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. 78, no. 1999: July 7, 1906

Real Estate Record page image for page ldpd_7031148_038_00000047

Text version:

Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view About OCR text.
July 7, 1906 RECORD AND (iUIDE '«'«K-!y,v<:>7'c) -^^^^ ESTABLISHED-W ftMtpH 21^^ 1968. I^^rjEB ID Rf\L ESTAIE .BinLDIf/G ^crflTECTUHE .HoUSOfOLD DEWS^TKSt Bi/sit/Ess Alto Themes of GetIeJvI- Ij^Rest. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Publlsfitd ttisrg Saturdasi Communications ohould bo addroaaod t* C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street. New York I) TelBphon*. Cortlandt 3157 "Entered al the Post Office at New York. Jf. T-. as srcond-dass matter." Vol, LXXVIIl. JULY 7. 1900. No. 1999 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section. Page. Page. Cement ....................sxiil Law.........................icI Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber..................xxvlil Clay Products ................xxil Machinery...................iv Contractors and Builders ......v Metal Work ................xvU Electrical Interests ..........vlil Qul;k Job Directory ........xxvli Fireproofing .................11 Real Estate .................xiv Granite ....................xxlv Roofers & RooBng Materials.xxvl Heating ....................xx Stone .....................xxiv Iron and Steel ..............xvlil Wood Products ...........xxviii PRICES of Stocks have been higher this weelt, but whether this indicates that general improvement in the market is at hand, or it is mere short covering, cannot be stated with any reasonable degi'ee oE positiveness. Ijondon showed ad¬ vances in American stocks on our National holiday, but ac¬ tivity in the British metropolis in our securities is not important, inasmuch as the cue for higher figures is invariably taken from this side of the Atlantic- There are evidences, how¬ ever, of a better feeling, and although the clouds of pessimism still are over the market their texture is of a somewhat lighter character. The situation is one about which it is scarcely safe to generalize, for surprises may be sprung upon us when least expected. It is a curious fact that in seven years of the last ten years a bull market has been begun in July, Perhaps, the higher opening on Thursday morning for some leading stocks may he a forerunner of the proverbial repetition of history. There were gains of from one to five points in Anaconda, Great Northern preferred, Louisville, Copper, the Steels, Read¬ ing. Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, Southern Pacific, Gas, Smelters and Pennsylvania, showing that the appreciaition was equally distributed both in industrials and railroads. Prices In London, too, came much higher, and incidentally it seems that in this paradoxical market stocks go up more quickly and easily than they go down. So the Cassandras who have talked about general business contraction and of a desire on the part of some interests to bring about thor¬ ough liquidation, may prove to be untrustworthy authorities. Then, we are also told that there would be little disposition for investors to come into the market until dividend paying stocks had further declined with the cost of long time loans. But, according to the American humorist it is not safe to prophesy unless you know. A favorable feature of the situation is the excellent outlook for the crops, which should he a bull argu¬ ment. The money situation is also decidedly better. Foreign exchange is likewise at a point where we can take gold profit¬ ably, but it is doubtful whether any large amount will be en¬ gaged. Reports from the leading commission houses show that they are carrying for customers fewer stocks by twenty- five per cent, than at this time last year; from which fact readers may draw their own conclusions. FROM the foregoing summary of present conditions, it is plain that both English and foreign investors believe in the United States. Our government's report on the condition of Cotton on June 25th had an exceedingly favorable effect upon British sentiment, as did the thrashing returns from the winter wheat crop and the estimates of spring and winter wheat. The Russian situation is still a disturbing element, and, is likely to remain so indefinitely from present appearances. But, if prosperity means anything, there is certainly nothing to complain of in this country. Fi^om Cleveland, Ohio, we learn the first half of this year has been the most prosperous in the history of the iron trade. The outlook for the second half is also very favorable. The recognized authority in the United States on Iron and Steel points out that the scarcity of labor adds a new and perple-SJns element to the situation. There is said to be too much