The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-15
The Growth of New York In POpuia-
ton aud In LUXURY.

We referred on SATURDAY. to the sig
nihcant circumstance that all the private
residences lately erected and now being
erected on Manhattan Island are for
rich men only
The era Of separate residences for any
except the rich or the very wel-to-do is
passing away. so far as other dwell
ings are concerned. they are outside Of
the fashionable district of the town,
either on its outskirts or far removed
from it. Moreover, these more modest
dwellings, are usually old structures
Ultimately. and probably within a few
years, the steady encroachments of trade
on the district favored by wealth and
fashion and the insuiiiciencv of its mar
row area To accommodate those who
would have residences in it are likely to
drive such people to the necessity Of
planting themselves in It's outskirts
where families of modest incomes now
find their homes. Already this enforced
drift is noticeable 10 the eastward as far
as Lexington avenue. To the west Of
Central Park the cost of private resi-
dences is becoming SO great that very
few are now erected and lofty apartment
and hathouses are succeeding the great
number of them which We're put up ten
or twelve years ago.
The time is fast approaching when
private residences will be 40 few relatively
that TO occupy one Of them will be an
even greater distinction than il is now,
when already the vast mass of the people
in Manhattan are crowded together in
apartment, fiat and tenement houses
Moreover, even the erection of private
residences for the rich is going on at SO
slow a rate that such people also are COM
PEELED to find homes in apartment houses
constructed for them especially and
that compulsion will Increase steadily.
The Manhattan borough Of New York
is now growing in population with
rapidity which seems to approach, il it
does not equal, that of the period of
its relatively greatest growth since il
became a town OF the first class, or
between 1850 and 1850, when the in
crease was from 5l5,547 to sl3,889, or
nearly three-ffths. The rate of growth
between 1890 and 1900 or from l,44I .2i8
| to 1850, O93 seems to have been much
| exceeded in the two years since, Judging
| from many evidences. OF which the most
| apparent are the extraordinary increase
| in the volume of travel on the city rail-
| roads and the greatly increased crowd
| ing of the streets even far TO the north
| ward. Skyscrapers in the lower part of
| the town are accommodating hundreds
| where scores formerly found places Of
business. and in the residence neighbour
hoods the multiplying apartment and
| hathouses are doing the same, and never
was the change in the character of both
such buildings going on more rapidly
| than il is proceeding now.
| The time when Manhattan Island will
have no more room tor private dwellings,
even for the rich. seems 10 be rapidly
approaching, The period when such
residences will be- practically excluded
from it's limits by the encroachmcnts of
| trade and by the necessity Of utilizing
the limited residence area for great apart
ment houses into which the multiplied
! population can be crowded will not be
far off if the present rate of growth OF
| the town continues
Meantime, Mr.. HERBERT CRoLY, in the
| Architectural Record, describes very
great change in the character of private
residences for the rich which has taken
| place of recent years and is continuing
even more markedly at this time. The
typical New York residence Of this sort
used TO be of brownstone, almost in
variably, and four stories high and meas
uring - feet in breadth by from 40 to so