Newspaper Page Text
Big Rents Paid by New Yorkers.
A BROADWAY CORNER HOLDS WORLD’S RECORD.
Enormous Sums Charged For Officesand Apartments Both Downton and Uptown
g B;—_Tl. W. MOUNT. ‘
The island of Manhattan isn’t very
big. but it makes the most of itself.
One little chunk of it, at Broadway
and Wall street, commands a higher
rental than is paid for the same
amount of space anywhere else in
the world. Slightly over $35 &
square foot, averaging, it is said,
$40,000 a year, is paid by a cigar
company for one small store on this
site, which goes to show that money
invested in cigar stores does not all
go up in smoke.
A quarter of a million is the con
servative sum estimated as represent
ing the combined rentals of space
on the concourse floor of the Hud
son Terminal Building, while half a
million is paid by a single firm for
ten floors in a neighboring skyscrap
er and, it is said, the Erie Railroad
more than matches this sum by the
tidy rental it pays for five floors in
the Cortlandt street Terminal Build
ing. No other corporation has as
much floor area in this structure.
People who want office space in
Manhattan never seem to let a iittle
matter of rent stand in the way of
acquiring it. When John W. Gates
desired a suite of private offices in
upper Fifth avenue he paid $55,000
a vear for a modest sized floor and
fitted it up cozily at an expenditure
of $12,000. His suite in the Trinity
Building cost him $50,000.
The postoffice is one of Manhattan's
good tenants. Close upcn a quarter
of a million dollars goes into Father
Knickerbocker’s pockets from the
government, which pays $230,000 a
vear for postoffice stations, finding
space in the Grand Central Palace at
$33,500 a year, at West and Morton
streets for $20,500 and at the Madi
son Square and a few other stations
at almost as high a figure. The Pro
duce Exchange has the postoffice for
a tenant. Like others, it has to pay
the $7.50 a square foot, which totals
up to $4500 a year for store space
in this bailding.
Lessees aré so afraid that rents
will continue to soar in Manhattan
that many—the government includ
ed—have taken out as long leases
as they could, while, on the other
hand. numerous agents have wisely
provided against future contingencies
‘of another kind and refused to lease
except on long terms.
A $72,000,000 Leasc.
The longest lease of its kind in
New York is that of a Greeley
Square site at the southeast corner
of Broadway and Thirty-third street
for a term of 105 years for $12,-
000,000. Four millions will be paid
for the first forty-two years and SB,-
000,000 for the rest of the term, an
arrangement on the part of the les
see, Harry Levey, which goes to show
that he believes the site will increase
in value a generation or so after he
has erected a two or three million
dollar structure to stand upon that
corner on completion of the Penn
sylvania tunnel.
The old New York Club site, at
Fifth avenue and Thirty-fifth street,
has been taken by a grocery firm for
a term of twenty-one years for $4,-
000,000 net, while another lease for
the same period has been entered in
to for No. 1 West Thirty-fourth
street.
‘“Notwithstanding the present
money stringency, there has been no
appreciable reduction in rentals for
office space this year,” said Robert
A. Granniss, Jr., vice-president of
the firm of Pease & Elliman, speak
ing about downtown office buildings.
“‘The general average of offices rent
for $2 a square foot, and $30,000 for
a floor is considered a pretty good
rental in the average office building.
A common price is about SIOOO a
year for an office about twenty-eight
by eighteen feet in size, which is usu
ally partitioned off into three rooms.
“Of course, there are exceptions to
all rules, and certain buildings in
Broadway, in the neighborhood of
Wall Street get from $3 tos4a s(flare
toot for a floor 20,000 to 30,000
square feet in size. ‘
**A brisk demand exists for offices,
and, owing to the opening of the new
buildings, many firms have been at
tracted to New York who have never
had offices here. Of course, store
sents are always higher than office
rents, and ground floors are looked
upen as practically store floors and
rent accordingly.” !