prosperity. Lack of hands it is stated has made it impossible for the leading coke companies to operate more than ninety per cent, of their ovens, and they are, there¬ fore, forced to purchase some coke in the open market. The rail makers are also overwhelmed with orders, the aggregate tonnage for the next year's delivery amounting to 150,000 tons. Orders for the heavier classes of finished material continue to come in, among them bridge work for the Southern Rail¬ way, and ten thousand tons for bridge work in Pittsburgh. With such great activity in our great staple material it is dif¬ ficult to believe that there should he any misgivings for the future and that for the time being, at any rate, the country is not going to rack and ruin. BIG BUILDINGS in New York have by no means attained the maximum height and in the opinion of many build¬ ers the colossal structures of the future will much overshadow those now described as skyscrapers. But, if the construction of high buildings is only partly attained, the utilization of small buildings, and especially those on important thorough¬ fares, does not seem lilcely to go much farther, as there is a limit to the endurance of the old foundations, and the building and tenement house laws operate to prevent many other clianges. A means, however, has been found for making small old buildings on leading thoroughfares more profitable for rental purposes without danger to the structures themselves or without violence to the building laws. This has been ac¬ complished by the method of subdividing the smallest stores under a plan which may be best, perhaps, described as "divid¬ ing them in quarters." That is, a store having a frontage of twenty-five feet and a depth, of fifty, 1,250 square feet is thus divided: one store has a frontage of 12i,4 feet to a depth of 25 and the other has a frontage of 12% feet with a depth of 50 on one side and 25 on the other. This gives two stores with a frontage of 12J^ feet each to be let to two tenants, the shallow store fulfilling the requirements of those who particu¬ larly require a "show" on a thoroughfare, while the other store is rented to a tenant who requires both show and space. By this simple method, seen to be general since May 1, the rental value of a New York store is increased 50 per, cent, without material expense for alterations, and the plan has been found to work so well that it is being generally adopted. NEW YORK CITY is one of tiie dozen American cities which owe their first, if not their chief, prosperity to the excel¬ lence of their harbors, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco and Seattle are the others. But while most of these cities have been developing their commerce upon lines which left the development of dock privileges to chance or necessity,, the City of New York has not only acquired the practical con¬ trol of all its important docks, but lias developed them as prac¬ tical aids to commerce. The cities of the United States have, collectively, $GO,OuO,000 invested in docks, wharves, piers and landing places, and of this amount the City of New York has $45,000,000—three-quarters of the whole sum. Boston has $800,- 000, Philadelphia $1,100,^.00, Mobile $1,500,000 and New Orleans $5,000,000. The other port cities of the country have no docks or wharves as a municipal asset. Among interior cities—interior to the seaboard—Cincinnati, Louisville, Duluth. Pittsburg and Memphis are the ones having a considerable ownership of wharves for river or lake commerce, Pittsburg and Cincinnati have $1,150,000 each and Sacramento $225,000. The policy of New York City for many years has been to make its water-front productive, and this result has been attained by the carrying forward of a comprehensive system for dock building and for subsequent dock use by reletting. The dock rights of New York were acquired at different times and in different ways—some by right of colonial grant, others by development, and still others by actual purchase. Valued at $45,000,000 at present, the docks and wharves of,New York represent to the city an actual value, judged by the revenue they yield and the benefit to business which they assure, of not less than $100,000,000, probably. THE SUGGESTION made by the Corporation Counsel to refer the matter of the revocation of the stoop permits on Fifth avenue to the City Improvement Commission is an excellent one. Doubtless many of our readers will wonder what the City Improvement Commission is and what authority It has; but the commission is a body whose value is out of all proportion to the advertising It has received. During his first term Mayor McClellan appointed this commission for the purpose of drawing up a plan for the improvement of the street layout of K'ew York. Qity and for the prater adornment of