Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 80, no. 2070: November 16, 1907

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November i6, 1907 RECORD AND GUIDE 783 Dhíi-ieO ĩo Rf\L EsTAjE.BuiLDiiJb Aí^rrEeTui^ .Kũuseiíoio Degoeíatioií, Biísntes aiídTheĩíes ctGejíer^I Ii/te^esi., PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EĨGHT DOLLARS Communicatĩans shauld be addressed to C. W. SWEET Published EVerp iSaíurdag By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO. Preaidenf, CLINTON W, SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGS Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 15 East 24tli Street, Noir Vork Cĩty (Telepbone, Madison Square, 4JS0 to 4433.) Tbe Knickerbocker Portico "Entered at ihe Post Offĩce at Neia York . A^- r„ flS SffiQlul -clilss miil ,.,,.. Copyrighted, 1907, by The Record & Guide Co. Voĩ. LXXX. NOVE'MBER 16, 1907. No. 2070. INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Cement .....................xvĩii Lumber ....................xix Clay Pi'Oducts ................xv Machinery ...................xvi Consulting Engineers ........xvii Metal Work ..................xiv Contractors and Builders......iv Quick Job Directory...........xi Blectrical Interests .........xvii Real Estale...................ix Fĩreproofing ..................ii Roofers & Roofing Materials..xx Granite ......................xxi Stone .......................xx Iron and Steel................viĩi Wood Protiucta ..............xiĸ WITHIN A FEW MONTHS of being com- pletely fiiiished and equipped for nse, the Steinway (or Belmout) Tunuel is in a peculiar predicament. Its fraũchise, if the owners ever realĩy possessed one, is considered by the city government to have expired. Before it can be operated as a pufclic carrier there must he a franchise issued, it is supposed, and the Public Service Comniission has heen definitely advised by counsel to take out a v/rit of injunction that will prevent the tunnel írom being pnt in serviee in ádvahce of a legal authorization. It is deemed to be a wiser course for the authorities to enjoin the tunnel company before a service is begun than to try to stop it afterwards. Not that they do not wish to have the tunuel used at all, but rather that it shal! not be worked without having a fair settlement with the city for the privilege. No one has reason to suppose that the pro- prietors expected to operate withoiit any fiirther consent or right than was couferred, or alleged to have been, hy the Steinway charter which the present company has acquired; but as yet no application lias been made for a new privilege, nor has any opportunity heen given for statiug, on the part of the city, the terms and conditions that would be accept- able. These are but a few surface facts in a situation realiy niore complex and peculiar than any which the authoritíes have yet becn called upon to deal with. We have seen niany corporations appĩying for franchises to build transit lines, but never any before this applying for a franchise after the line has been finished. This is also the first occa- sion in at least a long period when the City has been so well armed to coutend with a powerful public carrier. Mr. Belmont's enterprise is deserviug of a large reward. Per- sonal qualtiies of a high order, hesides enormous fiuancial resources, were necessary for an undertaking of su'Ch mag- nitude. We all admire a man who can swiftly seize a chance hy the tail as it is escaping aud land it suceessfully. But the People are partners with Mr, Belmont in this tuunel, aud have a rĩght to an accountiug. Uutiĩ that is effected there is no prohability that the cars will run under the river, but that the time intervening cannot be prolonged indeS- nitely is apparent when the amount of the stake is con- siderecl. The tunnel could be made extremely useful in the development of Queens Borough, and it could almost he made to hava the opposite cffect, all depending on the terms to be arranged between the company and the city. An ideal outcome would be the unifîcation of the tunnel into the subway system and a future extensiou of that system to Flushing and Bayside, hut not this latter consummation until transit requirements in the old city, far more pressing, have been met, If a purchase by the city is improbable at the figures which Mr. Belmont is understood to ask, the next best thing is "a five-cent fare, with liberal trausfers, Bhorfc of which but littĩe beĩieât could come to Queens frpin tJie coĩĩĩiectĩos, FROM THB NATURE of the action agaiust the Knickerbpcker Trust .Com- pany, it