however, that the most agreeable buildings in Harlem to look at are still a few wooden cottages here and there, more or less in the Swiss style, in spacious and well-kept grounds. The rise in land and the new building law combine to prevent the erec¬ tion of any more of these attractive cottages, which indeed owe their attractiveness rather to their surroundings th^n to their archi¬ tecture. They have been replaced to some extent by rows of single dwell¬ ings, but more largely by apartment houses. One row of the former which excites attention is on the north side of One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street. It does not look very recent, being in that particular variety of Gothic which goes far towards explaining the readiness with which so many architects dropped Gothic when Queen Anne came in. The present example is a row of five base- jment and four-story houses in brick and Dorchester stone. The first story shows as the parlor windows a large arch which, though very low, is pointed, or at least two-centred, in place of the simple Isegmental line, w^hich is always better because it is simpler and less uneasy, and this arch which is of brick has a stone keystone and [one or two stone voussoirs on each side in addition. The narrower penings of the second story have relieving arches of the same form turned over lintels of sandstone, the third story has open arches [again, while the ope»iings ofthe fourth are simply lintelled, and a heavy brick cornice completes the wall. There is no sham about the front, but an undue solicitude for variety, which spoils so many 'buildings, makes its appearance fretful, imeasy .-jud disagreeable. Another and more recent row of dwellings begins at the southeast [corner of Fifth avenue and One Hundred and Twenty-eighth jstreet, occupying half the block on the avenue. There are six houses in the row, the entrance to the corner house being judi- Iciously placed upon the side street, and thus giving an opportunity to secure an effect of mass and repose at ono end of the avenue front. The architect has not lived up to his privileges in this respect. The houses are of brick and dark brownstune, four stories and a basement in height, and look well arranged and habitable. Such ornament as is sparingly introduced is not bad, either in ■design or in execution. The architectural character of the build., ing-s, BO far as tbe7 hove {inr, i> d^riy^ ] f'forii theiv unusual pinin-