Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: no. 56, no. 1443: November 9, 1895

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November 9, 1896 Record and Guide. 631 ,y - ESTABUSHED'^fiWS'H2l»i''Iot.o. DnM 10 R3^L Estate . SuildiKg AftprffTEcrunE i{ousaftiLD Dcodt^nf, .Qi/snfcss Alto Themes of GEften^ iKtCTF*!,, PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. "PublistiM every Saturday. TBLEPHONB,......OOBTLAITDT 1870 Oommonloatlons should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street. /. I. LINDSET. Business Mananer.__________________„^^^ " Entered al the Post-offUx al Ifew Torh, N. 1., as secondrclass mailer." Vol. LVI. NOVEMBEK 9, 1895. No. 1,443 The Record and Gv'ityY. will fnrnisii yon wilh daily detailed reports of all building operations, compiled to suit Yotjit business specifically, for 14 cents a day. You arc thus kept informed of the entire market for your goods. No guessiDork. Every faet verified. Abundant capital and the tliirty years'e-xperiencc of TiiK Recoud and Gvwe guarantee the com¬ pleteness and authenticity of t.his'_8erviee. Seud^to 14 and 16 Vesey street for information. THE weakness in the New York Stock Market is now almost wholly of (he kind that ia known as sympathetic, wheu prices decliue for well-known reasons, though working uuder the surface. Local liquidation was carried out probably a mouth ago, leaviug the conditious souud here apparently; hut since that time the New York market has beeu used as a selliug place for securities forced on the market because London aud Paris over-speculated iu Kaflii-s; aud because the political rel.atious of the European powers seemed for the moment more than usually disagreeable aud foolish; and because Bostou tried to cany more copper than its strength warranted; and, finally, because Philadelphia has had au undue apprecia¬ tion of the value of electric light aud power stocks. Whenever these causes failed to operate, for the time being New York started an upward movement in prices, and is still impa¬ tient of the low quotatious now ruling, for railroad stocks especially, regarding which, as a rule, the cuircut information is good. With the exception of the roads iu the Southwest, earnings are increasing. It stands to reason, for instance, that the weakness in the stocks of the Northwestern roads can ouly be due to forced liquidation at a time wheu the roads them¬ selves are making such excellent operating showings. It is impossible to say when extraneous influences will bo spent, but it is sure that so soon as they are our market will advance, aud the meantime is the buyers' opportunity to make judicious purchases. -------------■ FOREIGN polities and the movements of prices on the ex¬ changes have taken up so much attention that little room haa beeu found in the di-spatches for the doings of trade and commerce. As a matter of fact, we seem eveiywhcic to have reached a reactive period in the improvement that followed the extreme depression of 1893-'4. There is not much recession tn the prices of materials and supplies, but wauts of consumers seem to be satisfied for the time being. The shako-up in Kafliis will reach farther than is now seen, because while the insiders have stepped iu to prevent a general collapse and smash, they are not likely to try to prevent a further lowering of quotatious if it can be gi'adnally made. Panic prices are never the lowest of a declining movement, but the after-fall is more slowly brought abont. The weak let go first, then the moderately strong, and finally those who are not as long of patience ae they are of money, sell and produce the final liquidation. There is still to be ended another chapter in the perennially troublesome Eastern question, uow unusually acute because aifecting spots from Turkey in Emope to the easternmost point of Southeni Asia. It is no donbt the wish of every mau in power to settle those differences peaceably, and that will go a long way toward making such a settlement possible, but while they remain un¬ settled anxiety as to the outcome will continne, and this anxiety caunot fail to have a deterrent effect on trade aud commerce. The hardening of tho rates for money which is everywhere apparent would be a good thing if it were not more the result of suspicion of the strength of the speculation iu securities which has been going on for some time, than of an increased demaud fiom merchants and manufacturers. meut to be arrived at. " Fireproof" in connection with building is not an absolute term. At best it is relative. An indestructible building is a theoretical conception. In practice we ought to speak of "slow burning " buildings instead of " fireproof build¬ iugs." There are degrees in the combustibility of so-called fireproof structures, aud the Manhattan Savings Bank Buildiug was not constructed in a m.tnner that made its consumption by fire the tardiest possible. It was, indeed, a fireproof building, but itwas not, by any means, the most recent of its class, and its architect employed many methods which are not only far be¬ low the standard