The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-04-18
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE STORY OF A CORNER.


CURED the property which is now en-
braced between the following streets
In the city of st. Louis: Fourth street,
jefferson avenue (which is now TWEEN
ty-fourth street,, Market street and st.
Charles. This bit of ground is twenty
blocks long and five wide. 1t is the
heart of st. Louis. Mr.. Lucas paid for
It $780, in ''hard money of the United
States" Up 60 the time of his pur-
chares, shaved deerskins at two and
one-half pounds to the dollar had been
the medium of exchange. Hard
money was preferred and was not
plentiful. The purchasing power of
s.hard dollar is difficult of comparison
with the money of to-day; hut it was
probably worth in st. Louis from forty
to fifty per cent. more than the dollar
of 1890. Accepting the latter, Mr.. Luz
cas's land cost 2,046.
In 1916 Mr.. Lucas added by deed
strip of ground, five by five block, to the
town, but it was some years before the
limits of the TOW n extended to include
this addition. / think t was about 1926
when the western limit was moved from
Fourth street to Seventh street, and
about 1S43 when it went west to Twelfth
street If / am right about the last
date, and think l am, the southeast
corner of block 1873, which is bounded
on one side by Chestnut street and on
another by Seventh street, was not
within the city limits when, in 1885,
James Brotherton bought it from j. Il.
c. Lucas for 1896 hard money of the
United States.
This little BIZ of ground was just 1-400
of the ground NJ. Lucas had bought be-
tween nineteen and twenty-eight years
before for Sl,s64.
Mr.. Brotherton con Keyed this quarter
block to his sister, MIS- Matilda Settle,
for SIS, in 1874, and her husband several
years later built upon it row of five
brick houses fronting on Chestnut street
and two frame houses fronting on Sew
enth street. In 1874 the two frames
were renting for 5000 per year. The
corner brick house used as a saloon)
returned 81, 900 per year, and the other
four houses in the row returned $500
per year each. That was not less than
been built. They had deteriorated
through age and use, but the loss in
these directions had been made up by
the growth of the city about them.
How many wears they had been earning
81, 400 do not know, but it is reasona-
BILE to suppose they never earned much
less.
In 1866 the quarter block, with all of
it's improvements, was assessed for tax
alton at $3.50, and paid State, county,
school and military tax amounting to
S4I9.6S.
George I. Settle inherited this prop
erty from his parents, and in 1870, when
commission was looking for site for
a custom house in st. Louis, he offered
this for $50, 900. The commission agreed
to buy, but changed it's decision and
bought block two blocks away. In
1874 Mr.. Settle sold the property to
Henry Corwith of Chicago for $50, 900.
1t was assessed that year at $50, $50, the
taxes amount to S70O.11, and the income
was, as have said. 81, 400 per year.
Mr.. Corwith spent little for repairs,
but the city required sl62.s3 in special
taxes for the improvement of the two
adjoining alleys, and S2,344.14 for the
paving of the streets on two sides of the
property with granite blocks. The as
sessment fell off to S3S, $50 in 1881 from
$50, $50 in 1874; but the tax rate had been
increased, and while in the earlier year
the amount was 500, it was now nearly
81 200. In 1884 the assessment had adj
vanced to $50, 400, and the taxes to ST.
2S5.20. In 1856 the assessment fell $500
and the taxes $500.
Jay Gould bought the property in 1887
for $50, 900. The buildings on it were
very poor, but were still renting for be-
tween $4,000 and 1000. Mr.. Gould was
then asking favors of the municipal as
sembly for his railroads, and to concili-
ate st. Louisans he caused an announce
nlent to be made that he intended to
build ten-story structure on this
ground. To give color to this he caused
the old, unsightly buildings to be re-
moved.
In 1888, when the assessment was
made, the quarter block was bare. save
for some worthless foundation stone,
and had no more value, apart from its
nearness to large numbers of men and
to centers of trade, than it had when
Pierre and Joseph Becquette, Louis
Ride, Rene Kiercerau, Louis Bissonet
and Joseph Gamache cultivated that
and adjacent land in the fear of Indians
and sight of the fort. However, the
assessors, probably taking into consid-
Grafton the fact that Mr.. Gould had
paid sss,OOo for the property, assessed
it at 60,0S0, and the tax bill that year
was sl,sS0.69. The land yielded Mr..
Gould nothing. He would have paid
the same amount of tax in 1889, but be-
fore the taxes for that year became
due he sold the property to DAME, Cat
lin for S90,0 He had held the prop
erty seventeen months and had gross
profit of $1,000 out of it. If You charge
against that the 81 $1,000 taxes you leave
S5,619.31, which is equal to seven per