Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-05-29
FRIDAY MORNING. MAY 20. 1891.
THE SALE NEXT TUESDAY,

The prospects are that Staunton's first
sale, next Tuesday and Wednesday, will
attract a larger crowd than has attended
any sale since the development era in Viz
ginia began. We had expected nothing
less. for Staunton, whether in her usual
daily progress Oh under the influence of de-
velopment activity, has always been deemed
a good point for investment. But what we
desire to see is large purchases by the peo-
pie of our county and city as well as the
strangers who may attend. The import
ance of home investments may not be so
apparent to-day, but their value will be
seen when, perhaps, it will be too late to
remedy it, and when the desirable holdings
and the prof IS thereon will have passed in
to the hands of people far away from here.
The profits follow the holder, and just that
much capital goes elsewhere which might
be kept at home. How many men i'll this
county, for instance, there are to-day re-
GREETING that they had not invested in Au-
gusta S first new town, Basic City. when
the lots were cheap and before the erection
of factories there had given them great
value. One example we saw on recent
visit there should be an object lesson. A
$500 lot-the original price, is held by cit
izen of London, England; it is near the
manufacturing part Of the town and is held
at $4,000. That is just $500 which will
60 to England, which might have been kept
in Augusta OF Staunton. The experience
that follows the sale of the Staunton De
yelopment Company next Tuesday, will be
Just the same. The lots will go at reasona-
BILE prices, we may say cheap, for that is
the intention of the company whose desire
is not to realize great profits out of the
sale of lots, but to build up its addition to
the town. AS far as the company itself can
influence the sale, low prices will be the rule
What is the history that follows? Assoon
as the workmen go to work in the factories
already nearly completed on the ground,
they must have houses, houses will go up,
stores be located, and there will be a general
advance in the price of the lots. This adj
vance will go to the purchaser wherever he
is. If he is at the North or West it goes
there, if he is in Augusta OIL Staunton it
stays here. If it goes away from here
that is the end Of its usefulness as far as
this section is concerned. If it remains at
home it is put into more enterprises, more
houses, more stores, at each operation in
creasing the value Of every foot Of land
around the spot it is invested. There is
always a certain amount of incredullty
about profit to be realized by investing in
land Which as yet has no great value. Why
should there lie? 1t doesn't differ bit
from improving land within incorporated
cities that has at the time little value. Take,
for example, nearly ahalf dozen properties III
Staunton. They were nOn-paying proper
ties, the old buildings on them hardly paid
the interest on the value of the ground, the
whole value of the properties was depen-
dent on the value of Staunton as a point
for investment. The persons who became
the owners of the properties cleared them
Of the old buildings that numbered them,
put up handsome houses and to-day are
renting every foot Of them. down stairs and
up, for handsome rents. And one Of these
building was erected on q street hitherto
voted by general consent to be dead. 1t
simply shows that land located where in
dustry is going on is forced from Its very
location to have an increasing value. That
is precisely the situation with the Stauntor
Development Companys land i'll East
Staunton, except that from the lower rate
at which land will be purchased there
it makes it yet more favorable than it was
for the men who erected the handsome
buildings IN StauntOn. The land in East
StauntOn must increase daily just as fast
as the factories start to work and othel
factories are built. There is no help To-
it, it is the Interchangeable law Of progress
1t is needless to rehearSe to the home pur
chaser the. advantages that Staunton ant
It's suburbs have as places for Investment
He knows them already. Every day Ii
sees passenger trains on her railroad
arrive and depart every two hours. Ever
day and through the night he hears tn
fumbling OF the freight trains on thes
roads carrying to and bringing freight frol
every quarter of the Union, from the Al
lantic to the Pacific, from the lakes to tn
Gulf of Mexico. Every day he hears tn
whistles of the factories summoning me
and women to work. Every day he SEE
the four female colleges and the youth
Military Academy filed with pupils NAL
ing an educational centre not equalled ]
the United States. AT night he sees he
streets lighted by electricity, her paid fiji
department, her police force, the lights c
her street cars. Every Sabbath he sees IL
streets thronged with worshipers of sevt
denominations vending their way to \
less than ten churches, and when the ueAi
of the afternoon has settled over the &
he sees the crowds vending their say
the splendid Y. M. G.. A. building.
To ally but a stranger it is needless
recall these advantages Of ssfannton as
home, as a workshop, as 9. school, as pla
of commerce. These advantages are
well known. and back Of them is ov
$1,000,000 of individual deposits in its tv
banks subject to check, with q thrifty,
dustrious, enterpEising population to ma
use Of it. Is there any city in the Cor
monwealth that can offer better field
more progressive field-for in the la
twelve months the Stanton Developme
Company have added four great industri
to those already here. The simple questi
is whether, having created all these adva
tages, having built up all this solid found
ton our people and the people OF the cou
ty-for the county has been largely instr
mental in building up Staunton-shal Il
next week secure a share in the prof
arising from them by forming q large pa
of thegreat body of buyers who viii be her
1t is purely a business question. Thi
over it while you have time.