Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-02-27
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE STORY or A CORNER.

1914 Jean Baptiste Charles Lucas ac-
quired 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 81 1854 in ''hard money of the United
States" Up to the time of his pur.
chases, shaved deerslxins 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 a
hard dollar" is difficult of comparison
with the money of to-day; but it was
probably worth in st. Louis from forty
to fifty per cent. more than the dollar
OF 1890. Accepting the latter, Mr.. Lu-
cas's land cost s2,04e.
In 1916 Mr.. Lucas added by deed q
strip of ground, five by five block, to the
town, but it was some years before the
limits of the town extended to include
this addition. / think it 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 l am right about the last
date, and I 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. b.
c. Lucas for 81 500 hard money of the
United States.
This little bit of ground was just 1-4O0
of the ground Mr.. Lucas had bought be-
tween nineteen and twenty-eight years
before for 81, 1864.
Mr.. Brotherton conveyed this quarter
block to his sister, Mrs. Matilda Settle,
for S., in 1874, and her husband several
years later built upon it a 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 fused as a saloon)
returned 200 per year, and the other
four houses in the row returned 5000
per year each. That was not less than
twenty-five years after the houses had
beer 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 years they had been earning
"a, 400 do not know, but it is reasona-
BILE to suppose they never earned much
| less.
In 1866 the quarter block, with all of
its improvements, was assessed for tax
alton at S26, $50, and paid State, county,
school and military tax amounting to
S419.6S.
George 7. Settle inherited this prop
erty from his parents, and in 1870, when
q commission was looking for a 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 S700.11, and the income
was, as l have said, 81, 400 per year.
MIR. Corwith spent little for repairs,
but the city required $162.33 in special
taxes for the improvement of the two
adjoining alleys, and $2,344.14 for the
paving of the streets on two sides of the
! property with granite blocks. The as
sessment fell off to $3s, $50 in 1881 from
$5O,55O in 1874 but the tax rate had been
increased, and while in the earlier year
the amount was $700, it was now nearly
$1,000. 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 $352O
Jay Gould bought the property in 1887
for $S3, 900. The buildings on it were
very poor, but were still renting for be-
tween 81, 900 and So, 900. Mr.. Gould was
then asking favors of the mum, ipal as
sembly for his railroads, and to concili-
ate st. Louisans he caused an an lounce-
ment 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 it's
nearness to large numbers of men and
to centnrs of trade, than it had when
Pierre and Joseph Becquette, Louis
Ride, Rene Kiercerau, Louis Bissouet
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 $4,000 for the property assessed |
1t at 500, 030, and the tax bill that year |
was Sl,3S0.69. 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 Daniel Cat
lin for 800, 000 lie had held the prop
erty seventeen months and had a gross |
profit of 81, 900 ont of it. If you charge
against that the 81, $780, 80 taxes you leave
S5,6l931, which is equal to seven per
cent. on Mr.. Gould's investment.
Mr.. Catlin did even better He paid
the tax bills of 1889 and 1sgO-the latter
amounting to 81, 535. 16 on an assessment
of 500, 7so-though on May 20, 1890, he
had sold the property to Mrs. Catherine
ID. wainwright for Sia7, 400. He had a
gross profit of $37 400, and next profit
leaving out of the calculation agents
commissioners S34, 4s4.15, in eight
months, on an investment of 500, OOO
In the eight months of his ownership he
had done nothing to the property
Gould had cleared it. Catlin left it
cleared. From the fall of 1887 to Octo-
Der, 1890, three full years, this property
was bare and unproductive. Yet its
ya1ua increased mora tho, ga. -.