is improbabĩe that the owners of property abutting on Fifth avenue will accept the decision rendered by the Ap- pellate Division in favor o£ the City— under, which the great columns of the marble portico may temporarily remain, while the steps and areaway must be removed—as determining the right of the city to take pop- session of all court spaces on this avenue and remove aU obstructinns therefrom. A year ago the Corporation Coun- sel issued what was taken as "a waruiug" that the door- yard spaces would presently be required for street pur- poses, and it seemed that after many years of controversy the city fully intended to begiu proceedings for widen- iug the carriageway. By some commentators the suit agaiust the Kniclterboeker Company has beeu so interpreted, but wheu the case is analyzed it is fouud to be nothing more thau oue to restraiu the violation of an ordinauce. Certain ordinances allow areas and steps of certain dimensions, while this bankiug houpe has buiĩt steps of other dimensions, and so far as these go heyond the permissible limits they must, under this latest decision, be reduced. The Knickerbocker Trust Company has always claimed that in constructing, at the uorthwest coruer of Fifth avenue and Thirty-fourth street, marble steps which appropriate, approximately, one- half the sidewalk o£ each street, the direetors were not pro- ceeding in violation of the city ordinauces or the laws of the State, for the reason that the Common Council passed, in 1901, a resolution which gave (Or "attempted to give," as the plaintiff states) the right, or privilege, to "erect aud main- tain porticos in frcnt of their buiUling." But the city now contends, and the courts have uniformly held, that the Com- mou Council uever pCQSGssed 'fche power the pass this ordi- nance, The preseut decision affects projections beyond the old stoop line only, hufc there is uothing contained therein which restraĩns the city from proceeding, after dtie uotiee, against all owners—the Knickerbocker Company included—■ who are occupying any part of the street beyond the origiual building líne. In the year 1844 the proprietors of lots he- tween Tweuty-third and Forty-secoud streets received per- raission to enclose a eourt, fifteen feet wide, with an opeu iron railiug iu front of theír lofcs, on each side of the avenue, and to plaee the curhstoue thirty feet from the line of the avenue ou each side, and so leave a earriageway forty feet wide, with fifteeu feefc for sidewalk and flfteen more for court space on each side, But this permission was granted upon the eondition that "if, in the opinion of the Common Couucil, the said eourts shall hereafter be required for streets, the same shall be thrown open." While the presenfc case does uofc affeefc the confcinued occupatiou of the same spaces as was emhraced by the old courtyards, ĩts effect is to emphasize auew íhafc the city claims the right to take the court spaces for sĩdewolks and earriageway whenever it shall deem that necessity so requires, not alone under the condition contained in the ordinauce of 1844, but on the further ground of the illegality of that ordinanee. For the Knickerhocker Trust Compauy it has heen stated, by counsel, that the eompany is not opposiug any general seheme of widening that the eity may have, bufc it ohjeeted to being ' siugled out as a defendant when practically all the property on the thoroughfare is affeeted, an ohjeetion which the decision seems to confirm, so far as the occupying of court space is concerned, for the present—hut not more than that. Public Improvement Plans A SUPPOSED DBTBRMINATION of the Board of Estimate to su'Spend for a time the acquisition of more land for city parks has been the subjeet of protests from property owners in the districts which would be affected by this policy, though it must he known to them that a decision of this uature would not he taken because of any less appreciation for parks, or of the wi.'îdom of acquiring them for new sections while the value o£ land contiues low, hut because of the general monetary difflculties, At the same time, it canuot be gainsaid that a puhlic announcemeut o£ such a policy would not be calculated to please those localities whieh have hoped to derive particular heuefit from the ciíy's former in- tention. In seetions where projects for new parks have reached almost the culminating stage, aud where private investments, plans and actual improvements have heen predi- cated upon uafcural expectations, there is somethiug of a îjardship invplved; but tbe city would not be tlie prĩmal