New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-04
Real Estatingg Now and
When New York Was YOUNG
James N. Wells Sons Have Been Brokers 100 Years
Records Tell Interesting Story; Lots We're
Leased Then at $685.; $4,000 Offer for Chelsea

the unwarranted expense. as is usually
the case in mortgages.
ellis Firm Has Changed With Time
Conditions as thew exist TODAY are
entirely different. Instead of waiting
for applications, the firm now has its
brokerage and architectural denart-
mas been improving such parcels as
we're available with modern buildings
built for the requirements Of tenants;
and the central location. ADVANTAGES OF
convenient shipping facilities. both bv
rall n boat, have brought this section
up to the safest area for conservative
Investment there is in the city.
There is, however, need for legisla-
ton to permit four-story private dwell
lngs to be altered so as to permit
houses being used for four separate
familles, not only OF account of the
shortage of housing facilities in re-
stricted streets, but because the scar
city OF domestic help prevents house
holders from maintaining an entire
house for their own occupancy, as in
previous years.
Wells Was a Carpenter
Mr.. Wells commenced business in
1917 as a carpenter and builder, his
once ooing located ON hudson Street
near Christopher Street. He was the
builder Of st. Luke's Chapel on Hudson
Street, and almost all the other houses
on that block, the land being leased bv
him from Trinity Church. His real
estate interests becoming important, he
opened an office in 1919 as a real estate
agent, his ledgers for that period be-
ing still in possession of the office.
The Chelsea section at that time was
fam land. The Chelsea farm named
after a suburb of London, England, ex-
tended from Nineteenth Street tc
Twenty-fourth Street. and from Eighth
Avenue tFitzroy Road to the Hudson
River, and was owned by Clement c
Moore, a professor in the Episcopal
Seminary and the author Of the well
known poem. "'Twas the Night Before
Christmas,' The manor house in which
the poem was written In 1922 was sit
uated on a hill between what is now
Twenty-second Street and Twenty-Five
Street. west of Ninth Avenue and
slopiHg down to the river bank, which
was then at Tenth Avenue.
In 1883 Mr.. Moore was offered $40.
600 for his farm, and seriously consid-
cred accepting it. Before doing so he
consulted Mr.. Wells, who told him the
city was reaching out toward Chelsea
and advised him to keep the farm and
develop 1t IN the same way as Trinity
Church. giving long term leases for
the lots, but restricting them for resi-
dence purposes. Mr.. Moore accepted
this advice on condition that Mr.. Wells
undertake the management Of the
property for him. MIR. Wells thereupon
arranged to have the maps made and
the streets laid out, and in 1885 re-
moved his Office to the property, To-
eating ar l91 Ninth Avenue, between
T~wenty-frst and Twenty-second Street
where it remains to this day.
London Terrace First Suburban
Development
In l845 the finest suburban develop
ment seen up to that time was
launched, when William Torrey and
Cyrus Mason, speculative builders OF
those days, leased the block bounded
by Iwenty-th!rd and Twenty-to4r.L