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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 81, no. 2084: February 22, 1908

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February 22, 1908 RECORD AND GUTDE 319 ^ ESTABUSHED ^ OfPpH 81^ 186 8. DndifllpRf^LEsTAXE.BuiLDiife A|p^rTEeTi;i^.KousEHoiiiDEGai5ftnoW. Bl/snft38 AffoTHEMES OfGEliER^l Il^TOl^Sl., PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS ConunuQl cat Ions should be addressed to C. W. SWEET Pabllsfied EVery Saturdag By THE RECORD AMD GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vlce-Pres. & Genl, Mgr., H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nos. 11 to 15 Eaat 24tli Street. Neir York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433.) "Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. as sicoiiil-chit:>i nuitlrr." . Copyrighted, 1907, by The Record &, Gni le Co, Vol. Lxxxr, FEBRUARY 22, 190S, No. 20S4, INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page Page Ceraent .......................xiv Luinber ....................xiii Clay Products ................xiv Metal Work ..................ix Consulting Engineers ..........x Quick Job Directory..........vii Contractors and Builders......iii Real Estate ...................v Electrical Interests ...........xii Roofers & Roofing Materials, .xii Fireprooflng ..................ii Stone .......................xv Granite .......................xv Wood Products ..............xiii Iron and Steel.................xi THIS current year was long ago set down in the register of rapid transit developments as a year for the realiza¬ tion of great hopes. The dates for completing fl) the Brook¬ lyn subway, connected hy subaqueous tubes to the Battery; (2) the upper McAdoo tunnel to Jersey City, and (3) the Bel¬ mont tunnel to Long Island City, all fell within the bounds of the year 1908-^and it has arrived. The Pennsylvania Railroad's new terminal and the' Blackwell's Island Bridge were also once on this year's list of great works to be com¬ pleted. The tunnel to Brooklyn is already in service, the one to the Jersey shore will be opened next week, and the Belmont undertaking has what President Patton of Prince¬ ton calls the faculty of ultimate arrival. Popular anticipa¬ tion connected these events with a grent exodus, divided into three streams, one to Now .lersey, one to Brooklyn aud the third to Queens, and with appalling vacancies in the apart¬ ment houses of the old city. Attending upon the migration were to be wonderful building movements in the favored suburbs. Objects which at a distance seem close together spread out as one draws nearer to them; the circumstances attending the opening of new exits from Manhattan are doing the same. Some have run on before, and others will lag far behind; so gradual are the changes certain to be, the equilibriu'ia of property interests can scarcely be disturbed. It is only a supposition that a million New Yorkers are anxious to live either in northern New Jersey or on Long Island, and are waiting only for quick transit to remove the last obstacle to their going. But it affords a good working basis for large real estate and building operations in those sections, and these the natural annual overflow from Man¬ hattan, which leaves no voids, will reward and justify. Pro¬ viding for this overflow will keep their dwelling-house build¬ ers busy, and leave plenty for the apartment and tenement liouse builders of the city. At present there is no unusual movement of population in any direction. In fine, circum¬ stances are the reverse of the anticipations for the year which should see such works of magnitude completed. There is less activity than at any time since their construction was commenced. While this can be accounted for by reasons having no connection with the several tunnels, it is yet a circumstance so peculiar as to cause remark aud to suggest the idea that it is only the lull before the boom. NOW that the upper McAdoo tunnel is about to be opened to travel, appreciation for its singularly advantageous position is penetrating the public mind. Wonder is expressed that capital was at first so slow in coming to its aid, and remarks are heard that the city was more generous than it realized when granting the right of way for the eastern approaches. No better lines are. conceivable for the "drain¬ ing" of the middle West Side, and travel will fiow into it as naturally as streams from a watershed. Some critics con¬ sider, the position inimical to resirential property on the npper^ West Side, but this does not follow, since it implies stronger attractions than New Jersey possesses, no matter how easily accessible it may be made. There are two ways of regarding the Hudson and New Jersey railroad: in one aspect it appears merely as a convenient outlet for the population of Manhattan Island, serving a purpose similar to the East River tunnels and bridges; and in the other aspect as an inlet lor passenger traffic from a number of trunk-line railroads terminating on the Jersey shore. What the city may lose in one way will be made up in another, it is thought. On both sides of the river the tunnel has long approaches. On the Jersey side they extend between the Lackawanna depot on the north and the Pennsylvania depot on the south; and on the New York side, with one arm reach¬ ing to Greeley Square and the other to Astor place, the subway approaches half encircle the principal shopping dis¬ trict. No other railroad terminating here has a strategical position comparable with this. But while the tunnel line will be a fine adjunct to certain trunk roads, it is not apparent that the vexations of street-car travel in Jersey City aad vicinity will be lessened. For rapid-transit after leaving the tunnel, commuters will still have to depend on the steam lines, and these will continue to distribute their passengers over a wide territory, so that whatever gain in population follows in the course of time will be divided ■ among many localities. At the annual banquet of the Real Estate Board of Brokers of Jersey City and Vicinity on last Tuesday evening it was said that vacancies in dwellings and apartments throughout the section were almost nil, and that the opportunity presented to builders who could command capital was very exceptional. NOTICE has been taken by the Public Service Commis¬ sion of the long desire for a station on the Elevated road on Columbus avenue at Ninety-ninth street, and a hearing has been set for next Tuesday. As the nearest stations to this locality are at Ninety-third street on one hand, and One Hundred and Fourth street on the other, the interval amounts to eleven blocks, when ordinarily stations are not farther apart than half tbat number of city blocks. A period of nearly twenty-five years has passed since the Elevated was opened to travel, but not until the Subway through Broadway was operated did this particular quarter oijtain any better transit than the surface cars afforded. While the sections north and south participated in the gen¬ eral improvements of the times, this quarter was passed over until very recent years, when the Subway brought some relief. The inequality in the surface, with the con¬ sequent unusual height of the structuTO above the ground', has been the reason for not building stations at Ninety-ninth street; but this defect of itself does not account for the backwardness of the neighborhood, as would become ap¬ parent after the erection of "suitable stations. At this time the proposal is to have escalators to convey passengers to and from tiie platforms. Though coming late, it is believed such an improvement would ultimately have the effect of relieving the blight that has been almost tbe only drawback to the upper West Side. A COMMITTEE of the Board of Estimate is charged with tbe serious duty of inquiring into the whole subject of subway construction arising out of the communication from the Public Service Board asking approval of the plans for the construction of rapid-transit railways on the modified Lexington avenue, Girard avenue aud Canal street routes, and consent to the building of the roads. The Estimate Board is the authority liaving control of the streets through which the subway lines are to be built, and it is also the power which must provide the financial means. At the outset the Comptroller assures the committee, that the City has no money for subway coustruction—rin Manhattan and the Bronx—and if the property owners of these boroughs insist on further extensions, they must amend tlie Elsberg law. A legislative bill to accomplish this has very i)roperly been pre¬ pared by the Allied Real Estate Interests and has been in¬ troduced at Albany. Its purpose is to conserve the real in¬ terests of the city at large in a crisis when the greatest need is for an equitable distribution of transit facil'ties. An im¬ portant recommendation to the committee by President Haf¬ fen of the Bronx is that, with the desire to save both lime and expense, the Jerome avenue extension of the proposed new East Side subway be made an elevated structure instead of, as now- officially planned, an underground Toad. _ It is. extremely important that the West Bronx should be well served at this time. Thousands of home-seekers have within recent years invested their savihgs' In" building sites there