The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-02-19
recognition of the price Of The metal in our dc :
mand for it We might at q not overdistant day
see the government paper at par.
heai Estate IN the West side-Incrensc IL
Property Value and the Reasons for IL.

Real Estnte nm the West side-Iucrenso Il
Property Value and the Reasons for IL.
The daily record of real estate movements
exhibits on the part Of investors an increasing
tendency TO become property holders on the
west side, especially above Fifty-ninth street,
and the consequence has been a heaping up,
upon the principle of geometrical ratio, OF
real estate values along this tract Nor ia the
movement merely speculative, but based upon
logical deductions from the most obvious priu-
ciples. 1t is an acknowledged fact already
that Manhattan Island is within the next ten
years likely to prove too limited in area for
the immense commerce Of which it is to be the
centre. Even within the past five years the
needs of business have forced fashion out Of
Union square. which in one year more will not
have single private residence within hailing
distance The next five years will WI ness .
similar metamorphosis Of Fifth avenue and
perhaps of Madison square, at present .
fashionable centre. Commerce and trade can
pay higher rents and build grander palaces
than private persons can afford, and, hence, in
any competitive bidding for space commerce
and trade are sure to expel merely private
occupants. The bend OF Broadway being
to the west of the Park, high rents and first
class retail stores will naturally follow its line.
rendering the western tract between Fifty
ninth and One Hundredth streets the great
mart Of the retail trade in dry goods, and that
more speedily than Is generally supposed.
Even now it is reckoned not exactly stylish to
shop below Ninth street; and within very
short time Union square will have become the
great dry goods centre Of the city-the bulb, so
to speak, Of the leading retail thoroughfare Of
New York, which will extend thence to the
upper end Of the Park. 1t needs no Elipus,
therefore, to guess the value which space will
have acquired upon this (now rocky tract,
and that 30 soon that the metamorphosis will
seem to him who looks back to have been
almost Arabian Nights-like. BY this time pri-
vate residences will have been almost expelled
from Fifth avenue below Thlrtieth street.
and business will have made heavy raids
upon Ma .ison square Tor purposes of retail
trade. The opening of the exterior street
along the Hudson provides for the develop
ment of wholesale trade northward; and we
may therefore conclude that, with these faclli-
ties, the value of the tract bounded on the
north by 10th street, on the east by the
Park, on the south by Fifty-ninth street and on
the west by the river will have been tripled
in ten years-destined, as it is, TO become the
great dry goods mart OF the me ropolis.
In its pilgrimage northward, having been
expelled from Fifth avenue and Madison
square, fashion will not to any great extent
seek residence below the upper end of the
Park, but will pass over and beyond to the
tract above. Here are to be erected its palaces
and villas, and here is to be the aristocratie
social centre Of the Continents position
which has long been held by Fifth avenue and
Madison avenue. Radiating from centres like
Fort Washington, this transformation Ii to be
posed; for precedent is of little validity in
determining the rapidncs, of the growth Of
New York city, and to calculate 1t adequately
reference must be had to principles Of develop
ment which have in the progress of European
cities never been adequately illustrated. A
few years. dozen at most-will have wrought
wonders on the upper part OF the island, while
the rivalries Of wealth and fashion for most
eligible villa sites will have doubled and
tripled and quairupled, perhaps, the value Of
every available foot OF land north of 1lO.h
street. Meantime, spectators will have
amassed fortunes out of these rvalries and the
nee is of business for more room, and will have
retired, while the problem among the humber
classes, "Where shall we sleep ~ will with
high ren's and economy OF space, have become
q question for humane consi ieration.