Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 77, no. 1996: June 16, 1906

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June i6, 1906 RECORD AND GUIDE "37 ESTABUSHEH ^ WAR.CH; "DE^TED id RfA,L ESTWI.6inLDIffc AR.C>flTE(rTUI^.KoUSEriOU) DEQCBiATlOtf. Btf3l^/ESSA^/DTtlEt.^EsoFGE^IER.^lI^/^ERE3■I. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Tablishtd every Satardav Communications should bo addressed to C. W, SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street, New York ) TelophouB. Cortlandt 3157 "Entered at the Post 0.£Rce al A'eu) York. N. Y, «a second-class matter." Vol, LXXVII. JUNE 16, 19013. No. 1996 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Cemept ....................sxiii Law.........................xi Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber..................xxviii Clay Products ................xxii Machinery ...................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work ................xvii Electrical Interests ..........viii Qui^k Job Directory ........xxvii Fireproofing .................ii Real Estate .................xiv Granite ....................xxiv Roofers & Rooflng Materials.xxvi Heating ....................xx Slone .....................xxiv Iron and Steel ..............xviii Wood Products...........xxviii EXCEPTING as to special stocks about which there may be special information, little is to be said this week of the financial markets generally. They are still engaged all the world over in what may be figuratively expressed as "marking time." Abroad, the Russian situation seems to dominate, while the leading politicians of both parties in this country are apparent¬ ly vying with each other in worrying and badgering industrial and railroad corporatious in the belief that that is the popular position to take. Naturally such proceedings are not conducive to the promotion of new corporate enterprises, and the effect of the policy is certain to be manifest later. Taken together with prospective tariff agitation this autumn, a chill may be put on our great prosperity. In the weird game of politics that, however, does not count, as was illustrated in the silver agita¬ tion. Let the people but cry for the m'oon, and both political parties will promptly promise that luminary in their platforms. To go forth into the world and to see with "how little wisdom the world is governed" could be said now with more fitness to the situation than when first uttered. The safety of the stock market at the moment lies in its dullness, and indeed there is no dangerous speculation in the country at large, either in se- surities or commodities. There is, however, speculation in real estate, and operators should exercise caution so as not to over¬ stay the current boom. An express running at sixty miles an hour meeting an irresistible obstruction on the track does hot stop more suddenly than some booms of this character, as old and experienced operators well know. These remarks do not apply to properties in favored progressive and gi-owing locali¬ ties, but unfortunately it is on the evidence of these substan¬ tial appreciations that the tendency to the wider aud, In some instances, unreasoning speculation now going on in certain dis¬ tricts is apt to be fostered. TWO weeks ago it was here stated thai there was every indi¬ cation of a movement iu St. Paul railroad stock. This movement has since widened and grown, until now It is uot only the feature but the mystery of the stock market, with a rise of nearly thirty ■ points since the first week in May. Our remarks about the cheapness of certain railroad stocks measured by earning power aud cost of reproduction apply with special force to St. Paul, the bonded debt of which is $17,000 a mile and stock $15,000 a mile. The railroad could not be reproduced for $40,000 a mile, and its equipment, real estate and terminals for $20,000 a mile more. Thus were its shares selling at $300 it would be at the rate of $45,000 per mile, which with tbe bonded debt would make but $62,000 a mile. It is therefore not to be wondered at that the shares have recently risen from 155, and their advance illus¬ trates the bargains Wall Street constantly presents to the stu¬ dent of values. Another speciflc instance of a railroad which, though a minor one. promises much in the near future is the Toledo, St. Louis and Western, known as "the Clover Leaf." In the leading Wall Street publication on Wednesday of this week a statement appears demonstrating that higher main¬ tenance expenditures begin to sliow results in current earn¬ ings. The analysis referred to reaches the same conclusions regarding this road as given in these paragraphs recently, as there has been an average monthly increase of both gross and net earnings. There is nothing to add to what was said last