Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 51, no. 1319: June 24, 1893

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une 24,1898 Record and Guide. ©79 ESTABLISHED ^ N^CH £1"' speculation which has been going on in other cities, and whicb is always so roughly treated in times like the present. PRICE, PER TEAR IK ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS. Published every Saturday. TBLBPHONBI: . . . - CommaulcatlonB should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, J. 2. LINDSEY, Business Manager, COBTLAimT 1370. 14 &. 16 Vesey St. ^Entered at the Foat-oglce at New York, N. T., at second-class matter." Vol. LI. JUNE 24, 1898. No. 1,319 WIIH the passing of a week the fioancial outlook haa not improved. The Treasury announcement that it would anticipate the date of payment of the July interest while practical and timely has not had the expected result on stock market prices, though it may be taken to have stayed somewhat and to some degree have lessened the decline. Thia ia disappointing, especially because it shows too plainly how unresponsive the market is to good news because of the continued inforced liquidation. There is no bear movement of any proportions worthy of consideration to account for the decline. Among the disquieting influences of the time Js tbe thought of what must become of silver under legisla¬ tion certain on this side of the Atlantic and highly probable on the otber which will take from that metal its largest market. What will become of the stocks on hand until reduced production shall have offset the change of conditions now being effected on the market for silver, and what influence will the disturbance of the silver mar¬ ket have on general trade? A large part cf the trouble in the extreme West is due to gloomy anticipations in this line. Railroad securities are now, in addition to the liquidation forced by hard times, being affected by the expectation that the com¬ mercial disasters of the country will aoon tell on railroad earnings. One bright spot in the situation is the proapect of the continuance of foreign buying of grain to bring what is moat needed, money. We have recently had a striking example of how quickly the foreign trade balances can turn in our favor, and this is a fact that should not now especially be lost sight of. A great many people seem to think that we can have no change for the better U'ltil matters have improved abroad, especially in England, but those people apparently forget that in England and the large European investing countries the money ia in greater proportion than the bnsinees, while here the contrary is the fact, and that as soon a nfidence can be induced to return we have business enough not only for our own money, but for as much as can he induced to come from our friends across the Atlantic. JDDGE LAWRENCE'S decision concerning the College place widening report is very unfortunate, very much to be regretted, because its effect will probable be to postpone indefinitely the much-needed improvement which it has been such uphill work to bring to the condition which it was in when the Judge set it rolling down again. This is to be regretted all the more because in the .judgment of all real estate men the reasons which the Judge gives for withholding his approval of the report cffered to him are not valid. The Judge's decision, as published, certainly does not show him to be very conversant with real estate matters. The whole transaction, so far as tbe west side of College place is concerned, is really a sort of double eale; and looked at in tbis way the validity of the commissioners'action is apparent. Suppose Jones owned, on the southwest comer of Chambers street and College place, a plot 50 feet by ICO feet, that is 50 feet ou Chambers street and 100 feet on College place. If tbe city bought the entire plot for, let us say, $100,000 and extended College place over one of the lots and then offered tho otber for sale at, say, $60,000, the pro¬ ceeding would not be considered very much out of the way, because all would recognize that though the interior lot was worth, when the property was bought by the city, perhaps not more than $40,000 the fact that the city had converted it from an inside to an outside lot had added additional value to it. A purchaser would be willing to pay the city the enhanced value. Now, what difference is there if instead of taking both lots the city takes only one and then, in assess¬ ing benefits, makes the holder of che second lot pay for the improve¬ ment made to his propertj'? In this way, we see, property on one side of astreet may justly be verymuch more heavily assessed than prop¬ erty on the other side of the street if the latter remains precisely as it was before the improvement was undertaken except that it fronts now on a wider street. It ia at this that Judge Lawrence seems to have balked. He does not see that there should be a debit as well as a credit side to the account of the