Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 74, no. 1912: November 5, 1904

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RECORD AND GUIDE ''^ "» EST;^USHED^ftJJ^CHSl"^1868. DeVM) to Re^L EsTWt. BuiLDlt^G ^crflTECTURE .HoUSnlOlD DECtStMloH. Busii/ess Alio Themes OF GeiIei^.! INtzr^si, PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS Tublisfted cVem Saturdag CommunlcatiODs should be addroaaod to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK J. T. LIXDSEY. Business Manager Telephone, Cortlandt 3157 ••Entered at the Post OSice at New York, N. Y.. Vol. LXXIV. November 5, 1904. ■s second-class matte)-." No. 191:2. WALL STREET is trying to guess at present what effect the election will have upon the prices of securitips. On the part of some people there is a disposition to anticipate that the re-election of President Roosevelt, which is very probable, will be the signal for a renewed advance. On the other hand, it is argued with equal gravity that the present level of prices is being maintained nntil after the election; so that the Repub¬ licans will not be embarrassed by a sevore slump, coincident with the voting period. For our own part we find it hard to believe that the election will have any decisive effect upon pricos, no matter how it goes.' There are no serious business issues at stake, as tliere were at the two previous national elec¬ tions. The business 'interests of the country, as well as the special interests of Wall Street, will be as secure in the case of Judge Parker's election as they will be in the case of President Roosevelt's. The Republicans have been trying to create a dif¬ ferent impression; but common sense refuses to believe that the executive program and candidate of the Democratic party are inimical to business prosperity, just as it refuses to believe that President Roosevelt's triumph would look in the direction of a lawless dictatorship. But if Wall Slreet has no reason to fear Judge Parker, it wil! have no reason to rejoice at the election of the Republican candidate. Contrary to many prece¬ dents, the prices of stocks have heen steadily advancing through¬ out the campaign, and they have advanced, on the whole, for sound business reasons. If they continue to advance after the election, it will be because tbese favorable business conditions have not yet spent their force. Should a decline follow the election, it will be because Wall Street has come to believe that any advantage to securities from the improved business con¬ ditions has been sufficiently discounted. Several weeks ago it looked as if such was tbe case; but, as the weeks go by, the business outlook becomes better rather than worse, and, granted the continuance of easy money, it is entirely possible that the end of the bull movement has not yet come. The business of the country has certainly shown extraordinary vitality in its recovery from 1903. Only a year ago the gloom was at its height, and now the recovery is already far ad¬ vanced. Id view of the continued improvement in the steel trade with all that it implies, he would he a bold man who would declare that it has advanced too far. Bronx and about 350 on Washington Heights. The same parcels of property are being frequently sold two or three times, which shows that many of the operators are taking quick and prob¬ ably small profits. Outside of vacant lots, the activity is about normal. The whole operating and speculative fraternity is concentrating its attention on vacant lots, which makes the sales of other classes of property small. Nevertheless, the out¬ look is good in every direction. Absolutely the only cloud upon one of the best real estate and building prospects which New York has ever possessed is the continuation of the lock-ont, A number of very large building projects, such as the extension to the Singer Building on Broadway, and the new Brunswick Hotel are held up, because of the tmcertainties of the situation, and they will doubtless continue to be held up until some assurance can be given that buildings will not be interrupted by imnccessary strikes. The situation would probably have cleared up already, were it not for the great activity in the cheaper forms of constructiou. These huildings are erected by builders, who do not belong to the association, aod they give work to many carpenters, plasterers and the like, who other¬ wise would be out of a job. The employers must be completely successful in tho end; but, owing to the activity in the Bronx, the power of resistance of the unions in the Building Trades Alliance is more considerable thau it was. A very notable in¬ crease may be remarked in the number of flreproof apartment- houses which are heing built; but these are the only plans for buildings of a higher grade of construction which are coming out at present. A