Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-21
A SOUTHSIDE BOOM.
Seventy Good Dwellings to be Erected
at Beltzhooyer Next Spring.
NO OPENING FOR NEW BANKS,
But Two or Three City institutions Night
Do Better in the East End.
BUSY BUTLER CORRALs A BIG PLANT

| outlcF IL lOOhlng up ds 1HuiaCtuAAhS
center. There has just been organized there,
and chartered, an enterprise of considerable
magnitude called the Butler Salt and
Chemical Company. The capital is about
$SOO, 200, and the object is to manufacture
articles in which the company has several
lines of specialties in chemicals and other
valuable products of a similar kinG. For
this purpose number of fine buildings are
being erected and almost finished, covering
several acres of ground, on which there are five
or six flowing salt wells.
The company has been organized on very
substantial basis. largely through the efforts Of
the President Mr.. Joseph Britain, OF Butler,
and Messrs. Joseph Painter and James w.
Drape & Co., of Pittsburg, and it offers to its
lucky stockholders the prospect of very re-
munerative dividends. The company is al
ready in receipt of orders sufficient to keep the
works employed for several months.
A meeting of the Board of Directors will be
held at Butler on Thursday next for the pur-
pose of perfecting arrangements Tor putting
the works in operation, which will be ina few
weeks.
Tho natural attractions of the Southside for
residence purposes are causing quite move
ment in real estate circles over there. Betz-
hoover Is pOIub Oh great lnbeIoSls dlLHOuSH
other districts-Mt. Washington, for instance
are not neglected. The new incline and prom
Use of rapid transit are important factors in the
movement
prominent Southside capitalist has $50 much
faith in the permanency of the boom on that
side of the river that he is negotiating for 20
building lots in the outskirts of Beltzhoover.
The fact was mentioned yesterday, but details
could not be given. 1t has been learned since
that the purchase. if consummated, of which
there is scarcely doubt, will be for invest
ment A four hve-roomed house will be
erected on each lot, and rented at moderate
price, so as to secure good class of tenants.
Work will begin as early in the spring as pos
sible. This will be the largest building Job
ever undertaken the Southside, and the 20
houses will be quite an acquisition to the COM
munity. The cost of the ground and improve
ments will approximate $4,000.
Referring to reports of the organization of
national banks in Lawrenceville, East Liberty
and Williamsburg, a Fourth avenue financier
remarked yesterday: These people may mean
business, but doubt it. If they are practical
business men they know, or ought to know.
that there are too many banks here now, and
some of them have hard shedding. Banking
competition is greater in Pittsburg than in any
other city in the country. As an illustration;
A Chicago banker told me not long ago that
his institution made about $50 900 year selling
premium on Eastern exchange. There is not
bank In Pittsburg that makes enough out OF
exchange to pay the salary of one clerk. This
Is not very encouraging for new banks
"A better way would be to remove two or
three of the city banks out there. This would
be easier and more economical than to start
new ones. 1t would ease up things in the city,
and satisfy the ambition of the East Enders to
have banks of their own. One or two good
banks out there might do well, provided they
could retain their old business and get the
local patronage"
A ConnellsviIle authority says Of the coke
trade: While 1t is active the shipments for the
last week were several hundred cars less than
those of the week previous. This falling OF is
attributed'to the fact that the furnace compan.
les have become well supplied by the heavy
shipments during the last few weeks, as they
were the largest ever known in the region. The
Illinois Steel Company, about the largest con-
sumer of Connellsville coke, report their coke
supply as good. The Eastern and Pitts
burg trades are likewise well supplied.
New cars of the Frick and Mcclure CON-
panies arriving daily bus the Stewart Iron
Company's now lot of 100 have not yet put in
appearance Work is progressing on new ovens,
Contractor Sheehan has AZ of the new addi-
tional ovens to the Redtop plant at TaTrs COM
pleted. and the company will fire them shortly.
Hostetter, LppincoIt, Frick and Mcclure are
having ovens completed daily. The Leisener-
ing works No. i, 500 ovens, which was idle
couple days last week on account of strike, is
again in full operation. Fayette and Mahoning
plants, numbering 2S0 ovens, are still idle, and
the number of idle ovens is the same as last
week, about 400. Part of the Standard Coke
Works are idle on account Of the slope being
burned Tuesday night.
The shipments last week decreased $50 cars
from the previous week. and the total output
was I30 il0 tons compared with 142, $50 tons of
the week before. Shipments averaging about
l23O cars per day, with total of 1885 cars were
distributed as follows: To points west of Pitts
burg, 4,525 cars; to Pittsburg and river points,
LAO cars; to points east of Pittsburg l,4O0
cars. Former prices are still quoted: Fur
mace coke, 81 70; foundry 81 05: crushed, 81 55.
The sale of the Bennett building, on Fulton
and Nassau streets, New York, has been talked
of for some weeks, and it is rumored that the
purchase price was 81 OO0. 600 but the parties IN
interest decline to state the amount. The
price, for some unusual reason, was not named
in the deed, and it was understood that it was
to remain a secret between buyer and seller
The building was bought by John Petit, of
Orange, N. ]. He has told his friends that it
is his purpose to make of his new purchase an
office building which shall be second to none
in the city.
The building was the personal property of
James Gordon Bennett, Jr, he having bought
it at the partition sale of his fathers estate in
1884 He will continue to occupy the basement
for extra boilers and the dynamOs which gen.
crate the electricity to supply the lights iu the
Herald building thus becoming a tenant of
Mr.. Pettit's. Why Mr.. Bennett thus disposed
of the property is not known.