Bisbee daily review., 1909-05-05
BUILDING RECEIPTS 0F COUNTRY LARGE.
S546, 467,390 Worth of Struc- lures Were Erected During
 Last Year

The total cost fthe buildings erected in the principal cities of the United States ia 1908 was s546,467.- 3S0, according to Jefferson Middleton. of the United States Geological Sur vey. who has collected statistics on this subject in connection with his in vestigations of the clay-working indus- tries. In 1907 the cost of buildings in these same cities reached a total of $626, 14s.s90. The decrease in cost in 1908 therefore amounts to s79,SSi.- 800 or 12.73 per cent
 Rank of Cities.
 The relative rank of the cities in cost of building operations is inter esting. New York is first, the cost of it's buildings exceeding the cost of those of it's closest competitor, Chi cago, by $50. .5S4 ,5S2, or more than "a per cent. If the cost of operations in Brooklyn, the third city in rank, is added to that for New York. the total will be S163,6S4,622, or 30 per cent of the cost of the building operations of the 49 cities included in the table San Francisco is fourth in rank, Phil adelphia is fifth. and St. Louis Is sixth. Seventh in rank is the small though rapidly growing city of Seattle, which spent more for buildings in 1908 than Piitsburg, which was eighth. Boston, which was ninth, and other cities much larger. This great actiy- ity in Seattle is ascribed to the ex- tremely low prices of building mate rials and labor.
 Character of Buildings. Of sthe permits issued or buildings erected 39.64 per cent were for build ings of fire-resisting materials. and 61.36 ger cent for wooden buildings, corresponding closely to the percent ages in 1907. The average cost of brick or fire-resisting buildings in 1908 was s9,0S9 and of wooden build ings s2,101.
 Chicago reported the largest mum 1 Der of brick buildings-S, POS, with an average value of s6,S1S; Philadei- | phia the next largest number-6,1 17S, {; with an average value of 3,30S. ' Brooklyn reported the third largest ! number of brick buildings and New ! York the seventh. though in cost of ! buildings of this class it is first. New i York reported 1884 brick buildings i costing s103,064,4S6, or nearly twice as much as Chicago's S,20S. The aver age cost of fire-resisting buildings in New York was s54,7o5. No wooden buildings were erected in the borough of Manhattan, those reported for New York being in the Bronx. The largest number of permits for wooden build | ings was issued in Seattie-1.7l7. the average cost Of the buildings being about s100o. The next largest num- | Der of wooden buildings was reported | by Los Angeles-4,679, costing on an average $1,2S3. The greatest cost for wooden buildings was reported by San Francisco, the average cost being 7 $3,641 Chicago. which reported the | largest number of brick buildings, was eighth in number of wooden buildings Except for Reading, where none were erected, Philadelphia reported the smallest number of wooden buildings -I5, with an average cost of s1.4Se- | Report in Preparation. | A report on the clay-working indus | tries of the country, including statis- | tics of the building operations. is now being prepared by MT. Middleton and will be issued by the Survey within a | few months.