Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 84, no. 2173: November 6, 1909

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November 6, 1909 RECORD AND GUIDE 807 WHAT A TENANT GETS FOR $10000 As Exemplified in Two New Aparlment Houses—Why Such High Rents are Paid —The New Standard of Living for Millionaires—Cily Apartments and Country Estates. QUESTIONS and remarks overheard by builders and agents from time to time disclose that it is still incomprehensible to most non-residents why many New York families should be willing to pay as much per annum for rent as would buy a fairly good farm in the country. The wonder is not that there are so many New Yorkers able to pay eight to twelve thousand a year, but that so many are willing to pay it for a single apartment, in preference to having a whole house of their own. There are a number of reasons why, but it is not the purpose of this article to give them, except to explain In a general way that New York has become the wealthiest city in the world, that it lias its own standards of living, that these have changed "ALWYN COURT.- SSth St. and Tth Av. Harde & Shorte, Architects, Hedden Construction Co., Builder. from former times, and that to a large numher ot families the expenditure of a few thousand dollars more or less per annum is not a matter of great importance when value is received. We must learn to take a very large view of New York, for it is to be the foremost city of the world. The leading families in America are adopting a standard of living which includes more than one home. There is a country home and also a city home. The real homestead is in the country. There's where the family treasures are. For the cit-" home, apartments are coming to be preferred over the private dwelling, for one reason, because a private dwelling may not be obtainable in the par¬ ticular neighborhood where the family wishes to reside when in town. The really high-class apartment offers to tenants of wealth and standing the choice of the flnest locations in Swell¬ dom. Emerson says that there is a price on everything—pay the price, and the thing is yours. If one wishes to live in the most fashionable neighborhood in America, he must pay the price flxed by the market- Part of the price being for the use of the site, another portion represents the cost of the building and other portions of lhe price represents the cost of maintaining that building—the cost of the house service, the taxes aud the interest. It is apparent that the size of the rent does not necessarily represent the degree of luxury of the apartments themselves, and it is conceivable that a house in an ultra-fasbippriblf section i?i_ay not be, archi¬ tecturally, as imposing, and internally as luxurious as one less fashionably situated and for which a smaller rent is required. Therefore, the answer to the question, What does a tenant get for nine thousand a year, is not to be expressed merely in a description of the suite, of the number and size of the rooms, or of the beauty of the decorations. The ten thousand pays for more than can be defined in words. Two houses flnished this fall represent the new standard of living for millionaire Americans very clearly. One is "Alwyn Court," standing in an exclusive district near the "Plaza," and the other is the "Verona," at the crossing of 64th st and Madi¬ son av, which is adjacent to the Park and Sth av. The rentals in the flrst-named range from $6,500 to $10,000 for single apart¬ ments, but one duplex apartment in this house is priced at $22,000 a year. ARRANGEMENT OF ROOMS, Messrs. Harde & Short, the architects, have cautioned other architects, owners and builders that they are not to use the floor plan of this house, or any feature incorporated therein, in any buiiding they may erect. The plans will appeal to everyone as a fine layout for a house of grand dimensions, such as "Alwyn Court." There are but two apartments on a floor, each consisting of fourteen rooms, eleven of which are outside, and flve baths. They are so arranged that over two thousand square feet of floor space can he thrown together for entertaining. That chamber in the corner is a grand room for the prospect it gives out over the Plaza and Central Park, and also for its own interior finish of white enamel woodwork and silken hang¬ ings. Back of it is my lady's dressing-room, where every panel is a mirror, and every mirror hides a closet in the wall, A singular thing about the doors in this room and in some others YARD !0-(j"-WlDE YARD 200-WIDE FLOOR PLAN IN "ALWYN COURT." is that they have no visible hinges and locks; and one who did not know would see no door at all, as doors have the appearance of panels merely. The walls and ceilings of the bathrooms are all mirrored also. The shelves in all the bathrooms and dressing- rooms, are plate glass. There are roomy millinery closets with plale glass compartments, fireplaces of exquisite design, parquel floors, mahogany doors, pancied waiis in tbe dining-rooms, and woodwork elsewhere in white with "compo" ornamentation iu floral designs.