crown CU Home > Libraries Home
[x] Close window

Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Use your browser's Print function to print these pages.

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 20, no. 507: December 1, 1877

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031128_020_00000391

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS^ GUIDE. Vol. XX. NEW YOBK, SATURDAY, DEOEMBEB 1, 1877. No. 507. Published Weekly by TERMS. OIVE YEAR, in advance... .$10.00. Oommunicafcions should be addressed to C. W. SIVEET, Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway. MOVEMENTS OF TRADE CENTRES. The peregrinations of trade centres furnish an interesting and instructive study, as they also serve to distinguish New York from any other modern city. This ceaseless um-est, the rotation of localities, the constant overtui*ning of busmess centres, gives New York its bristling and ever fresh external appearance, while at the same time it renders the ownership of its real estate at times an inestimable boon, and at others an intol¬ erable burden. It is superfluous at this late day to inquire into the causes underlying this pecu- liai* feature of municipal growth. It may be re¬ ferable in part to the mercurial and restless tem¬ perament of our people, but chiefly and largely to the exigencies of the oblong shape of om* island. The ever lengthening radius of its commercial prestige, which entitles it to the distinction of the great trade centre of the Union, also occasions a periodical redistribution and transposition of its various centres of special business. The history of the city reveals this migratory chai-acter of its. trade growth so plainly and strikingly, that no calculations of real estate values could be consid¬ ered sound or reliable which fail to take it into account. There was a time when the trade of the city, both wholesale and retail, was so incon¬ siderable that these two elements could be con¬ veniently interwoven and intermixed within a comparatively small circumference, embracing what was then considered the business section of the city. Probably the greatest mutation of trade locality that our city has ever known was when, through sheer force of necessity, the two elements of wholesale and retail were permsuiently divorced and dislocated in their respective fields of action. At a comparatively recent period Canal street was the recognized centre of retail trade, and many shrewd owners supposed that that broad and ac¬ cessible avenue would continue to retain, for all itime, its special distinction as the retail mart of ;this city. The invasion of it by wholesale busi¬ ness was slow and gradual, and attended at first ■with many drawbacks and failures. At length, with the upward stride of population, retail trade -obeyed the natural instinct of following closely upon its heels, and Canal street ceased to be a prominent retail avenue, relapsing into its pres- ,ent moribund or transitional state. The-retail centres of the future are becoming clearly de¬ fined, and are likely to take, in time, permanent shape and form. In its nature the retail trade is so diffusive, relies so directly upon proximity to resident population and is apt to distribute itself so obsequiously on the accepted lines of residence .occupation,'that it is difficult to claim for it the pre-emption of central localities. The ancient re¬ tail stores of Canal street have expanded andmul- .^piied almost uj^e^itel^.s^rea^jng tb?P??ly?®. on those great shopping thoroughfares, to vsdt: the Third, Sixth and Eighth avenues. It is only in the higher and more luxurious branches of re¬ tail trade that any attempt is made to establish what may be called distinct centres. Such a focusing of business has already commenced at Union square, destined to rival the famed shop¬ ping localities of European cities. In all likeli¬ hood the successive squares which are formed by the intersection of Broadway with the longitud¬ inal avenues will afford the occasions and oppor¬ tunities for similar distinctive centres of the near f utm-e. The e-yidences are altogether convincing that the squares at Thirty-second street, at Forty- third street and at Fifty-ninth street will,in after years,assert an importance corresponding to that of Union and Madison squares of the present time. The wholesale branches of business, however, present a more ctrcvunscribed but no less marked exhibition of this nomadic instinct. In all other cities that we know of, localities once selected for special business purposes,are fixed and immovable, and retain their distinctive character through many generations. In our 'own city wholesale business, with few exceptions, manifests no qual¬ ity of babitativeness, or attachment to permanent localities. The dry goods trade, that champion of change and expositor of fabulous rents, has been marked by a total absence of such predilec¬ tions. In all past experience, the dry goods dis¬ trict has sustained to business locations the same relation that the