Rent of SIOOO a Rocm. “
~lt is said in the Empire Building,
in which the Carnegie Steel Company
is, that its offices rent for over $3 ai
foot, or more than SIOOO a room,i
and some companies occupy severali
floors in this building, each represent- |
ing an annual fortune in rentals. The
same prices obtain in the Trinity and
its companion building, where no
company occupies more than two
floors at an estimated rental of more‘
than $30,000 a floor. It is said that
these prices are matched by those‘
obtainable in the City Investing Com
pany, Hanover Bank, Equitahle.l
Singer and Terminal buildings. The
two latter are, respectively, the tall-‘
est and largest office buildings in the
world, while the City Investing (,'r):n-j
pany is said to possess the longest
main corrider in the country. ‘
In the neighborhood of these‘i
structures store space rents at sls a |
square foot, or S6OOO a year for a“
small store of four hundred sguare
feet, while second floors, with onlyl
a short. flight of stairs from the
street, bring $lO a square foct, ox'l
S4OOO for a small store. Correspond
ingly high prices are also paid for
offices which occupy especially ad
vantageous positions.
In the uptown office district $30,-
000 a year is said to be the highest
‘rental paid for a store floor. This
is at Fifth avenue and Twenty-sixth |
‘street, and rooms for offices in this |
locality bring about SIOOO a year,
or $2.75 a square foot.
~ Significant of the times in the fact .
‘that private houses which have rent-!
ed at S9OOO and SIO,OOO are-now;
bringing only S4OOO =nd SSOOO. For|
exceptionally fine houses people pay |
a rental of from $25,000 to $75,000 |
a year, a price which would havei
made the early Knickerbockers gasp, !
while the fact that the late J. Henryl
Smith paid $2,300,000 for the Whit- !
ney house when he bought it, with;
a few of its furnishings, would have‘
caused the very wigss to rise from |
their heads in amazement. l
*“The most expensive residence |
property in Manhattan,” said Messrs.
Pease & Elliman, “lies between Fifth
and Madison avenues from Fifty
ninth to Seventy-second street. In
good sections this property sells for
$400,000 to $500,000, while in Park
and Madison avenues values run from !
SIOO,OOO to $200,000 for a house
and lot. i
$40,000 ¥or Eight Months.
The highest rental paid recentl‘v}
for a house was $40,000 for a period |
of eight months. This house is in |
Sixty-second street, just off Flfth!
avenue. Scarcely two blocks below |
it in the avenue are apartments‘
which are said to be the most ex
pensive in the city, with an average
annual rental of $15.000 each. Peo
ple who have two of these apartments |
thrown into one to enjoy a spaciousl
home pay just twice that sum for the
additional privilege.
In this locality ten-room suites, |
unfurnished, may be had for $12,-
000 a year, while a block further
down large suites entice the gre- |
garious householder at $7500, unless
he wants them furnished, when he
can get them for S9OOO. Around
Fiftieth street housekeeping apart
ments bring $12,000, while an apart
ment hotel not far distant asks SIOOO
a room a year aand rents small suites |
at SSOOO a year.
Certain apartment hotels consider
S6OO to S3OO a room no unreasonabie
figure to ask for suites of rooms, and l
that homeseekers agree with them
is shown by the cheerfulness with |
~which they pay this price. |
. New York hotels no longer shelter
only a transient population. Each
great caravansary means home to un
numbered families, John W. QGates
is said to have paid $50,000 a yvear
for his suite at the Plaza Hotel.
A certain wealthy woman is said to !
exceed this figure by SIO,OOO in the
sum she pays for her luxurious ho- |
tel apartment. At the Holland
House one may enjoy the use of two
rooms and a bath for $15,000 a|
year, and at the St. Regis at the rate |
of 's2s a day, while the Waldorf!
charges $20,000 a year for small
suites.
