The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-12
Rapid Transit Makes Valuation
of Property Higher.
Millions Made i'm Short Time in
Real Estate.
LAND BEATS GOLD MINES
Murray Farm Is Worth 100 Mil
lions Now.
Railways See Value of Invest
ment, Holland Says.

New York, March 12.-If the value of
real property in New York city, and
| especially Manhattan, continues to ai1-
| preciate for the next ten years as il
! has done since 1900 then these appre-
| Citations should considerably more than
meet the enormous expense entailed by
| the construction of the proposed new
| subway system. For with these in
| creased appreciations the tax asses
sors will be able SO to enlarge their
list of taxable properties as greatly
to increase the ability of the city tc
sell its credit so as to provide funds
| for the subwayS without encrOaching
upon the constitutional debt limit. The
record of appreciation which has been
made within the past three or four
years SurpasSeS the reports received
from any of the larger gold mines of
the United States of its output in that
time. And Notwithstanding this appre
citation of the value OF real property
and the enormous amount of capital
which has been since 1900 invested i'll
land and buildings there seems to be
no check to the tendency.
The story is often told of the law
yer's clerk who bought at a foreclos-
ure sale what in early days was called
the Murray farm, a name from which
the Murray Hill district was obtained.
The young lawyer gave his note for Il
few thousand dollars, because he haG
no money and with this payment the
property passed into his possession.
That was about the time of the first
administration of Martin Van Buren, as
president. Today what was the oriSI
nal Murray Hill farm is at low estimate
worth more than 100 million dolla"3.
Small parcels carved out of that farm
yield q. ground rent of $4,000 a year,
Of
cells have need for no other vocation
than the collection of the ground rent.
They do not even have to pay taxes or
assessments
How great a part rapid transit plays
in the swift appreciation of real pro-
perty is very forcibly illustrated by the
amazing increase in values which have
taken place in the vicinity of Herald |
Square and the Pennsylvania Railroad |
Terminal within five years. AS re- |
Gently as five years ago a plot upon |
which stood an ordinary brown stone |
or brick house could have been pur-
chased for about $4,000. Today these |
plots are quoted at 100000 upward, ac- |
cording as they are near or distant |
from this district, the only value i'll
the house being the sum the brick and !
junk VIII fetch
The Pennsylvania Investment.
Had the Pennsylvania Railroad COM |
pany decided to purchase more than |
enough land for its terminal buying |
whole blocks on either side of the ter
minal, it could probably through ap
precautions in value have gained enough |
TO pay the interest upon the entire cost
of the construction of the terminal
and the tunnels under the Hudson and
East rivers.
About the year 1910 the old Bloom
ngdale road, now known as Upper
Broadway, divided into two parts
farm at a point which is now the in
tersection of Broadway, Sixth avenue, |
and Thirty third streets.
This farm was sold, not as a whole,
but in divided lots, for a little over
So, 900. It was a true farm; agriCUi-
ture was there carried on and con-
siderable part of the farm was devoted
to pasturage All that part of New
York city which is north of Twenty
third street was suburbs and in these
were maintained many farms.
They fed no small portion of New
York city, or at least supplied the pop
ulation with dairy products and small
vegetables.
The farm which in about 1910 was
sold for about $4,000 is now assessed
at little over $4,000, 900, and when the
now under way are COM
0leted the assessments will probably
reach as high as $4,000, 900. One of
-hese improvements is a hotel which is
/
York, loftier than any other, the foun
iations for which were blasted through
solid rock for a distance of go feet.
Marvellous as has been the appreciation
If the value of this little plot the mar
eel is no greater than that associated
With the manner in which modern sci
nee and skilled artisans have been
lble, with almost the speed of the
abled beanstalk, to erect in the course
# few months one of the worlds
great buildings designed for hotel pur
,oses. The agility and speed with
which these skilled workmen have
rected the giant skeleton steel franir
AVE led to many tributes of praise.
Yet this work has been no more |
peedily accomplished than was another
lnder the leadership of William e. I
dcAdoo and upon another portion of
he old $4,000 farm. Mr.. McAdoo'S !
financed the purchase of land
md the erection upon it of one of the
,reatest of department store buildings,
he investment representing some ten J
million dollars. And it is easy to infer
What the business of a department {
tore must be when it is remembered
hat the proprietors of that store must
,ay a sufficient rental to enable Mr.
company to secure interest
pon the investment as wall as fair
rofit
What Rapid Transit Does.
The wonderful expectations of real j
property in the vicinity of Herald !
quar- and the Pennsylvania Terminal
an be traced almost directly to the r
.rowth of rapid transit. At that point
he Thirty-fourth street crosstown, the ;
Broadway trolley line and the Sixth !
venue trolley line converge, and di- :
ectly over Herald square the Sixth :
venue elevated has a station. In ad-
ition to this the Pennsylvania Ter :
ninal. triumphant in its architecture as