The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-01-06
FORTUNES IN CHICAGO LAND.
Astonis hing Rise in Value of Property
the Windy city.

AstOnis n ing Rise in Value of Property in
the Windy city.
Without taking into account the an
ne nexation of outlying districts the city
has fairly jumped with ''leaps and
bounds" Like all rapidly growing
cities, its people are fond of pointing
out the humble beginnings of its sturdy
pioneers who started the pace in the
bewildering strides for business
supremacy. How Potter Palmer sold
calico prints" at 20 cents which were
bought Just previous to the war at 3 1-2
cents, and thereby 'hived' $15, 000,-
600; how Marshall Field knew when to
take occasion by the hand" and
reaped thereby profits which would
make A. I. Stewart green with envy;
how Letter, his Hebrew partner, came
to select twenty-four of the best busi-
ness corners in Chicago are scraps of
history dwelt on with pardonable
pride The history of these men is
the history of Chicago. Pluck and
| foresight tell the story.
This great city is not stopping to
stone the prophets of disaster, but has
gone right ahead and its enterprising
| burghers have laid out enough ''sites"
outside the corporate limits to accom-
modate two or three municipal en-
pires the size of London. The city is
growing perpendicularly as we'll as
horizontally. Imagine city with an
area twelve times as large as New
York so congested that eighteen and
nineteen story buildings have become q
necessity.
The Tacoma Building. thirteen
stories high, has 2,400 tenants. The
Chamber of Commerce, same number
of stories has about three thousand
tenants. Double these for callers and
you have 5000 souls per hour empty
ing on a sidewalk space of 100 feet OF
so. There are more tenants in these
few feet than in five blocks in New
York or fifty in Pittsburg. Land is sc
high priced that "sky-scrapers' seem
to be necessity. You can buy some
of the choicest parts of Broadway,
New York for Sc 900 a foot, and 81 00(
! foot will buy the Splane Post-offict
corner. probably the most valuable
angle in Pittsburg, and yet you can
: not get choice of Dearborn stree
frontage, south of the river here fol
. So, 600 foot which only ten years agt
, sold for 500 a foot front. Chicago
has doubled in population every tel
/ olASC GuO L4AoU SOhouo III AOC
) and why should not values jump also
} Within five years land around Calume
Lake, Thirty-third Ward, fourteen
5 miles out, has increased in value tel
: times! On the other hand there ar
2 parts of the Thirteenth Ward tina
) have not increased 81 in value in te
: wears, j. r. Walsh. the newspape
f capitalist, made 81, 500, 900 last year i
e real estate here. and j. R. Trude. tn
e lawyer. cleared 81, 800 600 in thre
+ years in dirt" Mike Mcdonald ca
: count Isl pieces of rent-producin
n property which pays better than an
r game ever played by the outcasts {
: s'Poker Flat While / was hel
II Henry w. Snyder sold the northea
e corner of Michigan and Eda street ft
|. $SS, 900, he bought it just one week b.
K fore for $78 600. The ground c
i which the Mallers building stands w'
n. bought from John V. Farwell tW
IS years ago for $346, 900. Its rent
" now pays per cent on $500,O0O. II
r front foot value is now $4,000 per foo
l. One year ago plenty of it could ha7
been bought for $1,000. The Oak HI
addition to Hammond was sold +
Gently to an Iowa syndicate for $3.50
900. M. M. Fowler purchased tt
.., same property about one year ago Fl
I'd $40 000.-C Chicago Cor. Pittsburg d.
er patch.