The St. Regis is perhaps the only
place in New York whi¢h will not
make a long lease. A tenant is
charged by the day only, and may
decrease or add to the number of
rooms in his suite at his own con
venience and depart at pleasure, with
no lease to occasion months of out-'
lay during absence. v
Special Privileges Costliest,
The highest rents in New Yorkl
are paid for standing room. The most |
princely rental paid for store, office,
residence, apartment or hotel space
does not compare, proportionately,
with the sum expended for an hum
ble bootblack stand, a soda fountain
or cigar kiosk.
A. Schulte pays S3O a square foot
for cigar privileges in the Cortlandt
street Terminal Building, and this is
said to be next to the highest rent
paid by anybody in the world. The
cigar lease for the northwest corner
of Cortlandt and Church streets runs
for twelve years at a cost of S3O a
square foot for 600 square feet, while
the lease includes five other stands
in the Terminal Building at a totall
cost of half a million. One of these |
is in the exact centre of the Hudson]
terminal eoncourse floor, and for this ,
glass booth, open on three sides andi
covering a space twenty-one by nine
feet in size, a rental of $7560 a year!
is charged. It is said that ].88,000}
cigars at two for twenty-five cents |
would have to be sold to cover a!
year's expenses of this stand, and, |
taking other expenses into account, a.%
aquarter of a million would need to be i
disposed of before profits would be- |
gin, . 1
Higher prices are paid for cigar |
privileges than for any other occupy- |
ing a proportionate amount of space. |
In a Broadway office building 51500’
is received as annual rent for a stand {
ninety-nine square feet in size, and |
such stands pay correspondingly high |
prices for space in other buildings
and hotels.
Booth space is rented subjeet to
bia and charged for on the basis of
the business proposed as much as on
the location of space. Eizht trades
are great lessees of space privileges,
and rank in the following order asg
profitable tenants of these: Tobacco,
bootblack, soda water, package candy,
newsg, flowers, fruit and cutlery and
gatciel stands.
A boothlack formerly rented a
large stand in the Empir: Suilding at
a cost of SIO,OOO a year :»d one paid
S4OOO for a small space in the
Equitable Building, which was the
first to establish booth lined corri
dors, and even now charges as high
as S2OOO for stand privileges. The
bootblack privilege in the Hudson
Terminal rents for SIO,OOO a year
for a term of twelve years.
Notwithstanding such a tax upon
the privilege of shining shoes, boot
black stands netted Tony Aste a for
tune and enabled him to maintain
a costly racing stable.
Office building booths pay on an'
average of $450 to SBOO a year, with
exceptions here and there, notably in
the "Terminal Building, where a
small central space of about ten by
twenty feet rents for S6OOO, a soda
water stand for $15,000 and ordinary
side booths from S2OOO to S3OOO a
year, while in the corridor a booth
about 560 feet square is leased at
S3OOO. |
A small bar pays $26,000 a year 1
for its space and a restaurant on the |
concourse floor about $30,000 for
a room in which to feed hungry frav~
elers. While ¢igar stands pay the
highest rentals, bar privileges make
a close second in buildings where
these exist, and flowers sometimes
match their fragrance against that o]
the popular “weed’” when it comes
to paying rent, as in the Grand Cen
tral Station, where a flower stand
pays the highest rent for the space
it occupies of any booth actually en
gaged in business to-day.
Flower booths in hotels pay an
average rental of SISOO to S2OOO a
year, and in the Terminal Building
nosegays will cost their sellers from
S3OOO to $4500 in booth rents.
Those who adorn every available
spot—ifrom chimney top to bedrock
—with advertisements have to con
tribute not less than $404,333.34 a
vear to the coffers of the subway and
elevated systems for the privilege of
informing the wayfarer what to chew
and how to make hair grow, while
railroad trunk lines derive a pretty
penny from news comparies who dis
pense news and candies along their
lines.—New York Tribune.
RN Py N
G SN "))
g Qumm‘.
-ond 8
N 1171005 L 8
TR PSS
The salaries paid the employes o
New York City aggregate seventy
six millions dollars a year. :
It is estimated that nearly 4004
‘acres, of cedar trees are cut dow
‘annually to provide the materia
for lead pencils.