transaction, and that while the city should pay in full for what it takes, it should in turn be paid in full for what it gives. We trust there is some way to overcome the effect of the Judge's decision. T IHE Institute of British Architects, one of the most conserva¬ tive of British institutions, has conferred its gold medal upon our fellow-countryman, Mr. Ricbard M. Hunt. There is, of course, always a great deal that is merely formal and perfunctory about "honors" of this kind. They cannot be said to add any¬ thing very real to a recipient's renown, because, aa a rule, they are the consequents of his reputation—an explicit recognition tbat it is already firmly established and widely acknowledged. So little is ever hazarded in conferring them 1 Still, there is alwaya something particularly pleasant about a compliment that comes from beyond one's own country. As with foreign merchandise, there is the feeling that because it has traveled so far it is rarer, and therefore more valuable than similar commodities obtained at home, despite its intrinsic worth. THE reports that come to ub about real estate elsewhere show tbat the New York market is the only one wherein there is anything that can be called a demand for real estate. Great dull¬ ness prevails in Boston and in Philadelphia, while out West, where a few years ago there were so many "booms," everything is abso¬ lutely stagnant. In Chicago the bad times which have prevailed for moie than a year past, have become intenser. Brokers are doing nothing, and only this week one of the largest firms went under, loaded with property which they could Lnot dispose of. Curiously, and it is an example of bow far astray people's anticipa¬ tions often are, the World's Fair, instead of being a benefit to Chicago real estate, has so far proved to be a great evil, with the chances that worse is yet to come from it. As is well known, a great mauy hotels and lodging houses were erected in anticipation of the immense crowds which it was thought would surely visit Chicago. So far the crowds bave uot arrived. Tbere is three or four times as much accommodation as visitors require. At tbe close of the Fair, if not before that event, a very large amount of property is pretty certain to be thrown on the market to still further depress it. Indeed, we are safe in saying that it will take perhaps five years for the Chicago market to lecover fully from its present condition. If it had not been for the slow liquidating process which has been going on here and there in New York real estate, for tbe last two or three years, the present difficulties would have affected tbis market very much more than they have. Of course, we are not yet out of the woods, and real estate would suffer like every other commodity in any general commercial catastrophe. Still, real estate is nowhere in a better condition than it is in New York to-day. Valuea undoubtedly cannot be considered low, but the dullness within the last couple of years has weeded out a great many of the weaker holders and put a stop to the extravagant IT would be ungracious, however, to consider too curiously the compliment which Mr. Hunt has received. Our purpose in speak¬ ing of it, except as a matter of pleasant information to Mr. Hunt's many friends, is to point out tbat it may be regarded as something more than either a personal tribute to the Nestor of the architect¬ ural profession in the United States or an act of opportune inter¬ national amenity occasioned by the World's Fair. Certainly, the personal element was not without weight with the Institute. And no doubt the appropriateness of the act to the mament suggested the act. Still, over and above these considerations the compliment is indicative of tho recognition, critical surely, and as yet dubious, but nevertheless attentive, which American architectm-e is receiv- . ing abroad. This is the point for the public. H' ERE at home we have not yet completely measured the im¬ mense progress that we have made in architecture gince—as the exhibition is uppermost to-day—let us say the Centennial. We need an indubiiable indication, such as the action of the Institute, to prompt ua to an estimation of how much we have accomplished in the last few years. In 1876, architecture in the United States was quite beyond the purview of tbe Institute with its gold medal, and justly so. In the judgment of Europe our architecture was a sort of Apache treatment of the historical styles. Where we not weak, we were barbarous. There was the expressionless brownstone front where so little was hazarded and the cast-iron front where every precedent and principle in architecture was "fired" without compunction in the pot that fused the metal. It is a sign of how amazingly quickly the mind of our people moves that both the brownstone and the cast-iron front were discarded in a day, and that whereas in 1876 there were few architects of repute that were doing any work distinctively good, to-day there are few whose