Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-04-20
FIFTH AVENUES DECLINE.
SHOPS RAPIDLY sUPPLANTING
ARISTOCRACY'S DWELLINGS.

The Portion Between Madison Square
and the Park Apparently Doomed
Running of Judge DaIy's Costly Tene-
ment-A Coming Marriage in Society
Circles.
NEW YORK, April 17.-PeOple living in
Fifth avenue have reason to think that
man has no right to do what he likes with
his own; that is, that if real estate
owner he has no right to put his property
to use which involves the depreciation
of the property of his neighbors, and
tends to degrade the character of the
street on which it is located. The exer-
else of this right is fast injuring Fifth
avenue as street of residences beyond
redemption. Long since the thoroughfare
between Madison Square and Washington
Park was given over to shops and busi-
ness buildings so that now hardly block
is free from one or more of them, and 1t
! is only question of few short years
when the entire street, between the points
named, viii be devoted to business pur-
poses. Already the two Belmont houses
at Eighteenth street have restaurant for
a neighbor, while liquor saloon adjoins
an aTistocratic mansion further down.
New Workers might be prepared to sacri-
fee their pet avenue to the Moloch ofmoney
getting below Madison Square, provided
the line were drawn there, and they could
say to shops thus far shall you so hut no
further; but, unfortunately, they cannot
even draw that line at Fifty-ninth street.
Park d Filtord have established a
branch house at the very entrance TO
| Central Park, and between Fifty-ninth
street and Madison Square the avenue is
dotted with shops of one sort or another.
A tailor is about to occupy the premises
at the southeast corner Of Thirty-ninth
street, opposite the Union League Club
house, considered one of the grandest
buildings in the city, ana in other blocks
houses costing perhaps hundreds Of thou
sands Of dollars have for a neighbOr a
picture dealer or florist.
If SHOPS CONTINUE TO ENCROACH
on the realm Of residences as rapidly as
they are now doing, before long there
will be even prOpOrtiOnately as many
shops between Madison Square and
Central Park as there now are between
Madison Square and Washington Park.
Fifth avenue folk, however, are not the
only New Workers who have reason to
complain of the existence of q mans
right TO do what he likes with his own.
That right is exercised outside Of Fifth
| avenue to the detriment Of the neighbOrs
of the person exercising it. Judge Daily
! is q notable example of the truth Of this
! He is the owner of the Park View apart
ment house, an extensive structure on
/ Filty-ninth street, facing, as its name im-
ports, Central Park. The building has
/ wings in the rear covering the entire lot,
! forming their site and leaving q court in
the middle. When it was constructed the
ground in the rear was unOccupled, so
that there was plenty of light
and air. Before long. however,
huge stable was built on one
portion of this ground, and
in the course Of time the rest of it was oc-
cupied by tall carriage factory. The
rear windows of the wings Of this apart
menJ house are consequently closed there
being but foot Of space between them
and the adjoining buildings, while the
courtyard is so shut in as to be practically
Of little use. In addition to being de-
priVed OF light and air, the rear rooms of
the apartment house are rendered at
times almost unlnhabitable by the eflluVia
arising from the manure in the stable.
Judge DAILY, Of course, tried every means
to prevent the comparative ruin of his
property, but he found the law pOwerless
to help him. In one respect Judge DAILY
is properly punished for mis-
take he made in the construction
or his building. Had he not, in defiance
of the remOnstrances Of the health officers,
built the wings 10 the extreme ends OF
their lots, the rear windows, Of course,
would not have been darkened. The law
now requires that in the case Of tenement
and apartment houses, which, in the eyes
OF the law, are considered only higher
grade Of tenements, a space Of ten feet
shall be left open at the rear.
IT Is A PITY THAT THIS LAW DOES NOT
APPLY
to private houses. fit did, a householder
in Madison avenue would not have had
his premises shut in at the rear as they
are. His house is the second one from the
corner, and the owner of the corner house
has covered the entire lot with his dwell
ing. The owner Of the third house from
the corner has done the same, while
the house on the side street extends
across the rear Of the property under con-
sideratiOn. The rear windows of the
house in question are therefore as much
darkened rs those of the middle portion
Of Judge Daly's property, and it must be
necessary TO burn gas in the basement
and fret story even during the day the
greater part Of the time. Mrs. Paran
Stevens is also a sufferer from a similar
cause. The windows OF a building which
she owns have been completely daTkened
by the extension Of the adjoining prem
ises, and her property is proportionately
depreciated i'm value. One can readily
conceive that the depreciation Of the
value Of the Madison avenue house must
be at least 0ne-fourth. Who would want
to live In a dwelling whose rear windows
look out on q court never visited by the
sun In winter or the wind I'm summerY
Yet there is no remedy. The right 70 do
what one likes with ones own may rem
der ones neighbor poorer by thousands Of
dollars, but the law allows 10.
This right is often used for the purpose
Of blackmail. There are cases Of men
buying property merely for the purpose
OF threatening 70 build so Objectionable n
structure that the nelghbOring property
holders will pay large sums 20 prevent
the carrying out Of their designs, and ia
that way the blackmailers realize am
enormous profit on their investment.
THE OwNKRs'OF THE FLORENCE APART
MENT HOUSE,
at Fourth avenue and Eighteenth street,
one Of the handsomest and mOsteXpensiye
structures Of the kind In the city, have
reason 10 know this. Somebody pur-
chased the adjoining land on the north
and announced that he was about 90
build @ big factory upon Il. lie filed
plans Of the proposed structure at the
Building Bureau, and took other steps to-
wards its erection. The result OF the
erection of such "a structure would have
been the greater or less durkening Of all
the northern windows of the Florence, as
the southern wall Cf the factory was 70