New-York tribune., 1909-02-28
PRICES AT JONES ESTATE SALE


4 feature of the trading just previous to the
sr,rfne sea- son OF 1883 auction sale OF tne
reaI estate holdings OF the late Joshua Jones a
report written at that time describes the SAFE as
follows: Never cid auction sale or New 10TH
CIV prouerty create greater interest tnah inc To-
cent sale of the holdings OF the late joshua Jones.
Never was such a sight seen IN the ahha4s OF i9@l
estate as tha eager. hustng, excited crowd ula'
thronRed 10 overfowing the Liberty street safes
roo-oe" The writer then says that a plot OF t"en-
+,,por lots on the south side OF 18th street. which
NOS sold st the Jones estate sals 20 F. de H.
yy,ssuann for s264 600. resold for %2o4'Uo 10
IJerr1, Norgenthau and several other persons
The Morgenthau syndicate included W J. Ehrlch'
Charles weinberg and Alfred L Se"aru' MI
Norgenthau at that time one OF the most
prominent speculators in properties on Manhattan
island and in The Bronx What busy life ne
has had since thenl In nearly every season since
those days his activities in various sections Oh
Manhattan Island and The Bronx have oeen
feature of the trading. Twenty years IS 1ohs
time TO be in the foremost rank rs a SPECTATOR
erd onarator II is an arduous task many oc-
casions 60 follow leader but 10 be the principal
IN MANY big real estate operations is many times
trying,
ACTIVITIES OF A REALTY LEADER
Mr.. Morgenthau was a leader years before the
Joshua Jones estate sale, and to-day he Is one OF
the most prominent spectators In the Lincoln
enuare section on Washington Heights and the
Dvclman zone and especially in the Hunts Point
region of The Bronx. There he is helping TO carry
out what many a would consider OF itseIf a
life work namely. the transformation OF the
Hunts Point region with its splendid facilities for
Al piers into one of the leading residential and
business centres OF the eastern district Of The
Bronx
Looking backward to the time OF the Joshua
Jones estate SALE the real estate records reveal
many news items. One is to the effect that the
Progress Club is building fine home for itself on
Mot 1o0x1Oo feet at the north Of SD street
and Fifth avenue The club sold that site some
years ago to James B. HaSgn. and built a home for
itself OF the modern type c. the great West Side.
Mr. Haggin bought the property with the intention
of erecting on the site home for his own occu-
nancy He abandoned those plans time ago.
and the property has been for sale since then.
OFFICE BUILDING IN 1859 AND NOW
real estate critic also wrote about the time Of
the Jones estate sale the following paragraph: 'It
is now sixteen or seventeen years since the first
elevator building was erected on Manhattan Island
In the interval the aspect of the city has been COM
pletey transformed and every building erected
below City Hall contains at least twice the floor
area of that which it supplants. In some OF the
newer Office buildings the accommodation is three
times that which afforded before on the same
area" Since then many structures south of the
CITY Hall which were numbered among the land
marks old New York have been replaced with
skyscrapers towering thirty stories At
Liberty and Broadway the Singer Building. which
world has been erected, and Just north of it and
adjoining 1t is the City Investing Building. which,
as regards floor area is the biggest structure ever
put up. Within short distance OF the City In
ves1ing Building the Fulton and Cortlandt
street buildings, occupying the entire block fronts
on the westerly side of Church street from Cort-
land Fulton streets They familiarly called
the twin tunnel buildings and comprise the largest
tunnel terminal buildings ever erected
Another real estate critic wrote about the time
Ion
ing: There is probably not city in the world
that can .overtcp New York in regard to business
buildings. Land II the city. particularly In its
lower portion. is valuable that builders have
been obliged to erect imposing structures in order
10 economize ground space, and hence any New
Yorker can point with pride 10 the immense Office
buildings that tower toward the heavens giving
solidity and grandeur 10 that part of the city
in which they situated But If New York can
be proud OF her office buildings, such is not the
case with the other structures that OF necessity
afford an opportunity fer architectural display.