of to-day but which would not be peiiaitted by the existing Building Law. Thus, it happens, that the destruc¬ tion of the edifice exemplifies what a good thing areallymodern fireproof building is, for it may be confidently asserted that no great offiee bnilding of to-day would be consumed so speedily as the Manhattan Saviugs Bank Building was. But, though the disaster easts no such lurid reflection upon the highest methods of nioderu construction as the sensational press endeavors to make out, it certainly does indicate inherent ■weak spots iu even our be.st fire-proof structures. They contain entirely too much inflammable material. The immense amount of trim used is a danger, so are the wooden floors. Even the window framing is an unnecessary weakness. If we are to have, not slow bniniug buildings, but the slowest burning buildings, we must construct our floors of concrete or asphalt, and onr trim must be replaced by stone, plasterer some similar material. Any timber that unavoidably has to be employed should be firc- pioofed by any one of the many admirable methods now at the builder's command. Had this course been adopted in the Man¬ hattan Savings Bauk Building, its destruction might uot have been averted, hut it would surely h.ive been saved from severe wreck. A little additional security from the materials used iu the construction would have giveu the fire department an immense assistance. "OEOPLE are asking what is the lesson to be learnt from the -*- conflagration of the Manhattan Savings Bank Building'] It seems to us that the lesson is thi.s—a fireproof building is a very good thing. Tn view of tho result of Tnesd.iy's disaster this may i ol stem Lo be the most obvious conclusion to be drawn, but paradoxical as it may seem this is really the judg- The Manhattan Savings' Bank Building Fire. THE damage done to the Manhattan Savings' Bank building on Tuesday last has created a very general discussion on the merits of our fire-proof constructions, most of the discussion being of the sensational and igndrant kind. The facts of the catastrophe briefly are that a fire broke out in an old building used for light manufacturing purposes, and altogether very in¬ flammable, on the southeast corner of Bleecker street and Broad¬ way, was communicated across the narrow width of Bleecker street to the Savings Bauk building on the opposite comer, and did a large amount of damage to that building. The suscepti¬ bility of this building, which was publicly, though improperly, accepted as a fire-proof Imilding, to injury from fire has created a great outcry and thrown doubts in the untechnical mind on the value of fire-proof constraetion. We think, however, wheu all the facts of this fire are brought out and carefully sifted that they will strengthen rather thau weaken the theories that un- deily the new construction. In this case as in most others on which the public opinion is expressed ott-hand, thei e is a jiunping at the meaning of terms. Apparently the prevalent idea is that a building by being con¬ structed in a certain way will be given absolute immunity from fire no matter what quantities of goods are stored in it or what may be their degree of combustibility. No architect or builder has auy such conception of the term. Fire-proofing can uever do more thau give the largest protection in any conceivable cir¬ cumstances at the time of building; it cannot take into account the circumstances that may occurthereafter, except in the gen¬ eral way suggested by esperience. Por instance, the architect of the Manhattan Savings Building, Stephen D. Hatch, a man prominent in the profession in his day, conld not have imagined what has actually occun-ed, that his bnilding would be partially destroyed by a fire originating across the street. He no doubt had in mind the danger of fire occurring within the buildiug itself or in one of its adjoining neighbors and took what to him appeared to be the best precautions against it. The Fire Department is, from the nature of its oflice, the severest critic of construction in this city and its posi¬ tion toward fire-proof construction, that is, buildiag with metal and briek and stone, is not one of antagonism. This positiou, as obtained from the Chief of the Department by us in personal conversation, is that the Department canuot cope with fires originating in buildiugs .ibove twelve stories; that the greatest dan-'er to the modern buildiugs is fiom the outside rather than the inside. Fires originating in buildings partitioned off by fire-proof material are practically inoffensive except to the apartment in which they occur. Consequently one oflice ■fcuilding oifera uo menace to another, but that as soon as any ono ia altered for niercautilo purposes it is a danger to the others. But this only refers to the dauger that exists at all times in great cities, where a multiplicity of causes may be at work unseen to produce catastrophes and does not for a moment indicate that the minimum of such danger is not further reduced ]a' [Jc liie-proof conatmction. There are amnerous inetances