Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-27
LOOKING FOR A BOOM.
Real Estate Spectators in Washing
ton Expect Business
TO GET ANOTHER MOVE ON ITSELF
When Cleveland and His Wealthy Friends
Return to the Capital.
THEY MADE LIFE PLEASANT LAST TINE

real estate dealers and citizens generally of
Washington city and its suburbs are busily
asking themselves at this time whether the
return to power of Grover Cleveland and a
Democratic administration will cause re-
vivaI of the boom in real estate which made
The property owners and spectators so
happy few years ago
For several years preceding the advent
of the Cleveland administration there had
been a steady increase in the price of prop
erty, governed altogether by the growing
demand for residence and business sites,
and it was becoming daily more apparent
that, owing to the climate and various other
causes, Washington was slowly but surely
becoming most popular city with resi-
dents of all parts OF the United States, the
bulk of whom read about it constantly and
visited it afterward in great numbers.
But it was while Mr.. Cleveland was
President that the great boom came which
made Washington what it is to-day. In
1889, when President Harri ison was inau-
gurated, the city had settled down into the
enjoyment of the good things that had
come to it as result of what was gener-
ally known as "the Democratic boom"
which started in soon after Mr.. Cleveland
became President .
Whitney and Cleveland in Luck.
His purchase of country house turned
the eyes of spectators and property owners
to the beautiful suburban region which he
and Secretary Whitney had selected as their
temporary summer homes, and in an almost
incredibly short space of time several
~F III l-I
and the broad acres in the neighborhood of
Oak View and Grasslands were subdivided
into town lots and selling at town lot prices.
Many of them have been sold over and over
again since that time, yet there are
not to-day one dozen more houses in the
immediate region of these two estates than
there were in 1885 Town lot prices, and
stiff ones at that, still prevail, however,
and so confident are the capitalists who own
the lots that Washington will grew until
this country property will no longer be
suburban that they are holding prices up
and spending money without stint on street
railways'and other costly and extensive i'm
provements.
Washington Fairly Pounced Down Upon.
The success of the "Woodley lane" spec
ulators was so great that local and foreign
capitalists at once pounced upon Washing
ton as a good field for investment, aud
money came from almost every State in the
Union, and: as if BY magic, suburban prices
went up to the city mark, and city prices
almost out OF sight
An elaborate system of street extension,
electric and cable and railroad building
electric lighting, sanitary sewerage, etc,
was put into operation in the suburbs un-
til now the villages around and about
Washington that ten years ago were COM
pletely isolated are now almost within the
city ITSELF
Many men grew rich out of the sudden
development of .Washington's fiat. scraggy
mudhole of 1865 into the City of Magnif-
cent Distances of 1880, but many men grew
more suddenly and more honestly rich when
the second transformation occurred, and the
luckiest ones of the lot were Grover Cleve-
land and William c. Whitney. They were
pioneers in their testifying to their belief
in the future greatness of Washington, and
each was a great gamer thereby.
Spectators Keep Up the Spirit
When Mr.. Cleveland left Washington he
sold Oak View at a net profit of 500, 900,
and Mr.. Whitney Jared correspondingly
we'll. When Benjamin Harrison came to
the White House some real estate specu-
lators, more enterprising than discreet, at
tempted to repeat the success which some
of their rivals had met with through their
dealings with the property of President
Cleveland and his Secretary of the Navy.
A tract of suburban land was selected
that has since become the headquarters OF
branch Chatauqua society, aad so we'll did
the real estate boomers manipulate pre-
matters that the citizens of Wash
ington were able to read at their breakfasts
one morning that almost every inmate of
the White House, with the exception
of the President himself, had pur-
chased corner lot at Glen Echo,
the consideration in most cases being
merely nominal sum. Even old DR.. Scott,
the ladies of the household, and Miss
gotten, and the published accounts of the
compiled from the official rec
ords OF the adjoining county, stated with
cruel e1actness the full details of the latest
real estate dicker.
The Mark Fairly Overshot.
The boomers overshot the mark, however,
and the prooprietorship OF the Presidential
household killed the whole project of the
OF this particular suburban re-
treat almost as effectuallv as the famous
gift of the Harrison cottage killed Cape
May Point, drove its owner into bank
ruptcy and left little remaining On the
lonesome point of sand beside the gift cot
tage and the mosquitoes
Since Harrison has been President, how
ever, Washington proper has gone on
proudly, prices have not fallen, and capital
has continued to pour in seemingly from
everywhere. Change of administration is
variously regarded as benefting the real
estate market, as giving it setback, and as
having no effect whatever upon it. The
majority of the operations, however, of those
who are supposed to have information on
the subject is that q new administration
adds new life to the real estate business
and adds materially to the prominent
growth OF the city. 1t Is claimed'by those
of this opinion that at least nine-tenths of
all discharged Government officials remain
in Washington to make it their permanent
home. and their places being taken by
others, there is Q corresponding increase