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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2015: October 27, 1906

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October 27, 1906 UE( Ol{D AMj GiUIDE 675 ESTABUSHED ■^Ai\ftR,CH 21^^1838. DeV&IeD to f^L ESTATE. BuiLDIf/o %&KrrECTJI^E .HoUSEHOU) DEQQIiATIO.l Busit^Ess Affa Themes op GEffen^l Ir/iErfEsi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturday Communications sliould ho nddrossed lo C. W. SWEET Downtown Ollice; 14-16 Vesey Street, New York TeloiilioiiB, CorUniidt 3157 Upto.vn Olfice: 11-13 East 24ch Street Telephono, Madison S(]ua,ro l(i9G ''Entered al ihe i'os( Office at New York. N. Y„ as second-class matter." Vol. LXXVIII- OCTOBER 27, 1906. No. 2015 INDEX TO DEPART .MENTS. Advertising Section, Page Page Cement....................xxlli Law........................xi Consulting Engineers ........x Lnmber .................xxviii Clay Products ..............xxll Machinery ..................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work...............xvii Electrical Interests ..........vlli Quick Job Direclory ........xxvii B'lreprooflng ..................ll Real Estale ...............xiii Granite ..................xxlv Roofers & Rooflng Mater'Is, .xxvi Heatiug....................XX Stone ......................xxiv Iron and Steel ..............xvlfl Wood Products ...........xxviii THAT Wall Street, with singular iiuanimity, is bearish is obvious from tlie contracted voJume of business this ■weelt. The operator who would ask the advice of any broker will be told to sell stocks if he has them, or, if not, to wait imtil after election before buying. Undoubtedly there is some anxiety as to the result of the November elections and uneasiness as to the outlook of the money market. It is the fatuity of Wall Street to be invariably bearish at the wrong time, and also bullish at the wrong time; and when it is unanimously bullish it is generally as mistaken as when it is unanimously bearish. The position" of the short interest may be judged from the disclosures caused by the failure of James W. Henning & Co., members of the Stock Exchange, who suspended business last Monday. It transpired that one house alone had borrowed 20,000 shares of Reading from Mr. Henning about the time of his suspension. When specu¬ lation arrives again or the market wakes up, it is still believed that it will be in the minor railroad securities, such as have been frequently referred to in these columns. The raising of the Bank of England rate for discount last Mon¬ day is just what might have been expected uuder the circum¬ stances, when so much gold has been shipped from the otber side to this country. Yet many professed surprise. Tbe break in prices naturally followed, and the action of the Bank of England undoubtedly contributed to the dull and bearish sentiment prevailing for the time being. What the market is doing now is of little or no value as an indication of its future action. Rates for time loans arc heid at 6. per cent., and some transactions for six months were reported at that figure. The common stock of the Norfolk & Western Railway Company has been placed on a 5 per cent, basis—an increase of 1 per cent. This increase can certainly not be said to be discouraging to holders of American railway securities. And what shall be said of Industrials, in view of the fact that this has been a record year in the steel business for the production of steel rails? The output for 1906, taking orders for delivery during the remainder of the year, will exceed 3,600,000 tons. Secretary Shaw's action in releasing Government bonds to the extent of $1S,000,000 meets with approval, and is reassuring. These bonds are, of course, to be turned into circulation without removal from the Treasury. T^HE real estate market during the past week has been ^ characterized by a noticeable revival of activity. This activity has not, indeed, affected those branches of the mar¬ ket which have been of late remarkable for their dullness. There has been no revival of tenement-house speculation, nor has there been any increased demand for vacant lots on Washington Heights and elsewhere. The character of the transactions has, indeed, recalled the days of 1901 rather than those of 1905. The properties transferred have con¬ sisted very largely of costly lots In the best business districts. Two notable sales have been announced of inside lots on Fifth avenue in the forties, and ■ in both cases the prices obtained were equivalent to 5150 a square foot. Values on that avenue In the retail (Jistrict are now pretty well estab¬ lished in the neighborhood of $150 a SQuare foot for inside lots and $200 a square foot for corners—truly an extraordi¬ nary range of prices for a strip of property on both sides