fashionable residence district has borne to residence quai-ters at large. It is fastid¬ ious and capricious almost to the extent of femi¬ nine whimsicality and volatility, ever claiming and ready to assert its pre-emptive rights to the choic¬ est and most eligible sections that the city affords. It seems to possess, too, the abflity to pay maxi¬ mum rentals, and in this respect has gained an easy superiority over all other lines of business in the indulgence of its expensive tastes. Its migra¬ tion from lower Pearl street, of which it once held the exclusive monopoly, to the westerly side of Broadway, extending far into the region bounded by Park place and Warren street, is compara¬ tively a matter of ancient history. At a later date it forsook its then chosen locality and estab¬ lished itself in the higher district which it now occupies, bounded by Duane and White streets, Broadway and West Broadway. So fixed and permanent has its present occupation seemed in comparison with former vagaries, that it might appear foolhardy to suggest the possibility of any eai'ly change. And yet events of so recent an occurrence as -within the present year, indicate veryplainly a growing restlessness of this hyper¬ critical and peripatetic trade with its present sur¬ roundings. The exodus of a few prominent firms connected with the woolen and silk trade from the present accepted quarter to a district north of Canal street, having for its centre the comer of Broome and Greene streets,.is full of suggestion as to the direction which any future movement of the general trade may take, and marks the prob¬ able site or oasis of its new occupation. Probably^ before the lapse, of many years or months, we.may witness a complete hegira of the trade to this newly chosen locality. The -reason oomi|io»ly assigned for the obangableness of tWs trade, with regard to location, is the necessity of maintaining proximity to the leading commer¬ cial hotels. We suspect that motives of economy also prevail to some extent in determining these changes. It is characteristic of the typical land¬ lord to forget the fable of the goose and the golden egg, and to seek to extract, from a willing and prosperous tenant, a greater rental than even the best business is capable of affording, under the delusion that a good location is necessary to the successfid prosecution of a special business. This consideration may hold good up to a certain point; but as the dry goods trade has shown a prompt disposition to follow, albeit at a respect¬ ful distance, the upward growth of the city, too strict enforcement of it is apt to overreach the mark. The discussions which are now going on, and have firequently occurred during the past thi-ee years, between landlords and tenants in the dry goods district, unless quickly and promptly settled to the satisfaction of the tenants, -wfll be likely to precipitate this foreshadowed migration. A large section of unprofitable real estate lying west of Broadway between Canal street and Clinton place will afford a fine field for the ex¬ patiation and expansion of this, the pioneer wholesale business of the metropolis. The grocery trade has partaken, in a modified degree, of this nomadic instinct. After having occupied Front street as a settled and established home for a long time, it has become an accepted fact that the present chief tocaZe of this business is along West Broadway, extending westerly tb the river, and having its focus at a point som©^ where between Reade and Franklin. This mi¬ gration may be assigned to the necessity which seems to be almost imperative for this business to maintain a close proximity to the great dry goods district. The hardware business has wandered from up¬ per Pearl street to Chambers andthe streets run¬ ning parallel to it. The drug business, which once maintained its pre-eminence on Water street, has of late years been transported to William street, north of Cedar, and the iron business, which held the lower end of Broad street formerly, as its re¬ cognized locality, is now distributed at points adjacent to the North River, principally upon Washington and Wesfc streets. In a greater or less degree this system of migration is charac¬ teristic of all the leading trades of the city, though seldom with such marked and united re- sxilts as those already referred to. The occupa¬ tions of the most prominent stores in Broadway, from Chambers street to Fourteenth street, has within the past two years, imdergone a very noticable change. The clothing business which once foimd its congenial headquarters on Chat¬ ham and Catherine streets, is now occupyiqg some of the most sightly stores on oqr great thoroughfare, and many kindred classes of bnsir ness such as Trimimings, White Goods, and Fancy Goods are also conspicuously invading eligible localities on Broadway. We can now recall, but two instances of an imperturbable and persistent adUerenceto old lo¬ cations. WaU street has beooine sfynonymous -VTxth finance, ancl envoys such a world-wide repu^