Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-11

provements-A New Foundry and Roll
ing MiII-ActiVlty in White Bear Prop
erty.
The moderation in atmospheric temper
AZURE has resulted in great increase IN
speculative fever for real estate. All the
Offices have been thronged with men eager
to avail themselves of the listing prices
made in the dead of winter. One single
large transaction has the effect of increas-
ing prices of all property in the near vicln-
ity, and many owners at once withdraw
their property and hold for the expected
spring advance.
Residence property is in very active de-
mand, and good houses in all parts of the
city are ready sale where reasonable price
is demanded.
The architects are busy making sketches
and completing plans both for dwellings
and business blocks, and contractors are
figuring on jobs for the season, buying or
contracting their materials, engaging their
labor and making all the necessary pre-
Iiminary arrangements for busy build
ing year. In every part of the city there
will be new structures combing elegance
and comfort and of the very latest archi-
tectural designs. Business blocks will rise
out of the earth as if by magic and whole
streets will be transformed from unsightly
novels or vacant lots into stately
palaces where the vast commercial trans
actions of an empire Will be conducted. We
cannot better illustrate this than by glanc-
ing at
FOURTH STREET.
At its eastern or Broadway end an army
of employees are now at work getting the
slate roofing on to the Northern Pacific
headquarter building and in pushing such
inside work as can be done during the win
ter season. This will be the most elegant
and costly railroad structure northwest of
Chicago, and when it is completed and oc-
cupied it viii revolutionize lower Broadway
and East Fourth street. That heretofore
neglected though central point will be-
come a focus around which five and six
story business blocks viii spring up like
vegetation on the prairies. Following
Fourth street from the North Pacific build
ing westwardly We come to the excavation
for Nichols u Deans great hardware
house. That enterprise we presume will
be pushed with the usual vigor of the
firm when suitable weather comes for
foundation work. There is considerable
vacant front on each side of the street
from Broadway to Wacouta which has
now become so valuable that
it cannot long remain idle and it is fair to
presume that much of it will be built up
the present season.
At the corner of Fourth and Jackson the
FIRST National bank has its foundation
completed ready for the superstructure and
it will be one of the finest, if not the finest
building yet erected in the city. Beyond
the First National bank, on the right hand
side of Fourth street, Commodore w. F.
Davidson owns a frontage Of 125 feet,
which he hopes at some future time to i'm
prove, but he says that the new Opera
house, his block opposite the court house,
and the one on the corner of
Cedar and Fourth is all he can tackle for
1888.
If other wealthy citizens would do as
much in proportion as Commodore David
son has undertaken for 1883 our city would
indeed make wonderful progress. Next II
importance on Fourth is the recent pur-
chase by Ferdinand WilIius of 100 feet
square on the northwest corner of Fourth
and Robert streets. 1t is generally under
stood that this purchase is made in the
interest of the
GERMAN-ADIERICAN NATIONAL BANK,
and while there are many interests to con-
suit and everybody is disposed to
be non-committaI we think it fair
to assume that on tn at
corner at no distant day permanent and
handsome structure will arise to shelter and
facilitate the business of a banking cor
poration having a full paid capital stock
of $2O0,OOO,OOO. IF they do build they
cannot and viii not build anything
that will contrast unfavorably with the
banking house occupied by the Bank of
Minnesota or the First National bank.
THE NEW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
must per force have a location somewhere
Oh Fourth street, and we SOPHIE" that it
Will not be west of Wabashaw nor
east of Broadway. We suggest
the propriety of a combined" building
that would accommodate the new national
bank and the chamber of commerce on
the ground floor, with offices for brokers
and that class who want to be near such
institutions on the floor above. We think
the two could proftably work together.
The next improvement is the Davidson
block, corner Fourth and Cedar, 10 feet
front, 40 feet deep, and six stories above
the basement, fifty feet of which is owned
by Col. James H. Davidson, and the corner
by Commodore Davidson. The plans are
now about complete, and the brick
has nearly all been bought and the CON
tract let for the cut stone.
The first story on Fourth will be of buff
Dresback stone and above that it will be
red pressed brick front, trimmed with the
gray Dresbach stone, the same as that
used in the mortuary chapel in the Oak
land cemetery. This structure will be the
highest roof on Fourth street at the time of
its completion, and will be one of the
finest blocks.