4- —
i ¥lason Canfield, of New Milford,
Conn., is the oldest voter in New
England. He is 100 years old and
has deposited a ballot at every presi
dential election since 1828,
Cremation is not yet permitted in
Austria; from Belgium, too, bodies
must be sent to France or England,
as there are no crematory ovens in
the country. Spain has no regulations
on this matter.
- In the collection of armor in the
Tower of London is a helmet sent to
Henry VIIIL by the King of Portugal.
It is a mask of Satan with gleaming
red eyes and the wusual horns of
Mephistopheles. The Portuguese po
tentate evidently possessed a sense
of humor.
In Russia and Saxony they are a
little more sensible, for in both coun
tries a youth must refrain from mat
rimony till he can count eighteen
years and the woman till she can
count sixteen. In Switzerland the
men from the age of fourteen and
the women from the age of twelve
are allowed to marry.
The young bee, as she issues from
her cell, is a baby-like creature, but
in a few days she is at the height of
her strength and usefulness. She
stays at home, as a rule for about
two weeks and helps to do the house
work of the hive, removing dead
bees and foreign matter, attending
the queen and feeding her, secretin
wax, building comb, caring for tlyE
larvae and ventilating the hive. !
When a New York florist brought
from his refrigerator a bunch of
roses of a velvety blue-black hue,
such ag certain dark pansies possess,
he remarked: ““These black roses are
called ‘Fetizoffs,” in honor of their
creator, Piotr Fetisoff, a Russian of
Veronezh, Fetisoff, a poor man
originally, is growing rich from his
black roses. He sells slips at a tre
mendous price to florists and nursery
men all over the world.. Some peo
ple think that black roses are simply
red roses dyed. It is a great mistake,
They are the real thing.”
Desperate means were sometimes
resorted to in order to get men for
British warships. A chronicler writes
that in the year 1738, ‘‘a fleet of
ships, being required immediately to
be manned, the press gangs placed
a live turkey on the top of the monu
ment, which, drawing together a
great. number of idle people, they
h&d the opporiunity of selecting as
many men as answered the purpose
of their intended scheme.” The gcene
80 enraged a citizen that he fired a
shot at the bird, “'which occasioned
it to fly away.” But the mischict
had begn done
Jashions
New York City. — Coats that in
one way or another are so arranged
as to conceal the armhole seams,
u‘\ Gy
il
N3z //
‘M 4 (" -.r.':_
Ca 2 ;jfgw“; o
g N 7 6 2
:".«\a\ " ‘ ,‘“ "‘ J’/ “" 3 ‘: \
%&J 2 K ZANE N A
3 Vi % A
A gl y !
Z NS N AN
e b I BN
| A‘l 17, ’ o
o Y 11/, ¢
i | ’/i{ / K N\
; 4 0 1 ’l' \\\\‘\ \
I :u’% SRR IM
A 4 O N B
i\ 1A vy \\ | \
{ W ! ’//'/ NQ \
Ll 7 o |
: \ aifl / - Y
an By
) It | | \
o\ HEARsy {7l P ‘r[
‘.r‘;fl[ ‘/ ) :
. :\'l'\ '1!-‘,
1 ]
DI A\
{ \\ //’ =2
8 ~;’s’ )
/’//‘r’l/ X N \ ‘,v A
M /, \ Y
I /111 \ ‘\‘\ iy
‘/ // \
v /,/ 7/{ J/’ g
‘ ‘ /’/ // f,‘ \
( / /;"// 1 \\ }l
i / "y ;
/ \
%1
make a notable feature of the season.,
This one, designed for young girls,
is charmingly attractive and grace-
/w%\\% 2 |
fl,/ k 3 4 &Q !
ey s | o {
\J o~
(@ M‘fi /! % o
C Q“l("/ T =\ v/
3 2\ / “‘:
/‘l\’& E \ f‘v‘x Hi
WM M",. Ly
| _ ~N'\
Ul \//@l l/
f\l {6" 0/
N.’ l/ 4
Al
/: @fi ?l. V{[
Uil LT
%%’f' \“‘ | :l"".' 5T ‘r A S [
| e
) et
e e
ful yet quite simple withal, and al
lcws a choice of three-quarter or full
length sleeves. lln the illustration
porcelain blue Panama cloth is trim
med with black braid, but the little
wrap is adapted to every seasonable
suiting material. It would be charm
ing made of any of the rough finished
pongees or of linen quite as well as of
wool, and it can be trimmed with
straight banding or with applique or
finished with stitched edges only as
liked.
