The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-06-08
The Most Costly Piece OF Land In
the World.


In 1893 a list was made of the owners OF
houses and lots in the city of New York
valued at e. 900 and more. They num-
bered something over three hundred.
The highest valuation recorded was
about G5,OOO At that time State street
and the lower end OF Broadway were the
sites of rich private residences of the day.
The most costly of those in Broadway
were the house Of DANIEL LUDLOW,
e4,5OO, and those of JOHN r. LIVINGSTON,
WILLIAM EDGAR and JOHN JAY, $4,000
each. The total population Of New York
in 1900, only 60,5l5, was nearly twenty
thousand more than tho population Of
Philadelphia.
In 1850 the property at the southeast
corner of Broadway and Wall street was
sold for G1,OoO, a handsome price for
those days; but"in 1927 it brought more
than three times as much, or sis, 725. At
the death, in 1901, Of BENJAMIN DOUGLAS
SULLIVAN, famous lawyer Of New
York. the then owner, the value OF the
property was estimated at 100000. In
1904 it was assessed on the tax list at
ocov,OOo VII uCoSAhy ~ was oOiN AOA
100000; yet it is small piece Of land,
only about 80 by 80 feet, and the price
paid for it is therefore about $500 square
foot. This is equivalent to about 81, $780,
600 for full city lot of rs by 100 feet. The
attorney for the purchaser speaks Of it
az the most valuable piece OF real estate
in the whole world" At any rate, it has
been bought at what is probably the high
est price ever paid for land of correspond
ing area in the world.
The history Of the rise Of this property
in salable value during period of about
a century illustrates the history of the
growth Of New York in population and
financially. In the June Bulletin Of the
American Geographical Society is paper
which traces the development of "the
great roads across the Appalachians,
beginning in the last decades Of the
eighteenth century, to which the city Of
New York owed the impetus which more
than doubled its population between
1900 and 1920. and in the ten years there
after nearly doubled it again. WASHING
TON had looked for the focusing Of the
trade of the West on the Potomac River,
and the now decayed Alexandria was
to compete for the trade Of the Great
Lakes.
Then came the advent of the Erie Canal,
whose construction was advocated as q
means Of giving New York an advantage
over New Orleans in the trade ofthe coun-
try northwest Of the Ohio River Better
connections With tho Wac< LoI NJ,
Philadelphia and Baltimore great part
OF the Western trade. The Erie Canal,
begun in 1877, was finished eight years
afterward. 1t was project advocated
by Governor CLINTON, but was laughed
at even during the course Of its construc-
ton. JEFFERSON thought it might be
made successful project a hundred
years later, but then it seemed to him
preposterous. The farmers along its
route jeered at the engineers.
Then came the era Of railroads, the de .
velopment Of which we need not describe.
Coincident with this development came
the great foreign immigration, in conse-
quence of which, largely, the population
OF the city OF New York increased more
rapidly than ever before-from 1927 in
1910 to 515,547 in 1850 and $685. in 1880. 1t
was during this period that dread of the
coming Of so many foreigners gave rise
to the Know Nothing movement. The
country was going to be ruined by so
rapid an increase Of the foreign born
population, the native American element
thought.
Up to 1910 this immigration had been
relatively small, or less than seven hun
dred thousand since 1920. Between ls4o
and 1850 it was about a million and q
half, and in the next decade it rose to
more than two millions and half. The
country Is being swamped with foreign
ers was the cry; our political institu-
tions and our religion are in peril. But
the foreigners kept coming in. Between
1880 and 1870 about two millions and a
half arrived, and still more in the next ten
years. Then all past records were far
distanoed. Nearly five and quarter mil
A"ns came over between 1880 and 1890,