Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-20

deep, six stories high with a cemented Gel
lar. They adjoin the new Bindley hard
ware building and are within easy speaking
distance of Gillespie & Co., wholesale gro
GERS; Henderson & Co., wholesale druggists;
the Harris Drug Co., Otto Shepherd & Co.,
wholesale druggists. The situation
is one that in Pittsburg has never
been given credit for its full
value. New Grant street is 60 feet wide,
extending from Liberty to Seventh avenue.
1t is in such place that it is not probable
that it will ever be encumbered with
street railway. The Pennsylvania Railroad
yards extend along the upper side. The
freight and express depots are directly op-
posite the Mercantile Company's new
buildings. The place will probably be the
site of the Pennsylvania Company's new
Union depot, when one is built.
Appearance of the Structures.
The buildings of the Mercantile Com
pany, while it is stated they are. intended
to be rented for wholesale houses, would
bear the evidence of being for the most
prosperous retail firms. Instead of the
rough and tumble, half frame, half brick,
unfinished, tumb1edown affairs that are
called wholesale houses in other parts of
the city, the structures of the Mercantile
Company are all brick, plastered inside,
finished in hard wood, with iron ceilings
and all the Improvements OF nineteenth
century architecture There is a double Office
in each, fire proof vault as big almost as
in a bank, gas and electric light fx1ngs and
everything else that wholesale firm could
think of buying or paying for.
The light is the one thing of which the
architect, Mr.. William Mcbride, is most
particularly proud Glass costs more than
brick, but that did not prevent the owners
from using the biggest plates possible and
lust as many of them as the architect woald
allow. New Grant being open on the op-
posite side, the light admitted is sufficient
to make the rooms as light almost as In the
open air. The rear of the buildings on
Cherry alley are also composed almost en-
most buildings left to get all its glory from
the more conspicuous front.
There is freight elevator in each build
ing from which wagons can be loaded
through door opening from the elevator.
The floor is or level with
wagon bed Cherry alley is not used
very much at present, but is
Notwithstanding one of the best kept alleys
in the city. 1t was recently paved with
asphalt. 1t leads from Liberty and offers
a convenient exit to the business parts of
the city.
A WeIl-Known Advantage.
The advantage of an alley in the rear of a
wholesale house is known by every dealer,
but on account of Pittsburg's haphazard
streets, there are few places that it can be
secured. With New Grant street in front,
free from street and railroad cars, Cherry
alley in the rear, a central location to all
business and every modern convenience.
there can be little doubt that the buildings
of the Mercantile Company will be occupied
bv prosperous wholesale companies who
know good thing when they see it and do
not lose time in getting il.
Already two of the Ave buildings have
been rented; one by w. l.. Kann & Co., the
wholesale leather dealers, and the other by
Edlis & Co., wholesale BARRIERS supplies and
barbers' furniture The other buildings
have not vet been taken. They will all be
ready to be occupied in short time. Who
ever gets them will be fortunate in location,
and will have as neighbors some of the best
firms in the city that have recently and will
soon move to Seventh avenue. TIE new
telephone exchange building is only few
steps away, and with the Bindley Hardware
Company's fine corner block and the Mer-
camille Company's buildings will indicate
to visitors to the city that Liberty, Fifth
avenue and Smithfeld are not Pittsburg,
and that New Grant and Seventh avenue
will soon have as good buildings with far
better advantages than the overcrowded
downtown.
Strength of the Buildings.
A popularity of the Mercantile buildings
is their great strength. The architect, evi-
IDENTIFY taking it into consideration that
Pittsburg is the Iron City, thought every
thing should be as strong as the name, and
with George Ii. Deeds, the builder, sue
ceeded in putting up structures that engi-
neers say are as substantial as the best ware
houses in the city. They are heated through
out with steam.
The advantages of New Grant over other
streets for wholesale houses are evident to
any careful thinker. On the many streets
onlv few have the use of an alley in the
rear and these are narrow, overcrowded,
always muddy and not suited in any way
for draying As consequence loading and
has to be done through the front
entrance. Street cars and railroad trains
on Liberty drive the teams from the streets
and makes draying to the wholesale houses
a svsfem of catch-as-catch-can with verv