Los Angeles herald., 1906-07-15

THE $4,000 year which is to be
paid for the use of the ground
floor in the new building at the
southeast corner of Wall street
and Broadway is said to break
the record for New York city rent
ais. The store in question being
only twenty-eight feet square, every
foot of its area will bring in s51.O2 an
nually, and the total sum represents
more than twenty times the value of an
average Wall street lot century ago.
That astute and far-seeing realty in
vestor John Jacob Astor,' said an Off
cial of the Trust Company of America
whose duties require him to keep thor
oughly informed as to real estate,
would have laughed to sCorn any per-
son who told him in 1906 that such
values would OBTAIN in 1906 so near the
site of his little Water street office;
and yet he was accounted foolish by his
contemporaries when he disposed of a
lot on Wall street for $4,000 supposed to
be a low price, and bought eighty lots
so far out in the country as Canal
street. When, within a few years, the
fold. Astor the First proved himself to
be wiser than all his generation
In fact, the allied Astor New York
city properties, worth today more than
$500, 100000, were originally acquired for
low prices as farm lands or vacant lots
Twenty-Five thousand dollars bought
the John Thompson farm, extending
from Thirty-fOurth to Thirty-fifth
streets and from Madison avenue al
most to Broadway. Although large par
GELS OF this land have been sold, over
one hundred lots still belong to the
Astors with n value, excluding i'm
proVements, of from $4,000 to $3.50 600
each. The old Leandert farm on the
lower East Side now yields the estate
large yearly income as tenement prop
erty; about 100 lots, worth in the aggre-
gate $5,000000 or more, still remain of
the Greenwich place farm land which
once stretched from the old Fitz Roy
road TO the Hudson in the vicinity of
Fourteenth street; and two smaller
farms to the north along Ninth and
Tenth avenues add over l50 lots more
to the AstOr holdings.
When the butcher boy of Waldorf"
bought the Eden farm, on the west side
Of the Albany post road (now Broad
way from FOrty-fOurth to Forty-seV-
enth streets and 10 Ninth avenue), he
could not have fOreseen that il would
become the center Of the hotel and
theatrical district. Yet had New York
citys growth extended only up the
east side or up Fifth avenue or along
the Hudson. he left to his heirs proper
ties in those districts that would have
amply fulfilled his expectations.
In addition TO these farm lands there
were among the early purchases parcels
OF land on the Bowery and a chain Of
properties on Broadway downtown.
Among the latter is the old Astor
house, perhaps the best known hos
is Connected with the erection of the old
hotel. 1t seems that about seventy
years ago when Astor had determined
upon building. he secured with little
trouble all the property necessary for
his plans except a small lot owned by
retired merchant named Coster, who
though he had been offered $40, ,000--
twice the value of his holding-would
hear of no price and refused to SELL
There followed a period of wranging,
during which Astor, who was noted
neither for his easy temper nor his lack
of resolution, vowed he would have the
land at any cost and offered Coster
900. The latter weakened, but not
until Astor went in person 10 Mrs
Coster and got her consent
The genius and good fortune of the
original John Jacob Astor are forcibly
brought to mind when one considers
that today New York's total realty is
valued at the enormous sum of $522l,-
5S2, ,30l, and of this more than 3 per
cent Is owned by his descendants It
is notable also, that this family was
not among the original or early settlers
in Manhattan. When Astor came to