The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1891-12-31
FORTUNES IN CHICAGO LAND.
Astonish hing Rise in Value of Property in
the Windy City.

Without taking into account the an
nexation of outlying districts the city
has fairly jumped with Heaps and
bounds" Like all rapidly growing
cities. its people are fond of pointing
out the humble beginnings of its sturdy
pioneers who started the pace in the
bewildering strides for business
supremacy. How Potter Palmer sold
calico prints at 20 cents which were
bought Just previous to the war at 3 1-2
cents, and thereby "hived'' SIS 0O0.-
600; how Marshall Field knew when to
take occasion By the hand" and
reaped thereby profits which would
make A. /. Stewart green with envy;
how Letter, his Hebrew partner. came
to select twenty -four of the best bust
ness corners in Chicago are scraps of
history dwelt on with pardonable
pride. The history of these men is
the history of Chicago. Pluck and
foresight tell the story.
This great city is not stopping to
stone the prophets of disaster. but has
gone right ahead and its enterprising
burghers have laid out enough sites
outside the corporate limits to accom-
modate two or three municipal en-
pires the size of London. The city is
growing perpendieuiarly as we'll as
horizontally. Imagine city with an
area twelve times as large rs New
York so congested that eighteen and
nineteen story buildings have become
necessity.
The Tacoma Building. thirteen
stories high. has 9, 400 tenants. The
Chamber of Commerce. same number
OF stories, has about three thousand
tenants. Double these for callers and
you have 5000 souls per hour empty
ing on sidewalk space of 100 feet or
so. There are more tenants in these
few feet than in five blocks in New
York or fifty in Pittsburg. Land is so
high priced that "sky-scrapers" seem
to be a necessity. You can buy some
of the choicest parts of Broadway,
New York, for Sc 900 a foot. and 81 900
a foot will buy the Splane Post-office
corner, probably the most valuable
angle in Pittsburg, and vet vou eau
not get a choice of Dearborn street
frontage. south of the river here for
IS, 600 foot, which only ten years ago
sold for 800 foot front. Chicago
has doubled in population every ten
and why should not values Jump also2
Within live years land around Calumet
Lake, Thirly-thrtl Ward fourteen
miles out. has increased in value ten
timeSi On the other hand there are
parts of the Thirteenth Ward that
have not increased 81 in value in ten
years. j. r Walsh. the newspaper
capitalist, made 81 800 900 last year in
real estate here. and j. Il. Truvle, the
lawyer. cleared 81 800 O0N iii three
years in dirt Mike Mcdonald can
count Ill pieces of producing
property which pays better than any
game ever played nv the outcasts of
Poker Flat" While | was here
Henry ". Snyder sold the northeast
corner of Michigan and Eda street for
SIS 600, he bought it just one week be-
fore for SIS GOO. The ground on
which the MallerS building stands was
bought from John V. Farwell two
years ago for 1916. OO0 It's rental
now pays 5 per cent on $500. 0O0 The
front foot value is now S.. 900 per foot.
One year ago plenty of it could have
been bought for $1,000. The Oak Hill
addition 10 Hammond was sold re-
Gently to an Iowa syndicate for $780,
0oo- Nj. NJ Fowler purchased the
same property about one year ago for
so 600. - Chicago Cor. litts6arg Dis
patch.
Eastern capitalists have bought GAO
IS a ID