New-York tribune., 1920-01-31
Pioneer Loses
$50 Flat w WOrtll
S. Square Foot
Eviction of Harm Hide
brandt, Long Resident of
Broad Street Building.
Sacrifice to Progress

The curb market is only blur of
red caps and black to the feeble eyes
of the old man who sits all day at the
window behind the old fashioned Not
tingham lace curtains at 50 Broad
Street
Harm Hildebrandt is ninety two
years old, and long has ceased to
great financial world that seethes at
thousands Of dollars to a broker is for
him only a parIor window-but a
window where he has sat for fifty
years and watched the evening stars
come out over Brooklyn There WAS
time when he could see them re-
flcctcd in the waters Of the East River:
now, of course, the little four-story
brick building is surrounded by sky
scrapers, which cut off anv view but
that of curb and sky.
Yesterday Mr.. Hldebrandt's daugh-
ter with tears running down her
wrinkled checks. had to tell the old
moon between the skyscraper On
Monday gang of wreckers will enter
the house Business, which by some
mischance had spared the little build
ing all these years, now has claimed it
for her own, and the Hildebrandts
must move.
Event Dreaded for Years
1--WE hate to leave the neighborhood,
daughter Mrs. Henry Sigloch, shutting
careful door lest the old man hear
her story "Father never gets out any
more. All he does is just sit and look
out. I am afraid it will Kill him to
move him. | have been Greading this
for years, but | always hoped we could
lay him away before we broke his
heart by moving.
"The worst of it is we cannot find
any tenement to live in. The Sisters
Of Trinity Church are coming for father
to take him to a hospital they have. I
haven't dared tell him that yet. But
we have been hunting for weeks, ever
since the new owner first warned US
we must move, and we cannot find a
fat You know. we're kind of hard to
suit. maybe. We've. been used always
to living in nice neighborhood. It's
quiet down here at night, and there are
not many ncighbors.
For all these residential advantages
Ito say nothing of the financial possi-
bilities of the ocation) the lIildebrandts
have been paying the astonishing sum of
$40 month. They have six large rooms
and a glass covered court that makes
an excellent clothes yard.
Rising Values Passed Them BY
Harm Hildebrandt rented the fiat
fifty years ago from Mayor Gunther,
who was political friend. When the
property passed into the hands of the
Stevens estate Mr.. Hidebrandt was
retained as janitor and so the rent
never was raised Property around
them went into the ninth degree in
value, but nobody paid any attention
to No. 81.
A few doors away from No. GO
is an Office building where floor space
rents for s. square foot. The Hide
brandts were paying for 5000 square
feet, or what would command rental
OF $4,000. Instead they paid $40.
All this attracted the attention of
L. l.. Winkelman. a broker, at A
Broad Street, and recently through
the agency of Lawrence, Blake &
Jewell, he became the owner of the
$40 fiat. He already has refused a
profit of $4,000 on his investment
When altered, the property will be
worth about 100000
"Of course, ! shall not put an old
man out into the street. he said last
night. II should not want any one to
treat my father that way.
I'VE purpose TO use the original
walls of the building They were built
in the old times when things were put
up to stay. The contractor tells me
the walls are Is inches thick, instead
Of the inches we find in modern
buildings. We shall rebuild the in
terror and use most of the building
for our own business. Whatever por-
tion I rent Will be at the rate of $5
a square foot.