COMPARISON between the sales announced during the past week and those announced during the corresponding \yeek last year indicates how radically the real estate market has changed since then. At the end of the first week of November in 1;103 we reported the sale of seventy-one parcels of real estate, of which eight were dwellings and forty-eight flats, situ¬ ated norith of 59th st. These figures indicated that the specula¬ tion in (Harlem flats, characteristic of last year, was already well under way. As compared to the seventy-one sales last year, the! totals for this year are over 315, of which 20 are pri¬ vate dvifellings, 55 arc flats, situated north of 59th st, and 51 of vac ht lots. This classification, however, applies only to the ManhL 'an sales, which constitute a little more than half of thjniltotal. A very large number of small transactions are takiidditJlace in the Bronx, indicating a much greater popular, as oidlysed to professional, interest in real estate in that borough ttia'^ tooei-e is in Manhattan. Bronx is, of course, still a l,o'' ^ ^^ijn which the modest home-seeker can bny the land he frame bouse for less than $5,000, whereas are very few desirable dwellings to be ; that snm. The small investor has also Hp^ No. 2 shows a^^ '° '-'^^ Bronx which he lacks entirely in M houses '.^iat are b^^-l number of lots sold is smaller than last ikson av and lo6th a about 1,000, of which GOO are situated in the q. DO'' "■ '"Jin wnicn cne m a ne'^^f ^'^ build his fra 01 . ry to ea^, 2( ^^v, or yal"^^ *^^^^ ^'' ^' lucent, of Yi.^^^ times t "T* HE experience of the week of Subway operation has proved ^ one defect beyond peradventure. The stations and their approaches have not beeu made as spacious as they should have been. Doubtless the conditions which prevailed last Sun¬ day were exceptional, hut a Subway which is to endure for a century must be built to provide for exceptional as well as normal conditions. While under ordinary circumstances the Subway passengers will have as much room as they need, in cases of an accident or of exceptional pressure the service will break down completely. Reasonable provision should be made for such emergencies. The Subway system will differ essentially from the elevated railroad system. It will not consist of a numher of parallel lines, all of thom practically independent of each other; it will consist of a carefully articulated system. The longitudinal tunnels will be connected both at terminal points and by a number of cross-town lines, and the consequence will he that under exceptional traffic conditions, a pressure collected, as it were, from the whole city would be brought to bear upon particular points of the system. Another Dewey day, for in¬ stance, would put the completed Subway to much severer strain than that to which the elevated roads were subjected in 1899, because passengers would be gathered from east, west, north and south, to be dumped at comparatively few stations. In short, the Subway should have been designed to handle much larger crowds than the existing stations and their approaches can pos¬ sibly accommodate, it is part of the permanent comprehensive transit system of the city. It will be carrying passengers when the central parts of Manhattan will be a ridge of sky¬ scrapers, and when, owing to the concentration of business and residences, the tragic will be more dense by a good deal than it is at present. It will be found in the end that both in regard to its express service and In regard to its station accommoda¬ tions, the Subway has not been made sufflciently elastic. IT will be interesting to observe what the outcome will be of the lively protests which have been evoked by the adver¬ tising placards on the walls of the Subway stations. From every standpoint of aethetic decency, the placards ar^ undoubtedly an outrage. They irretrievably mar the appearance of a very appropriate and admirable piece of interior decoration, which belongs to the city, and which should maintain a standard of propriety in such matters superior to that of a private corpora¬ tion. On the other hand the Interborough Company presumably has the legal right to sell the space, and under ordinary cir¬ cumstances would undoubtedly exercise that right without miti¬ gation or remorse. But the Interborough Company occupies a very different position frora that of the ordinary railroad cor¬ poration. It cannot ignore public opinion as the Metropolitan Street Railway or the Manhattan Company can. It is the ten¬ ant of city property. The profit which it derives from the privileges will depend largely upon the extent to which the existing Subway can be developed. It imperatively needs, that is, an extension of the "privileges'" which it now enjoys; and it will have difficulty in securing-theso additional opportunit''