week about money. It continues aud promises to remain easy for Stock Exchange borrowings, but difficult for all other bor¬ rowers. MORE real estate activity has been shown recently in the section near Long Acre Square than for some years past. During 1901. and 1902 the section waa extraordinarily active. Thirty or more apartment hotels were built in that vicinity and seven or eight theatres. But in the years following many of tlie apartment hotels proved to be failures, and it is cur¬ rently reported that several of the theatres have not been profit¬ able enterprises. At the present time the apartment hotel boom is still in a state of collapse, and it is improbable that it will ever recover the proportions it reached during 1901 and 1902. On the other hand the theatre business is picliing up; it has recently been announced that two uew places of amusement will soon be built^one on Forty-fourth street opposite the Lamb's Club, and one on Forty-second street running through to Forty-third street. It may be doubted whether New York needs tiiese additions to its places of amusement, but wiiether they are necessary or not, the locations selected for their con¬ struction are significant. Formerly the tendency was to build theatres immediately on Broadway or on some other wide and accessible avenue. Wallack's, Daly's, the Fifth avenue, tbe Casino, the Knickerbocker, the Empire, the Broadway, the Vic¬ toria, tbe Criterion and the New York are all of them on Broad¬ way itself. Of late, however, the increasing cost of real estate on Broadway has driven the builders of theatres to the side streets In the immediate vicinity of that thoroughfare. The Building Code makes certain provisions as to alleys necessary, which increases the expense of a location on a popular thor¬ oughfare, and it is found on the whole that the theatres on the side streets do just about as well as those ou the big thorough¬ fare. The consequence is that the New Amsterdam, the Liberty, Fields, the Lyric, the Belasco, the Hudson and the Lyceum are all built on side streets. So it is with the proposed new theatres. The side streets near Ijong Acre square are much more frequented at night than were the side streets in the theatre district farther south, and there Is a concentration of theatrical husiness in that one vicinity the like of which has never heen seen in New York before. The theatres bring with them of course restaurants, saloons and cigar stores and tbe rentals which are now being received for advantageous locations in that vicinity are extraordinarily large. POPULATION in the Bronx has increased so greatly that building and real estate interests wil! feel- the effect bene¬ ficially in many ways. The State census of 1905 gave the Bronx 271,000, and the Board of Health now estimates that on July 1st, 1906, the number of inhabitants will be 290,000. This indicates that the Bronx is growing faster than any other borough. Under the new apportionment of legislative districts the Bronx will have a fuller quota of representation for the next ten years. The new apportionment goes into effect this year, and Its re¬ sults will be shown in the November election. Heretofore the citizens of the Bronx have not had adequate representation. The borough will now begin to assume an importance un¬ dreamed of a few years ago, and necessary legislation, which under its former limited representation was with difBculty ob¬ tained, will now be ensured promptly, commensurate with the great growth In influence, wealth and population of this division of Greater New York. As a city extends, new appor¬ tionments become absolutely necessary, but it frequently hap¬ pens that a fast growing district in a city remains inadequately represented until, after much agitation, a reform is effected. In this instance, however, the new apportionment comes in the nick of time just as the Bronx population will be within ten thousand of three hund.red thousand inhabitants—a great city in itself. WHEN brownstone fronts were typical of wealth and ele¬ gance in tiie IWurray Hill district of New York, the con¬ struction of such houses was carried forward under lines of such absolute uniformity as to leave New York subject to the re¬ proach of being an ugly city. Row after row of brownstone houses were built in the territory between Fourteenth and Fifty-ninth streets, Lexington and Seventh avenues, and no effort was made to introduce any diversity of construction into such of these houses as were on side streets, while those on the main thoroughfares, oh Fifth and Madison avenues, though more extensive, were also built on a uniform plan. Though brown¬ stone houses in New York have shown an endurance, with¬ standing quite successfully climatic changes, the larger dura¬ bility, greater beauty, cheaper cost, and broader variety of