New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-02-20
c0opERArTVF APARTMENr.H0US

The enterprising American who naturalized
the French apartment-hOuse in this country
Thought he had solved the problem OF cheap
living in New-YOrk. If he is here now,
either in the flesh or the spirit, he must won
der whether the problem is not as big and
dark as ever, IN spite of his efforts. Apart
ment-houses have grown 80 luxurious, and at
the same time so expensive, that to live in
the better class of them has come to be
mark of wealth rather than Of moderate
means. They deserve to be called apartment
palaces and not apartment-houses. They have
every adOrnment which the arts can supply,
and every convenience for personal COM
fort inventive genius has been able
TO suggest They are decorated to the
verge of gorgeOusness, and too often beyond
il. Their snowy entrances, their stained glass,
tesSelated pavements, exquisite things and
carvings, their brass and bronze and marble, add
nothing to the actual comforts, and greatly
increase the cost. The living cOnveniences
are as perfect as money can make them.
Steam and electricity do everything except
nav the bills-even, in some of the newest
houses to running the dumb-waiters. The
rents keep pace, of course, with this progress
in luxury. If it continues as it has begun, it
will not be many years before it will be q
badge of comparative poverty to live in ones
own house. and, as we now say of Mr. Divi-
dend. that he has house on "the Avenue"
and owns five millions in Government bonds,
we shall say: "There goes rich man-he
lives in an apartmentV
Such houses are built, of course, only because
they supply demand, and If the capitalist
wanted any excuse he would only need to
point to the fact that it does not seem possible
to build too many Of them. They are hardly
completed before they are filed with tenants,
and with some of them, at least, the rule seems
to be that the higher the rents the more
rapidly they are taken. The fact is
that there is q large class in the
community who are glad to get such
homes, and are beyond the necessity of think
ing about their price. widowed and single
LADIES'. who have no families and are in indie
pendent circumstances, can take their choice
between the apartment-hotels, where they can
have all the conveniences of hotel with
almost the privacy of heme, and the apart
ment-houses, where they can have absolute
privacy and be rid, at the same time, OF all
the little cares that fall on the head OF
house. Elderly people whose children have
married away from them; rich people
who want to shuttle off the cares of
housekeeping for a time; Young mar
ried people starting out in life with
the paternal benediction and a share
of the paternal bank-account-these and
others like them are the classes that Gil the
handsome apartment-houses and keep up aud
put up the rents. The owners rate of profit
is high-probably higher than from any other
form Of real estate property. 1t is true that
the cost of such structures is out Of all pro-
portion to their size. The duplication Of
housekeeping establishment, with all its APP
purtenances, in every apartment, is a great
expense, and the lavish decorations are not TO
be had for nothing. But the duplication of
rents more than makes up, and there is not
a tint or a curve in the profuse Ornamentation
that the tenant does not pay interest on IN his
years rent. The same is true of the expenses
Of maintaining these establishments. After
making liberal allowances for all items tf cost