Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 78, no. 2012: October 6, 1906

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October 6, 1906 RECORD AND GUTDE t 555 Dn&jiD TO Rf\L Estate . Buildi^/g AR,a(iTE(nvRE .({ousEifoui DEooiiAiiorf, Bt/sii/Ess Alto Themes of GeiJeraV IjItehesi. PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Publisfitd eVers Saturday Communications should ba nddrossed to C. W. SWEET Downtown Otfice: 14-16 Vesey Street, New York Telephono, Cortlaudt 31,57 Uptown Oftlce: 11-13 East 24th Street Telephone, Madison Stiu/ira 10*6 "Entered al the Tosl Offlce at New York. N. Y., as sec.ond-clati matter." Vol. Lxxvni. OCTOBER G, 1906. No, 2012 INDEX TO DEPARTMENTS. Advertising Section, Page Page Cament.....................xxiii Law........................xi Consulting Engineers ..........x Lumber.................xxviii Clay Products ..............xxii Machinery ..................iv Contractors and Builders......v Metal Work...............xvli Electrical Interests ........viil Quick Job Directory ........xxvii Fireproofing ..................ii Real Estate................xiit Granite..................xxiv Roofers Sc Rooflng Mater'Is. .xxTi Heating ...................;tx Stone....................xxiv Iron and Steel ............xviii Wood Products ...........xxviii STOCKS have been very irregular this week, and traders complain that they cannot maice any money. The market keeps everybody guessing by reason of its contrary movements—stocks of the same class and character often mov¬ ing violently in, opposite directions. The market acts as if it wanted to go up, but it does not do so, and there are too many people who fee! that it is going down, which under the circumstances would perhaps be the best attitude to assume. Last month the high interest rates for money caused great dissatisfaction, and now the reiief given to the market by the Secretary of the Treasury has not on the whole been profitable to stock brokers. As a shrewd observer remarked, "A man who is not already in the market should stay out and watch it for the next few weeks." But there are, nevertheless, some encouraging features in the financial situation. Real estate and building interests have been distinctly benefited hy easier money conditions. When Secretary Shaw announced last month that the Treasury would make deposits In national banks to facilitate the importation of gold, accepting bonds pending arrival of the gold, money loaned on the New York Stock Exchange earned as high as 40 per cent, per annum, the maxi¬ mum rate for September, Call and time money are now ranging from 5 to 6 per cent., so for the time being real estate build¬ ing and general business are not suffering in any way. Still there are other things than money that are disquieting to the Stock Exchange operator. It had been generally understood that Atchison common stock was to be placed upon a 6 per cent, annual basis. There was great disappointment at the announcement on Wednesday at the declaration of a semi¬ annual dividend of 2y per cent. The result was a break of over four points in the stock. It was implied that those on the Inside had profited largely by the advance in Atchison by selling extensively, while outsiders who bought in expectation of a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum lost heavily. This little episode had the effect of unsettling the whole market. In view, however, of the great prosperity, such matters as these should not be a cause for anxiety. It is stated on good authority that the value of New York's realty has In¬ creased six billions in a period of ten years, the real estate alone during the last five years in the five boroughs com¬ prising the greater City of New York having increased three billions four hundred millions. RICHMOND COUNTY'S water front extends fifty miles, but is the only water frontage in a borough of New Yorli which Is of undeveloped commercial value to the city, though offering vast possibilities of future expansion. In the whole of Richmond Borough the city owns outside of the municipal ferry a dock in the Fifth Ward, valued at $7,500 only. At St. George five thou¬ sand feet of water-front is owned by the Staten Island Railway and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. Adjoining is property of the United States Government, the lighthouse establishment at Tompkinsville; the adjoining eight hundred feet belong to the American Docks and Trust Co. The shore from Clifton to the waters of the lower bay is the property of the State of New York or of the United States, and is occupied by the quarantine boarding station and the fortifications on the west side of the Narrows. A comprehensive improvement of the Staten Island water-front following the proposed construction of the Bay Ridge tunnel would greatly inure to the benefit of the city, and to¬ wards this improvement the adoption by the Federal Govern¬ ment of, its present elaborate plans for the improvement of the harbor channel would contribute. IT does not seem to be a very happy idea of Mr. John Wanamaker's to turn the site of "Old London" into an arcade. Broadway in that vicinity is so far removed from the shopping district that it will not make a good location for an arcade. An arcade, iu order to be really successful, should run between two important streets in the center of a large city and provide a necessary thoroughfare for pedestrians not provided by a pubiic street. We do not believe that any such thorough¬ fare is necessary between Broadway and Lafayette Place, and we do not believe that Mr, Wanamaker's property, improved in this way, will pay as well as if a tall loft building were erected thereon. It is a singular fact, by the way, that New York City, in spite of its concentrated population and its enormous number of shops, does not contain a single arcade such as those which are so successful in certain foreign cities, and even in certain other American cities. The Windsor Ar¬ cade does not properly deserve the name, and neither does the new one at Fifty-ninth street and Madison avenue. These so- called arcades lead nowhere and are merely devices in the planning of a building for the purpose of securing more stores on the ground floor. Probably one reason why the device has not been used in New York is that the blocks between two important avenues are usually very long. It is the avenues which are the important business thoroughfares, and they are connected by numerous crosstown streets. If the plan of New York had called, as it should have, for longitudinal thoroughfares every 200 feet and crosstown streets every GOO feet, then a con¬ dition would have been created which might in the shopping districts have resulted in the construction of many arcades. It is possible, however, that In the future changes which are taking place will afford an opportunity for more arcades. It is proposed, for instance, to run one from Thirty- fourth street to Tliirty-tbird street, opposite the new Pennsyl¬ vania Station, and the plan looks like a very good one, because there would really he need of a thoroughfare at that point between Seventh and Eighth avenues from Thirty-third to Thirty-fourth street. Wherever two parallel and adjoining crosstown streets become of considerable business importance, as in the foregoing case, an arcade wears a promising appear¬ ance, and this condition will be created more frequently in the New York of the future than it has in New York of the past. The irregular blocks formed by Broadway's erratic course across the city ought also to offer opportunities for arcades. It is much to be hoped that some successful ones will he con¬ structed, because they constitute an amusing and characteristic variation from the monotony of the streets in a city's shopping district. THREE MILLION dollars are expended every year hy Ameri¬ can cities for art galleries, art museums and additions to their contents, this sum being only a fraction of the total ex¬ penditures for such purposes, private generosity and civic spirit adding many millions each year. In the year covered by the last Government report, the expenditures of Boston for fine arts (galleries, museums and the purchase of paintings and statuary) amounted to $10,000 only, Baltimore expending $10,000 and Detroit $12,600. Cincinnati expended $170,000, Chicago $100,000 and Philadelphia $175,000. These figures are small when compared with the expenditures of New York for fine arts, which amount to $400,000 a year ordinarily. This year the city's appropriation for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History is $320,000, of which the larger part is for the former. Brooklyn is allotted $SO,000 in addition for its museums. The importance of works of art iu the development of the high capabilities of a large city is not to be lightly underrated. European capitals owe much to the constant development their artistic resources hy govern¬ ment aid or private bounty, and whatever makes for the establishment of a gi-eat city outside of its purely commercial character is an element of attraction. To New York Jn great numbers men of wealth frora other cities have come to make their homes, and New York enjoys each summer in constantly Increasing measure the benefit of the temporary residence here, of large numbers of tourists from other cities whose patronage and appreciation have done much to put New Yorli far In advance of al! other places as the one place in the United States having aU the important attributes of a great city.