The coat is made with fronts, side
fronts, backs and side-backs. The
fronts and backs are lapped over onto
the side-fronts and side-backs, so
forming the pleats over the shonl
ders, 'fhe sleeves are made in two
portions each and three-quarter
sleeves are finished with cuffs, but
the long ones are stitched to simulate
the effect.
The quantity of material required
for the medium size is three and
three-quarter yards twenty-seven, two
and three-eight yards forty-four or
two and one-eighth yards fifty-two
inches wide with four and one-half
yards of braid.
An Emotional,
An ‘“emotional” gown is of smoke
gray veiling with little touches of
blue and silver embroidery and dead
roses at the belt. It is known as the
“dear desire”’—possibly because of
the price.
Popular Silk Patterns.
Bapphire blue foulard, patterned
with white disks, dots, stripes, checks,
Grecian pdtterns, or other motifs, is
one of the popular silks.
Riot of Colors,
In the bewilderi®g mazes of colors
that are in vogue this season there is
always danger that too glaring col
ors or unbecoming tints, though ef
fective, may be chosen. There is no
denying that striking colors challenge
attention, and certain complexions
can stand brilliant colors.
Misses' Pancy Pleated Skirt.
There is no variation of the pleated
skirt that is not in demand just now
and this one suits young girls ad
mirably well. It is plain over the
hips and at the waist line, so doing
away with all bulk at thatpoint, while
it is gracefully and becomingly full
below. In the illustration it is made
of one of the novelty materials trim
med with banding, but it is suited
to almost everything seasonable.
Plaids and stripes with bias folds of
the same are much worn, plain on
plaid material is in vogue and there
are numberless ready made bandings,
while also a plain stitched hem is al
ways correct. Indeed, simple as the
skirt is, it can be varied again and
again,
There are nine gores with exten
sions that form the pleated portions
and the fullness at the back is laid
in inverted pleats. Above the pleats
the edges of the gores are lapped
one over the other and are stitched
flat, while they ean be trimmed with
lruttons as illustrated or let plain as
liked.
The quantity of material required
for the sixteen-year size is ten yards
twently-seven, five and one-half yards
forty-four or five yards fifty-twe
AFLT
\ ,r/éfl/ Ib)
i ,fiw
i l \ /i ’ ™ B
b | A ,\ .\
| il 1 I
/ M A
; 4:1 V- \'l
;"/{/,,x' ‘ ",/4 :\‘
A <. \ T
iy /f\‘ 14 \ . ;
W -
,'/.«fl/" ) l
AL HIE H@,
il ML AR
A A
(Ol B “
~ X 1 .- \ B
6' A%, /,’s\/ d M )
Al il
/ i 1 1)
Ul
\»\., I}4
inches wide with five and one-quar
ter yards of banding.
Outline Tucks,
Some of the broad tucks in the new
linen tailored blouses are sewn in
with the outline stitch in mercerized
cotton. This is merely the bhack stitch
used on the right side of the ma
terial, and in contrast of shades it
presents many possibilities,
Smart Linen Gowns.
White linen gowns showing a touch
of color are considered snmarter thar
all white this seazon.
/ \ g 3 ~, R: ‘m ) W
N 7 /)" POPULAR \ 4
N & __SCIENCE 7
Iron and steel pipe may be readily
distinguished by a flatfening test, ac
cording to statements made at the
meeting of the American Society of
Heating and Ventilating Engineers.
