Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 75, no. 1923: January 21, 1905

Text version:

January 21, 1905 KECORD AND GUIDE 127 ^i •^^ ^ BTJBUSHED«g;aARCH21!'^ia68. De/ouD 10 Real Csr*n. BuiLWKo «iRcHtTECT«E .rioiismou) DccosfllDH. BusiiJessaiJdThemes QpCErJERAl IfJTtRfsT. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS TabUshed eVers Saturday Communications should bo addreased to C. W. SWEET. 14-16 Vesey Street, New YorK J. T. LINDSEY. Euslnosa HiLnajiur TBiophono. Cortlandt 3157 "Erdersd at the Post OJftce at New Yor!-. .V, Y.. as semnd-class mattpi\" Vol. LXXV. JANUARY 21, iy05. No. I'.r2c The Growth of The Record and Guide and the Resulting Changes. W'E spoko recently lu these eoliinnis of the growth of the Record and Guide and the necessity which that growth has thrust nijon tbe management of the paper to pro¬ vide some plan whereby the vastly larger mass of legal records can be handled mechanically and otherwise with the least in¬ crease of financial pressure upon our readers. It must be per¬ fectly clear to every one of our subscribers that it is commer¬ cially out of tbe question for the Record and Guide to go on augmenting in built year by year, accompanied by the printing of thousands of additional legal papers annually, without in¬ creasing in some manner or form tbe cost of its service to its readers. A real estate agent, who should undertake to manage a certain estate for a fixed sum of money, could not permit the owner to go on indefinitely enlarging that estate, thereby increasing the agent's'labors and expenses, without demanding increased compensation. A builder, who should contract to erect a ten-story building for a fixed amount, could not permit the owner to add story upon story without demanding an in¬ creased cost. The Record and Guide, however, has been in tbe position of this hypothetical real estate agent and builder for many years past. It has steadily increased the size of its issues while rigorously maintaining tbe duality ot its service. It has, without any stint ot money, enlarged its mechanical establish¬ ment so as to deliver copies to its readers as early as possible on Saturday mornings, and in this effort it has increased its force and its expenses very nearly tour-told, until to-day the Record and Guide is the most costly trade-paper ot any kind whatsoever, and prints nearly flve pages ot reading matter for "each page of advertising. As we pointed out some weeks ago, this is tbe result ot con¬ ditions peculiar to the real estate field. Tbe Record and Gmde is loyally supported by the interests it serves. It possesses one ot the largest circulations ot any trade-paper extant, and a cir¬ culation that, locally considered, is in its concentration and completeness, quite unique. "Printers' Ink" accords to tbe Rec¬ ord and Guide the "double bull's-eye rating" tor "extraordinary ,' excellence ot circulation." The Record and Guide undoubtedly : occupies its field, but attached to tbis field are peculiar clrcum- stances^circumstances that compel the continued printing ot more and more reading matter without any possibility of re¬ striction or curtailment, unless, ot course, the value of the paper's service were at the same time to be impaired. The ■ latter is out ot the question. It only remains that the situation should be lalrly met by all concerned-by the Record and Guide itself on its part, by its subscribers on their part No one can sell an article below cost or at an unfair commercial price with¬ out disadvantage all around. Alter carefully considering tbe situation, it has seemed to the management ot the Record and Guide that the most desirable way out ot tbe existing difliculty ■ is to separate the matter that now appears in the paper into ■ two parts. Nothing, It would seem, can be lost were all the matter that pertains to Manhattan and the Bronx printed m one paper or edition, and were all the matter that pertains to Brook- lyn be printed in another paper or edition, and then the two be charged for separately and at a fair price. Our readers must bave noticed tbe improvements that bave recently been made in our paper, and these improvements are only tbe initial steps ot a well-defined prcgressive policy. Here¬ after tbe Record and Guide will be issued as two papers: 1. The Record and Guide—Manhattan and the Bronx edition; 2. Tbe Record and Guide—Brooklyn edition. The former will be supplied to readers and subscribers, as at present, for p.00 a year, or 15 cents per copy. The latter will be sold for $3.50 a year, or 10 cents per copy. Those who desire both papers will be supplied for ?8.00 a year. Working on the supposition that all subscribers who receive tbe Record and Guide to-day at an address in IManbattan or tbe Bronx, are interested solely in information pertaining to those two boroughs, tbe Manhattan and the Bronx edition alone will hereafter be sent to those who dwell in Manhattan and the Bronx; and on a like supposition, tbe Brooklyn edition alone will be sent to those who dwell in the big borough beyond tbe East River. Any subscriber, however, whose paid subscription is stiil current, may by dropping us a postal card stating his f'esire, obtain both editions without any extra cbarge whatso¬ ever during the life ot his existing subscription. Of nourse, at the end of tbe subscription, it will be open to him to elect wbich edition he needs, paying for one or tbe other, or both as the circumstances may be. In conclusion, the Record and Guide would like to assure its old friends that this new step has been talten only after the greatest patience and with the utmost care for every interest concerned. It is most emphatically not a one-sided move. Moreover, it is not a solitary move, but one that has been fully prepared tor by the management, and by the careful adop¬ tion of a wider policy that will surely give our readers, when ii is completely worked out, a very much superior service both in Manhattan and the Bronx, and in Brooklyn. H LMOST every day during tbe past week the daily papers •C^ have described tbe stock market as ■■irregular," so that irregularity appears to be the regular thing. Speculation cliques have been able to force up the price of such scarce stocks as Reading, but 90, or even a liltle under, appears to bo a very high price for a three per cent, stock. Such operations as these do not add to one's confidence in security values. There can be no doubc that it remains a professional market, in which it Is occa¬ sionally possible to advance the prices ot particular securities, but lu which any general advance is not to be anticipated. Cf course, tbe general tendency, if there is any, is upward, and rightly so; but this tendency cannot apparently be accelerated very much without causing annoying reactions. General busl- i.ess conditions continue, however, to be so excellent that it IS at present merely a question ot waiting lo discover what effect prosperity will have on net earnings. THE neighborhood of 5th av and 34th st is a veritable whirl¬ wind of real estate ac'Jvity and new price records, and ono announcement follows upon another so rapidly that it is difli- cult 10 run fast enough to keep abreast of tbe procession. It is not only that the corner of 35th st and 5th av has been sold at a record price, and that Mr. John Claflin has secured a plot 100x200 running through from 34th to 35th st, but the whole block Is In a ferment. A few months ago, when Mr. Altman was paying S250,000 for lots on 34lh st east ot 6tb av, people wondered whether he would ever get his money back, but, dur¬ ing tbe past week, }350,000 has been refused tor lots west ot 5th av and 34th st, and $500,000 has heen asked for them. At the present rate ot expansion, it will not be so veiT long before people will be paying S200 a square toot tor inside lots on 34th Bt Just what will come of it all cannot be precisely asserted until we know what new business will actually come in on the block- but we have no doubt that eventually tbe block will contain some of the flnest stores ih New York. It Is not merely the vicinity ot 34th st and 5th av, however, which is excited. All along 6tb av and on the side streets sales are being made and negotiations are under way. Neither are the otber centers of recent activity becoming dull. Business property downtown is in excellent demand, and residences ot a good class are being sold in unusually largo numbers. Some twenty-seven have