Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-12-11
APARTMENT HOUSES.
THE CHANGE WROUGHT IN NEW
YORK BY THEIR INTRODUCTION.

YORK BY THEIR INTRODUCTION.
The Absurd Name, French F1ats-SuPe-
riorIty Of New York Apartments to
Those of Paris-The Different Grades.
Their Popularity.
Especial corespondeneel
NEW YORK, Dec. "a marked change in
the manner Of living has come to this city
from the introduction Of apartment houses,
inaptly called fats, or French flats Flat is
Scotch, meaning a floor, loft or story in a
building, and has no corresponding word in
French, as applied to architecture. Apart
ment, although used by Shakespeare TO sig
Nifty q suite OF rooms, was considered obsolete
in that sense, until we revived the term here
by making the thing. We employ the word
as the French and Italians do, with a slightly
different spelling, to mean a set Of rooms,
connected together on one floor, for the pur-
pose Of housekeeping.
Apartment is the exact term; but French
fat, relating to the New York mode Of liv-
ing, is not at all pertinent, since our apart
ments are, except in the general plan, quite
unlike those OF France. Our apartments are
often pronounced inferior to the French ones,
especially by New Workers who have spent
little time in Paris; but they are, for the most
part, decidedly superior. Many Americans
are prejudiced in favor Of the city on the
Seine. They 60 there, and, after occupying an
ordinary apartment for a few months, call it
delightful, and express. on their return home,
great dissatisfaction with New York apart
ments. This Is either unconscious ideahZa-
ton or sheer afRectation. The very persons
who laud the apartments Of Paris most loudly
would not be willing 10 inhabit the same
kind of apartments on this side Of the sea-
Those, over there, are often lighter, being
built around courts, than many Of those here;
but, in other respects, they suffer by CON-
pariSon. They seldom, If ever, nave any Of
the modern improvements or conveniences-
the French resemble the Chinese somewhat
in their ultra conservatism of opinion and
conduct-and are i'll adapted to housekeeping
as housekeeping is understood in Manhattan.
Apartments in Paris are substantially the
same that they were generations ago; but
they have been continually undergoing
changes for the better in this city.
One of the first apartment houses here was
made some twelve years ago out Of the
former New York club house, at Fifth ave-
nue. and Fifteenth street, and was called the
Haight. The rooms of each suite were small,
and the kitchens connected with them seemed
like closets. But the house had a restaurant
for the accommodation Of the tenants, who
might, if they chose, take meals there at q
fixed price per week, and who were thus in
dependent Of their private kitchen.
About the time of the opening of the
Haight two other apartment houses, belong.
ing TO the Stuyvesant estate, were completed
one in East Thirteenth and the other in
East Eighteenth street. They were fully as
comfortable; but, as they had no elevator and
being in a less fashionable neighborhood, they
were not so dear. They had no restaurant,
either, and each family was compelled, there,
fore, to prepare its own meals.
Rapidly built in various parts of the town
from this time on they were occupied as fast
as built. Indeed, the demand so far exceeded
the supply that tenants were secured as soon
as the architects plans had been finished
Most of the houses erected the first few years
following their introduction were more or
less pretentiouS and costly, in order to over.
come the wholesome prejudice of Anglo
Americans against several families dwelling
under the same roof. Those who did not like
apartments were inclined to dspreciste them,
speaking of them as genteel tenements, which,
in a sense, they may be, although those Of the
better kind are as secluded, as vigorously pri-
vate in respect to one another, as are resi-
dences on opposite side Of the street.
II the carly apartments had been cheap and
in unfa Sorabls localities, well-to-do persons
Of culture and taste would have avoided
them, and thus have brought them into dis,
repute. Real estate owners, understanding
this went to the other extreme and found their
profit in it. They learned by experience that
apartments would then pay from 2 70 4 per
cent. more per annum than single family
houses, and the demand for the new sort OF
structure increasing rather than diminishing,
they were active i'll putting it up. They found,
too, that apartments, If showily built, and
high in price, could be made to return a hand.
some income in quarters by no means eligible,
where nobody would have thought Of putting
I'D regular dwellings. Apartments built in
upper Broadway, in Sixth and Seventh aven.
ues and far to the east and west side, were
readily taken.
Within two or three years there has been a
mania for building apartment houses, par.
tally owing TO the erroneous belief that they
return q largo interest. The business has
been enormously overdone; the supply OF
such HOUSES is to-day far in excess of the de
mand, and yet they are still going up. Many
Of them do no not now pay 8, even 3, per
cent, and some Of the largest and finest
merely meet their regular expenses. AT
present any number Of them are seeking
tenants at unprecedently low rates.
Th;. -,, ~ c,,Nply r;Il ra,fify ;foe 10 ~
due time, so rapidly does the city grow and
so constant is the influx Of prosperous persons
from other towns, determined to fix their
abode here. Hardly anybody knows how
fast New York, with its vicinity, is increas-
ing in population. 1t is now more than p
100000, and a capital Of 50 enormous bulk
cannot be arrested in its swift development.
The sudden and extraordinary advances in
the stock market evinces an altered financial
feeling and n revival of confidence in the Sc
curities dealt in on the exchange. Capital
will be likely hencetorth to go more freely
into Wall street, and be correspondingly
withdrawn from real estate. In thenext few
years there will, in all probability, be little
building, comparatively, of apartment
houses, which may ere long be in brisk de-
mand again at remunerative rates.
We frequently hear that people are getting
tired Of apartments, but it is not true. An
insular city of such confguration as this must
depend for an indefinite period on apart
ments as places Of residence. Small, single
family houses commanding moderate rents
are not erected, except so far up town as to
be undesirable to persons wishing to have
some social life, some relation TO their
friends Eightieth street is not distant-it
cannot be so considered when there is q Two
Hundred and Twenty-ifth street-but they