Soft steel pipe, cut #n very short
lengths or rings, flattens smoothly
and evenly without breaking, while
wrought iron pipe usually fractures
at two or more places when flattened.
According to the American Machin-
Ist, the greatest single consumption ot
brass is for condenser tubes, a battle
ship alone having from 30,000
pounds to 40,000 pounds of condenser
tubing in it; and owing to the cor
rosive effect of sea water this tubing
must be continually replaced. The
material used is usually either Muntz
metal—sixty per cent. copper, forty
per cent. zine—or else a mixture of
copper, seventy; zinc, twenty-nine,
and tin, one.
The most remarkable feat of travel
in the whole history of creation, with
a single exception, i the invasion of
Europe, Asia and the Americas by
the elephant family, whose birth was
in Africa. New light has been thrown
upon this interesting chapter of nat
ural history through the discoveries
of the American Museum of Natural
History; and the paleontologist in
charge of the museum’s recent expedi
tion to Egypt, Professor Henry Fair
field Osborn, has written fully for the
Century of “Hunting the Ancestral
Elephant in the Fayum Desert.”
An irrigating canal has just been
completed in Hawaii. It will carry
45,000,000 gallons of water daily
through sixteen miles of tunnel and
open ditch. Its purpose is primarily
to carry water for irrigation from the
Waimea River to the Kehaka planta
tion, but on the way it will be used
at two places for the development of
electricity,
That eminent American astron
omer, Professor Percival Lowell, has
become fully convinced, from photo
graphs of Mars, taken recently at the
Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz.,
and in South America by the scien
tific expedition sent there, that the
little planet is inhabited. The piec
tures, .in the professor’s opinion, cor
roborate the theory of a remarkable
system of Martian canals, and so as
sure him beyvond a doubt that the
planet is “the abode of intelligent,
constructive life.” J
\
| P
‘ Dr. John B. Watson, professor of
physiology in the University of Chi
cago, is said to have made the dis
covery that sea gulls have a lan
guage of their own and think as well
~as talk. Dr. Watson has just re
turned from a remarkable trip of
research in the Dry Tortugas Island
off the lower coast of Florida, where
he made the discovery.
The mammoth lived in Europe—
and also in America—before the
Glacial Period set in; it flourished in
an inter-glacial time, and was driven
south as its habitat was invaded by
the snow and ice. No wild elephant
has lived in Europe during the hige
toric period.
The Oyster, Psychologically
By ED. MOTT,.
It is the fate of the oyster, peace
ful as he is, to perish in many a broil.
And how he is deviled!
How he must submit to everyone's
sauce!
How delighted people ever are to
touch him on the raw!
How they love to keep him in hot
water!
What a stew he is frequently in!
Poor oyster! His case is, indeed,
uncommonly hard.
Quiet always, mild to placidity, yet
he participates in nightly scenes of
debauch and revel,
He frequents midnight suppers,
companions of wild roisterers of every
degree,
His very name suggests irregularity
of living, late hours, riotous company,
unwholesome haunts, unlimited pota
tions.
And yet ladies and gentlemen, the
highest and most exclusive, have him
at dinner, not only without scruple,
but with undisguised pleasure. There”
would be a blank at the board with
out him,
What a creature of fate, indeed, is
the oyster!
His earliest close associate a heart
legs rake.
Later in life welcome guest of the
high, the mighty, the brave, the fair,
His inevitable end and epitaph;
“In the Soup!"—From Judge.
Didn't W 29 Him,
“I've got the very thing you want,"”
gaid the stableman to a ruralist in
search of a horse; “a thoroughgoing
road horse. Five years old, sound
as a quail, $175 cash down, and he
goes ten miles without stopping.”
The purchaser threw his hands
skyward. ‘“Not for me,” he gaid.
“Not for me, I wouldn't gif you five
cents for him. 1 live eight miles out
in the country, and I'd half to walk
back two miles.”-—Farmers' Homge
Tournal.
Canada's governmentrevenue from
cll sources last year will be more
than $100,000,060, In the first seven
months the customs receipts increased
$9,500,000,
