The sun., 1900-08-26

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developed parts are in many cases so superlorln
beauty and hoalthfulness Of SURROUNDINGS as
we'll as in the character OF the houses them
selves that the little difference in time required
| 20 get 10 business does not particularly weRh
In the balance against them but the man
! cause Of the migration does not 80 much lie IN
the rent question as In the ambition whlch mas
been awakened in men 10 own houses OF their
own, an ambition which under the old con-
dtlons was too wild In most instances TO be
considered for moment.
SOME OF THE NEW SETTLEMENTS
Even what already has been accomplished
in the development of Brooklyn as city
| Of homes IL bewilderipg enough without
| considering the amazing future OF growth
| which Is now imminent. All the way down
! the water line. along the beautiful rldge
| which runs parallel with the shore. over the
| country intervening between the ridge and the
| beach itself-all the way TO New Utrecht Fort
| Hamilton and beyond to the fiat lands back OF
| Coney Island all this has been or Is being
| rapidly covered in all directions. Every
| where you may look new houses are
going up or the ground is being broken for
houses that soon will be In process Of erection.
The clatter OF the carpenters hammer Is heard
everywhere. And nearly all Of them are homes
beautiful homes. many Of them paradses
compared with the cramped and stubby nats
and the din ana jostling OF the old built-up
portions Of the city. Tho farms out toward
Fort Hamilton and New Utrecht way are prao-
ticay all taken up long ago. divided into city
lots and covered With homes Dyker Meadow
Park Is out In that direction. too.
and Is centre around about which the
country in all directions IL thckly strewn
with new homes Borough Park is still another
spot which has grown UP within two years
from almost open farmland to a handsome
village 81 homes. all OF superior type. and
the growth there Is st going on and on
until soon all of the original tract will be
covered with residences and the few build-
inrs devoted to local retail trade Of one sort
and another. The farms that originally went
to make up Borough Park were cut up into
some 1000 city lots and in ono year
alone 900 housc1 were planned and built
there. Dyker Heights il still another place that
Ia, leaped into existence and has spread out in
all directions, soon to be sVa allowed up In the
great general sweep of the city eastward. Then
there are lTomewood Mapleton and Bath
Beach. which last has rapidly changed within
the past three years from the mere summer re-
sort which 1t had been for hundred years or
moro into populous town that has altogether
lost its transient type Of inhabitants Like all the
OthpI places Wltnln reACn OF ttle great spreading
tide Of expansion. Bath Beach IL fast losing It's
identity as separate place. and only has its
name as a sort OF landmark OF the past, just rs
have Greenwich Village and Yorktown and Har-
lem In the old New York. Homewood has been
built up very largely bv prosperous mechanics
who put up their houses on the installment
plan, that is on the plan by which what they
would bN paying for rent elsewhere went
toward payment for the house and the lot
II stood upon. Into these comfortable
homes. with their little yards for the
children to play in and to turn into flower
beds, and with the sunlight and the abundance
OF fresh. pure air from on the water not far
away. the men who settled there moved their
families from out the dark, srimy, cramped and
unwholeSome tenements Of New York. where
the rent made such big hole in the slender
income, and where there was little hope Of doing
else than tramp the treadmIll grind OF daily
labor for the delight Of living In such quarters.
The upbuildinE Of Van Pet Manor. Of Benson
hurst-by- the-Sea and Of the comparatively new
ll-the-year-round resort called Sea Gate. on
what used TO be called Nortons Point all these
are mere episodes In the marvel OF Brooklyn's
prodiGious latter-day growth. yet each Of them
Is marvel In itself. Large and beautiful viii
lageS they would be anywhere else with a char
actor and an individuality all their own. and
such. as matter Of fact. they are. only we came
10 regard them as mere drops in the great gen
eral sea Of home-making expansion. Over
near Shcepshead Bay there Is still another
place of the Sea Gate order the development
of which began only It'll, over year aao and
now 1t has taken on the appearance of per-
manence and populousnes which all the
similar places quickly assume. Home Crest
is the name Of this place and within three
a.. 10 l,tA orA
fully fifty houses were in course Of erection and
the plans OF as many more were under oonsid-
Grafton Then there are the Lindens and Oak
Crest. Wherever you turn 1t is the same story.
Take a trolley car at the Bridge and go at ran
dom TO any OF the outlying Brooklyn districts
and you will find the same surprising conditions.
Itis by the square acre-one might almost say by
the square mile-at time that Brooklyn s
building houses, houses that, nearly all OF them.
are homes.
And all OF these places that have Just been
mentioned are within thrty-hve minutes OF the
New York City Hall. To 60 to those OF them
that are farthcst away Ia but TO make such
Journey as from the City Hall TO l55th street IN
Manhattan. There are many more within quite
as easy reach. Take. for instance. Wildwood.
Windsor Terrace. Fske Terrace, Bay Ridge
Park New Utrecht Park. Fort Hamilton, Rich
mOnu 1tlll, NoOusiue anu FalEnHuTst lnese al
can be reached from the New York City Hall
In but little more than half an
hour. And over In Queens county, where tho
contagion OF building and development Is
rapidly spreading, there are nearly as many
more places. all OF them within 20 or as minutes
OF the Manhattan end OF the Bridge. Wander
veer Park. Brooklyn Manor. Brooklyn Hills and
Slocum Park-these are all large centres Of de-
velopment which have not been mentioned
and there are dozens more that could be named
II 1t we're the Id "a to form merely n catalogue
for the history OF one is pretty much like the
history OF all the rest.
WHAT MORE BnIDoEs WILL DO.
And now the mind should we'll grasp the fact
that all this has been done with only one bridge
only one safety valve opened to let of the pent-
up pressure that so long has been seething in
Manhattan. boiling over into Jersey and squeez-
Ing and forcing its way up the long narrow
stretch Of the city 10 seek breat hing space and
room for expansion at the north, But there
was no proper room for expansion at
the north. II took too long 10 got there. |
Besides the lines OF travel there were
swsmped and congested at the rush hours !
almost past endurance. So Il was at the one |