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Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 91, no. 2346]: March 1, 1913

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REAL ESTATE AND BUILDERS NEW YORK, MARCH 1, 1913 lilllilllilllllM^^^^^^ jiiiiiiiK CHANGES IN LOWER BROADWAY, BROOKLYN Once the Premier Part of "Williamsburg, This Part of Broad¬ way Was Impaired by the Opening of Williamsburg Bridge ''<'!-'i''lf"¥Hi'j!i>!:)W!»Sij^»aa'--''»^'>^».''^''.'5'''*'i^S^ BRO.-\DWAY, in Brooklyn, from the ferry east to Driggs avenue, a dis¬ tance of four long blocks, has lost caste to a great extent as a result of the open¬ ing of the Williamsburg bridge, whose easterly end opens on a plaza two blocks wide and ends at Havemeyer street. From the most important part of the Eastern District, lower Broadway has be¬ come inconsequential and the Williams¬ burg Bridge has had the same effect on the street as the New York and Brook¬ lyn Bridge has had on Fulton street be¬ tween the river and Pierrepont street, in Brooklyn. East of Havemeyer street Broadway is one of the most important business thoroughfares of the city and k-.i-ril lu oi)LTantiL; com¬ panies; but. it took much persistent agi¬ tation by the manufacturing interests of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to get the city to do anything in the premises. The corporation that had acquired much of the ferry property from the old ferry company oflfered to sell it to the city at a figure which the city deemed excessive; and, the municipality accord¬ ingly asked the Supreme Court to ap¬ point commissioners of estimate and as¬ sessment to determine the fair value of the property in discussion. The commis¬ sioners appointed were Bernard Gal¬ lagher, who' is a former fire commis¬ sioner of the old city of Brooklyn and iiiaining near the ferry is the building of the Brooklyn Daily Times, at 24 and 26 Broadway, which is still occupied by that paper; but, it is understood that within a year this paper will remove to the vicinity of Flatbush avenue aftd Fulton street, in the central part of Brooklyn; and, if this happens, then all of the old institutions in lower Broad¬ way will have vanished except Thomas Wallace^s haberdashery, a block away, which has been on one corner for 40 years or more. Since the decline of traffic in the blocks adjacent to the ferry the following institutions have removed from them to the vicinity of the Wil¬ liamsburg Bridge Plaza: the Firit Na- BROADWAY, AT BEDFORD AVENUE. LROOKLYX. FOOT OF BROADWAY, BROOKLYN'. NEAU THE FERRY. the greater city; but, this part of the street will be dealt with in an¬ other article in the near future. In low¬ er Broadway the street lost business strength and rental productiveness on account not only of the opening of the bridge, but by the closing of all the Williamsburg ferries to Manhattan that had their Brooklyn terminals at the foot of Broadway. These ferries con¬ nected with 23d street, 42d street. Grand street and Roosevelt street, in Manhat¬ tan, and until bridges became the vogue these water routes yielded large profits to their operator, the New York & Brooklyn Ferry Company, More than five years ago practically all of these ferries were abandoned because it was no longer profitable for the company to run them. Shipping interests in Williamsburg felt the closing of them severely because they led to both up and down town in Manhattan and it meant a great deal of additional hauling by teams. After a long period of idleness some of these ferries were reopened by a prominent builder of Williamsburg; Thomas E. Pearsall, a prominent law¬ yer of Brooklyn, and William D. Walsh, of Williamsburg. The latter made a minority report criticising the report of his fellow commissioners. Comptroller Prendergast also was opposed to the majority report. The result has been that the court has disapproved the find¬ ings of the majority of the commission¬ ers and has appointed new commission¬ ers to make their findings in the prem¬ ises. This committee has not yet fin¬ ished its work. Car and pedestrian traffic has fallen ofif to so great an extent in lower Broad¬ way that there are now 27 vacant stores and a few empty buildings from Driggs avenue west to the river. Vacant stores predominate in the north side of the street. Before the conditions changed for the worse in this part of Broadway nearly all of the important banks and other financial institutions in Williams¬ burg were situated within two blocks of the ferry. The only landmark re- tional Bank, the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburg, the Williamsburg City Fire Insurance Company, the Meserole City Surveying Company (Gen. J. V. Meserole), and several well-known res¬ taurants, cafes, law firms, cigar stores and what not. Minden's famous cafe, which was right at the ferry, has van¬ ished to other parts, while the cars that go to the ferry are few in number. The rental power of property in either side of Broadway west of Bedford ave¬ nue is inconsequential compared to the incomes it produced when the ferries were the great traffic feeders of the street. True, the Manufacturers' Na¬ tional Bank, the Nassau Trust Com¬ pany and the Kings County Savings Institution still hold forth in their old quarters, which are between Bedford aveune and Berry street, but in the opin¬ ion of those who are qualified to know it is believed that even these banks will eventually find it worth while to do business either farther east on Broad¬ way or elsewhere in Brooklyn. At the