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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 79, no. 2027: January 19, 1907

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January 19, 190? RECORD AND GUIDE 97 y^ ^ ESTABUSHED'^f^ftRpHai'-^l868. Dev&teD td ^L Estate.BuiLDif/G %cifiTzcTURE.Ho^SEHoiD DEGOHATiorJ. Bi/sit^ESs afId Themes of GeiJeRaI iKiEaEST. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Published every Saturday Communications should bo addroaaed to C. W. SWEET * Downtown Ofiice: 14-16 Vesey Street. New York TolcDliono, Cortlandt 31o7 Uptown Office: 11-13 East 24th Street. New York Toleph.ono, 4-i30 Madison Square -Entered at th.e Post Office at Xew York, N. Y.. as secoiul-class m.ancr." Vol. LXXIX. JANUARY 19. 3007. No. 2027. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page Page Cement .....................'tvli L\imber ......................xxll Consulting Engineers .........viii Maciiinery .....................v Clay Products ..................f Metal Work ..................xvl Contractors and Builders......iil Quick Job Directory........xxill Electrical Interests ...........vl Real Estate ..................xl Fireproofing .................." Roofers & Rooflng Materials...xx Granite ....................xviil Stone.....................xviil Iron and Steel..................xv Wood Products ...............xxii l{lB« I The Index to Volume LXXVIII. of the Record and I I Guide, covering the period between July 1 and De- | I cember 31, 1000, Is now ready for delivery. Price $1. | I This Index in its enlarged form is recognized as being | I indi-spensable to every one engaged or interested in real i 8 estate and building operations. It covers all trans- | I actions—deeds, mortgages, leases, auction sales, building | I plans filed, etc. Orders for the Index shotiM be sent I I at once to the ofQces of publication, 11-15 iEast 24th St., 1 i or 14 and IG Vesey St. | WALL STREET, this week, continues its record as a market of disappointments. Hope springs eternal in the bull's breast-—the market always is to go up but doesn't. The prosperity aud strong conditious of the coun¬ try mount higher and higher all the time while properties represented by certificates of stock dealt in on the country's great exchange keep constantly declining. Nothing jusf like this has been seen before, and what It means nobody knows. It behooves real estate operators to sit up and take notice of it all, as cheaper mouey paradoxically only seems to have accelerated the decline. In turn the decline ought to make money still cheaper. Moreover, not only are stocks going down, but cotton, wheat, corn, coffee and other commodities are heavy and also keep declining, so that the operators In them are just as much at sea as those who make a specialty of stocks. It is useless giving reasons for this state of things amidst conflicting opinions on the subject as the would-be doctors disagree, both as to causes and the remedy. Their diagnoses are manifestly faulty. There was a report during the week that a prominent financier was critically ill, but as was subsequently shown there was not the slight¬ est foundation for the rumor, as the appearance of the gen¬ tleman at a meeting of the Vanderbilt board on Wednesday proved. There is now a very large short interest in the mar¬ ket which, when bull leaders are found, if there be any, should cause a considerable advance iu prices. MADISON AVENUE is claiming a constantly increasing share in speculative attention. During the week the Century Realty Co. has made a considerable purchase in the thirties, and buying has also been noticeable ou the same avenue just north of Forty-Second Street. Such purchases are dictated undoubtedly by excellent judgment. It is be¬ coming more certain every day that Madison Avenue, be¬ tween Twenty-seventh and Thirty-fourth Streets and be¬ tween Forty-second and Fiftieth Streets, will play the part of a good second to Fifth Avenue. The values on Fifth Avenue are proportionately too high compared to the com¬ parative serviceability of the two avenues for business pur¬ poses; and as Fifth Avenue prices are not coming down, it follows that Madison Avenue prices are likely to go up. In fact it is probable that Madison Avenue, throughout its whole length, Murray Hill alone excepted, will become increasingly a business thoroughfare. North of Fifty-ninth Street it may tie expected that the new buildings will con¬ sist of apartment houses with shops on the ground floor, and that the old brownstone residences on the avenue will grad¬ ually be torn down. It looks as if Park Avenue were des¬ tined to become, next to Fifth Avenue, the most important private residential thoroughfare to the east of Central Park, It is in every way more availalile for this purpose than Madison Avenue. The lots are deeper. It is wider and pleasanter in appearance. It is free from trolley cars and will soon be free from underground steam locomotives. Good sites can still be bought tolerably cheap in spite of the existing buildings. Everything points towards the replace¬ ment of the dwellings on upper Madison Avenue by apart¬ ment houses and stores, and the replacement of the flats on Park Avenue with expensive residences. A' FTER a long delay the Court House Commission has finally selected a site for the new county building. The site includes the three blocks on the east side of Union Square. The plan is to condemn this whole area^ close Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets and erect the building in about the centre of the plot so obtained. By these means the new court house would be surrounded by considerable vacant space, whicii would increase its opportunity of being architecturally effective and which would give it as much as possible of the isolation and quiet which the judges want. The selection has been received with favor, and it will probably be accepted by the Board of Estimate and Appor¬ tionment. The expense will be greater than it would have been in case a site on Washington Square had been selected, aud the neighborhood of Washington Square is quieter; but ou the whole, it must be conceded that a site on Union Square will be so much more convenient as to be worth the difference. The express station of the subway at Four¬ teenth street brings the proposed site within, at most, tea minutes of the City Hall and of the of&ce buildings in the financial district. In fact, the court house would be so convenient to the existing offices of tlie lawyers that, as likely as not, many of them will not bother about moving their habitations. In other respects, also, the site is all that it should be. It is safe to say that the architect of tbe new building will have one of the noblest single opportuni¬ ties ever offered to an American desiguei'. He will have all the room he needs, both for and arbund the building. His structure will face au unencumbered public square; and if necessary tbe layout of that square can be altered so as to contribute to the architectural effect of the facade. We trust that the design will be equal to the opportunity, aud that in the selection of the .architect there will be no sus¬ picion of any favoritism or "pull." The city officials have an opportunity in this instance of showing how expeditiously, economically and adequately a public building can be erected. w ■HAT will be the eifect of the erection of the Court House on the real estate iu the vicinity of Union Square? No doubt it will stimulate activity in a region which has been comparatively inactive for a great many years; but it is easily possible to over-estimate the immedi¬ ately beneficial effects of the proposed building. In the first place, unless all precedents fail, the erection of the new building will consume ten years or more, so that it will not be necessary to begin the erection of lawyers' office buildings in the immediate future, and by the time the new Court House is ready for occupation it is probable that the needs of the wholesale trade will have already brought about the building of many new loft buildings on available sites in that vicinity, such as the old Everett House. The retail¬ ers have, of late, been steadily deserting Union Square, aud the Court House will not stop their exodus. If the selec¬ tion of this particular site has any immediate effect on real estate, that effect will not be due to the new building which is to be erected, but to the old buildings which will have to be destroyed. The three blocks which must be vacated do not contain any business buildings of great importance; but at least two banks, one important publishing house, one theatre and a number of smaller business enterprises will have to obtain new quarters iu the same vicinity; and the demand thus created will tend to raise rents. Most of the three blocks in question, however, are occupied for various residential purposes. There are several second-rate hotels, several old apartment houses and fifty or sixty dwellings, occupied for the most part by private families. It is im¬ probable, however, that the displacement of this population will have much effect upon rents in the same vicinity. The