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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 71, no. 1831: April 18, 1903

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April iS, 1903. RECORD AND GUIDE 753 ^ ESTABUSHED'^ WiHClI2l*i^ 1868, fiW&im ID JW EsTAjt. BuiLdij/g *^rrEiTrupiE .^ouseiJold DEOCttijiifltl. BusqIess Alio Themes op GEttefi^ Iifttr;^^ PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCED SIX DOLLARS Vttbtished etlers Saturdap Commnnlcationa should be addressed to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK J. T. LINDSET, Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 "Entered ai the Post Office at Nmo TorJc, K Y., as second-class matter." Vol. LXXI. APRIL IS, 1903. No. 1831. THE stock market during the past week suffered from some of the heaviest selling and was assisted by some of the l)est buying that has heen seen this year. The net result is favorable, and the tone apparently more cheerful than it has been for some time past. It is not, indeed, either to he desired or to be expected that the prices of the leading stocks will re¬ turn to anything like the level, which prevailed last fall. Those high prices, not only encouraged the issue of more securities than could be wholesomely "digested," but were a tremendous strain upon the banking resources of the country. It is ap¬ parent that financiers will have to he e^xtremely conservative for some time to come about the issue of such securities, no matter how sound they may be. But on the other hand the prices of the best stocks and bonds are considering the business prosperity and prospects of the country rather too low than too high, and unless some unforseen calamity occurs, they are likely next fall to be selling at higher prices. It will not take very many months of financial conservatism to bring about a better adjustment than that which now prevails between the amount of securities offered for investment and the power of investors to take them up. In the meantime the large business flnancial interests wili await with uncertainty and even dread the next session of Congress, for at that session it will be decided whether Congress will persist in its policy of declaring all combinations,- whether good or bad, to be unlawful. There can be no doubt that the anti-Trust law, as recently interpreted, and if strictly enforced, could utterly disorganize many of the most vital and useful business arrangements of the country; and that unless there can be found some means of legally discriminating be¬ tween beneficent and evil combinations in inter-state commerce, a far-reaching reorganization will have to take place in Ameri¬ can industrial methods. This danger from future legislation is still a long way off; but it will doubtless prove to be a power¬ ful conservative agency throughout the whole of the present year. ■^' HE amendments to the Tenement House law introduced by ■^ Senator Marshall, sanctioned by the Department, and passed by the Legislature have been signed by the Governor. In sanctioning these amendments, the Department has gone as far as it cau in meeting the grievances of the builders of- the outly¬ ing borcughs. It recognized the fact that the law as it has stood during the past year, has proved to be an obstacle to the build¬ ing in any large quantities of three and four-story tenements iu Brooklyn and the Broux; and consequently, since it is the policy o£ the Department to adapt the law, so far as possible, to the needs of tbe speculative builders, it proposed certain amend¬ ments looking towards a cheapening of these classes of build¬ ings. The more important concessions concern the three and . fcur-story tenements, containing two families on a floor, the apartments running through from front to rear. The 8x14 court which last winter was legalized for the three-story tenements, is now authorized for the four-story tenements also. The court required for a single three-story tenement is not reduced, but, where two three-story tenements adjoin, the 8x14 court is deemed sufficient to ventilate them both, provided the houses do not occupy more than 65 per cent, of the lot. Furthermore three-story three-family frame buildings are permitted outside the flre limits. All these concessions may be approved, in that they enable builders to erect these classes of houses witb more profit to themselves and yet without any threat to wholesome conditions of residence within the houses. But the Department goes further and makes even more liberal concessions with re¬ spect to fireproofing provisions. Bulkheads in new tenement houses less than five stories in height may be constructed ot wood, if covered with metal on both sides. New four-story houses, which do not contain more than two families on a floor, may have wooden stairs, provided the hacks or soffits of the stairs are covered with metal, and the floors of the stair halls are filled with deafening to a depth of five inches, and that such stair halis are inclosed with fireproof partitions, constructed on four-inch terra cotta blocks with angle iron construction. Oa the other hand the three-story tenements, which were allowed wooden stairs, floors and partitions by the amendments last year, must under the proposed modiflcations be made semi-fire¬ proof. Inside cellar stairs will be permitted in three and four- story buildings, provided they are enclosed with brick walls, and furnished with flreproof doors. All these changes with the ex¬ ceptions of those concerning bulkheads lower the existing standards with respect to four-story buildings, .but raise them with respect to three-story buildings. Taken altogether they will enable the builder to save a good deal of money in the erection of the four-story tenement. ■^^ HERE can be no doubt about the timeliness of these con- ■*■ cessions. Brooklyn and the Bronx, but particularly the latter, wil! soon enter upon a period of even more rapid expan¬ sion in population than heretofore—an expansion which will be encouraged by the opening up of large areas of territory now in¬ accessible. For these enormous quantities of cheap land, cheap buildings will be necessary; and the amendments will again make the erection of the cheaper tenements a profitable enter¬ prise. Unless we are very much mistaken they will reconcile the Brooklyn builders to the law very much as the Manhattan build¬ ers and operators have already been reconciled. It will mean that, with one exception, the speculative building of tenements, upon the freedom of which the living accommodations of the population of New YorkCity depends,will have been placed upon a normal and profitable basis. The one exception is the case of seven-story apartment houses in Manhattan—a vexy necessary type of building for erection on property which is too dear for the ordinary six-story building, and too cheap for a flreproof structure. Fortunately, however, there is a good chance that before the Legislature adjourns these seven-story buildings, im¬ proved somewhat as respects their flreproofing, will again be permitted—a step which will he followed by a large increase in the amount of new apartment-house construction planned for Harlem and the West Side. T X THEN the present Subway was laid out a big mistake JL V was undoubtedly made in situating the West Side ex¬ press stations at 72d street, and the property-owners, who ap¬ peared last Thursday before the Rapid Transit Commission to plead for an express station at the Circle had strong grounds on which to urge their claims. Seventy-second street is an impor¬ tant centre of population and has become more so ever since it was granted the great privilege of an express station; but it is not a centre of business or of trafflc and is likely to become one. The Circle, on the other hand, is destined to become an extremely important centre both of business and of traffic; and an express station at that point would be of enormous and in¬ creasing utility to many thousands of people. It is becoming, for instance, a favorite place Eor theatres and restaurants; the Blackwell's Island Bridge will bring swarms of passengers to 59th street to whom express trains would be the greatest con¬ venience, and we have no doubt that ten years from now the want of them will be considered, perhaps, the worst error made in the planning of the present tunnel. The error cannot be remedied, in case the change would delay for long the opening of the Subway; but the fact that it has been made should be taken into account in providing express stations for the East Side extension. ------------*------------ ON Tuesday last the Committee on Finance of the Board of Aldermen reported favorably upon a resolution appro¬ priating $10,000 for the expenses of a commission, to be appoint¬ ed by the Mayor, which is to prepare a plan for the beautifying of the city of New York. The report was laid over and made a special order for the next meeting, on which occasion it will probably be passed. There is every reason why it should be. The expense of the commission is small; its appointment com¬ mits the city to nothing. It simply means that the responsible city oflicials say to the advocates of municipal aesthetic im¬ provement. "There is the commission for which you have been asking; and now it is "up" to you to formulate a report, which will command public support, and which can be accepted by us as the representative of the city's taxpayers." This will not be an easy task; but it is not an impossible one, provided it is approached from a sensible and practicable point of view. In preparing such a report it should always be kept in mind that New York, unlike Washington or Paris, is not a city, in which the interests of commerce and property are subordinate to those of a national government with unlimited resources. On the con-