Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1884-09-25
New York Flats.
CLOSE QUARTER, AND uIGu RENTS.
Letter 10 Chirago Iuacs

co-ortnArIvN HoME-cLrG APARTMENT
HOUSES.
Letter To Chirago Iuacs
"How do people find room to undress in
this bedroom when there is bed in il 2" !
asked one agent who was showing me So
called gem OF a Hat al 81 900 wear.
Why ne replied, apparently a,ton,hed
a, such a question, they use folding beds
YOU unIre,s and pull down the hed; You
get up and up goes the bed, and there YOU
are with plenty Of room"
This IA. mania has created 4 revolution in
the furniture trade In model fiat all the
bed, fold up, ANA all the chairs are Of the
camp stool variety, the dining table becomes
buffet, and everything colapses at a
touch and changes into something else ex.
cept the rent. Piano makers say that the,
cannot sell anything hut upright pianos IN
New York now because no one has room IN
a fla, for ANYTHING else.
OF course the chief trouble lies in the
high CO., Of .lnd When lot - by 100 il
worth at least 50 900. "A, it always is IN a
first class ntichblTupGl, rents have To be
high, and the more ianiiie, can he crowded
pn one NJ, the Chs4prr the rent. Within the
.l>; five wears 100 first claS, aplrtmen;
houses. a, d>tius Ii,hei from ordinary ten
emeur~, have been erected. and more are
gong up nOw taan ever before Our build
lng department considers an apartment
house frs. class Il more than six rooms are
occupied by one tam,ly. In these hoo
buildings containing from five to 100 flats
the renls vary tr0m SO month ~ 5000 a
wear, and even more for some Of the flats
finished within the last few months
In 1860 Rutherford Sluyyesant, ha,ing
lived for many years IN Paris. built tie first
real apartment or French fl, house. One
thousand dollars year was asked for eight
good rooms, moderate price. bat people
turned up heir nose, at S,uyte>art's .tenc-
menfs,'' aid for several wears no more ats
went UP. IN 1870. when house rent wrrt
up To exorJtaEj figures, and no house. no
matter how small. could ha had in re-
spectacle neighhaihool for less than 500 a
wear. some uce people were led to apply for
Stuyy eSant's litS, and after the first plunge
the building became actually fashionable
Stuyve>ant then bIilt another apartment
house at Eighteenth street, and introduced
a liveried janitor. The building paid for il
self in ten years. Then cheaper limitations
began to go up oil over the town, especially
along the avenues. where the shops on the
ground floor could he well rented The no
ton Of living over a shop was another pref
udice TO be overcome, but now nothing is
thought Of it even BY very pretentious peo-
pie, who pay rents Of from Sl200 TO $500
year for apartments over stores. Along
Sixth avenue the flats above the shops were
fair in size and convenience.
For people who do not want to live above
shops, the first Of the downright abomina-
tions in the way of flats were erected Scores
of houses were put up six or seven stories
high on lots % feet by 100 with two apart
ments on each floor, so that if the building
was so feet deep, the space occupied BY
each family was about II feet by rs, out of
which must be taken space for stairs. light
shaft. etc. 1t followed, of course, that
many of the rooms got all their light and
ventilation from inside wells. often rooted
over at the top. The whole building was
usually cheap and nasty. An arrangement
of bells and le,ter-boxes was placed in the
vestibule, and BY ringing the bell of any
apartment the girl in that apartmen, could
pull string and open the street door for
the visitor. Apartments in such houses
rented at from $50 to $50 a month. Amer
a few years. If the house had not the care Of
an intelligent jsnitor, il ran down, dirt,
children PLAYED around its entrance, and as
the place went from bad to worse, the best
people moved away. leaving those 10 whom
dirt was a matter Of indifference. This has
been the history Of nine out OF ten Of the
apartment houses which began well and
sank in tine social scale. Il may be taken
for granted that an apartment which is
cheap is also pretty certain to be nasty. The
usual course Of an apartment house is that a
speculative builder puts it up and sells il a,
profit. Then the investor, in order TO get
a reasonable rate Of interest, has TO charge
rents high enough to cover occasional losses
by tenants who proved bad eggs and from
unrented apartments. The tenant who pays
his rent pays for the empty flats and bad
debts.
A study ofthese problems brough, about
the cooperative home-elub apartment
houses, Of which we have heard so much Of
late. A number Of gentlemen, say ten, as
sociate to build an apartment house Of ten
apartments. The building is put up, and
each man takes his apartment and pays one
tenth Of the total cost. owning his apartment