oC an avenue over a mile in length. Another large transaction was the purchase by the McAdoo Terminal Company of the Morrison holdings in the block needed for the new terminal, Tbe price paid, which is about $2,000,000 for over 11,000 square feet, does not, under the circumstances, seem extor¬ tionate; and it is a matter for public congratulation that the company has succeeded in acquiring practically the whole of tbe needed site. The other transactions affected Broadway and William street property. In a number of these transfers the Century and the United States Realty companies appeared as sellers, and it will be interesting to see whether tbis iarge corporation will take an active part in speculation during the coming year. It has been comparatively quiescent of late, and the City Investing Company has shown a much more enterprising disposition in opening up new fields for specula¬ tion and investment. But if the current season is to be one favorable to the large rather than the small speculator, both of these companies will have an important influence upon its course. The next month should afford au accurate indica¬ tion of the course of the market during tbe season. THE opening of the Knickerbocker Hotel, at tbe corner of Forty-second street and Broadway, adds another to the large number of hotels which it has been the traditional policy of the Astor family to erect in New York City, Begin¬ ning with the Astor House, about 1S30, which was in its day the great American hotel, they have erected successively the Waldorf-Astoria, the New Netherlands, the St. Regis, the Hotel Astor and the Knickerbocker, In addition, one branch of the estate is building a huge apartment house and hotel on upper Broadway. There can be no doubt that the'con- struction of a hotel in a good location is one of the most remunerative and safest ways of investing money iu the world, and it would not be possible to find in New York City a location better than that upon which the Knickerbocker stands. Of course, no hotel on Broadway can compete for the best class of trade with a hotel on Fifth avenue, but among the Broadway hotels the Knickerbocker has the per¬ fect location. It is in the heart of the district devoted to the amusement and refreshment of New Yorkers at night, and it is much more accessible than the Hotel Astor, because it can be reached by crossing Broadway at a narrow point instead of by the good stretch of asphalt called by some people Loug Acre aud by others Times Square. Each new hotel must have its novel features, and the particular novelty of the Knickerbocker consists in the manner in wbich certain of its walls are decorated. It is becoming customary to place a certain amount of painting on the walls oC Dig hotels. The Manhattan and the St. Re^is have been so decorated, as well as some of the newer hotels in other American cities. But the trouble with such decorations hitherto has been that they have not been sufficiently amusing. In court houses, libraries and capitols it is all very well to paint on the walls pictures based on historical, legendary or symbolic subjects, but people live in hotels, and while living there wish to be amused. Wall paintings of the ordinary kind may be beau¬ tiful and imposing; they may be admirably composed and perfectly subdue the surrounding architecture, but they do not add to the gaiety of life. From the point of view of the sojourner at a hotel, they are unquestionably dull, and they contribute absolutely nothing to the popularity of the cara¬ vansary in which they are situated. But in the Knickerbocker it is different. Mr. Maxfield Parish has a painting over the bar representing the merry-making of Old King Cole; and, quite apart from the technical merit of the painting, it would be impossible to place a more amusing treatment of a more appropriate sul)ject in that particular spot. It is not merely a mural painting which is trying hard to be good and keep its place upon the wall; it is a happy and a living illustra¬ tion of merry-making which should and will make its appeal to the patrons of the bar. It will, if you please, make those patrons "smile," and in so doing it will do what very few works of art have ever done-^it will pay its way. So it is with the painting of Mr. James Wall Finn in the Flower Room. Mr. Finn also has not sought merely to be good. He has been fancy free in the imagining and iu tbe peopling of his garden of flowers, and tbe consequence is that it is not only a very beautiful picture, but it is also a most entertain¬ ing one. It is full of amusing incident which will attract and repay the attention of the people eating in the room and help them to have a more diverting time. It is to be hoped that this lesson will not be forgotten in ttie decoration of subsequent hotels,