The New York herald., 1921-01-02


percipi sTuctlpes. OF these tpe tnest
was probably the new building just COM
pleted by Cyrus w. Field at No. l Broad
way, which when first built was eight
stories high. was later increased to
twelve. and is now being remodeled for
the International Mercantile Marine.
The Produce Exchange was built about
1882. and its tower was then the highest
In the city. In 1884 the first steel
structure a small eight story building.
called the Tower Building" was erected
at SO Broadway. and thereafter began
the movement that was TO transform the
skyline of New York.
Beginning slowly. the new method OF
building produced in succession num-
ber of twelve story buildings. then some
of sixteen stories and finally in its clos
Ing years the twenty-three story Tract
Society Building at $50 Nassau street
crowned the century's achievement The
erection OF the Flatiron Building. at
Twenty third street. in the late nineties.
caused more comment and interest then
than does the erection OF the new
Gotham Bank Building at Fifty-ninth
street to-day
II was in this period also that apart
ment houses" began to make their ap-
F, pearance as homes for people in mod
crate circumstances. although it was not
until after 1900 that they reached a
stage of development which attracted
families of wealth in any considerable
number.
8,5OO,OOO Inhabitants fn 1900.
The opening of the twentieth century
found the consolidated city with a popu-
lation of about three and one-half mill
ions, with Manhattan Island practically
entirely covered with buildings. Strange
as 1t may seem TO contemplate. 1t is to
these opening years os the present CEN
tury that credit must be given for the
glory OF New York as we now know It.
In 1900 the retail centre was still from
Fourteenth to Twenty-third street. with
Thirty-fourth street just beginning to
come into its short lived glory, and Fifth
avenue. above Thirty-fourth street, was
still the most fashionable residence ave-
nue.. Forty-second street was as yet
unthought of as business centre.
Neither the Pennsylvania nor the New
York Central had begun their stupendous
improvements. Construction of the first
subway had just commenced and was
to be finished late in 1904. Fourth ave-
nue. was still an old fashioned street of
hotels churches. small stores and houses.
There were no Singer. Metropolitan or
Woolworth towers-no Equitable Build
ing or Public Library.
Madison square was still residential
centre, the old Fifth Avenue and Albe-
marie hotels and the Hoffman House
etill dispensed hospitality on the West
Side. and Dr. Parkhurst's old church
occupied the site of the Metropolitan
Tower The new church on the opposite
corner has come and gone since then. The
Plaza, ST Regis. Gotham. Ritz-Car'ton,
Biltmore, Commodore and Pennsylvania
hotels are all products OF this century,
as is also almost the entire business de-
velopnent north OF Tweenty-third street
and most of the larger office buildings
downtown, such as the Trinity, City In
vesting. Bankers Trust, United States
Express. Western Union, Adams Ex-
press. Hudson Terminal. Woolworth and
Equitable.
Steam locomotives were still drawing
trains through the tunnel under Park
avenue, which instead Of being the mag
nificent residence avenue that we see to-
day was then a street of breweries, fac
tories and tenements. The demand for
garages had not yet developed, for the
automobile was only just beginning to
make it's appearance and livery stables
were numerous In all parts of the city.
Wars Always Brought Sctbac.<s.
All of the five periods under consider
alton provide an interesting resem-
blance in that in each except the first
occurred war In which the United
States was involved. and each expert
anced an era OF great financial dis
turbance, amounting to a so-called
panic. which temporarily suspended the
progress of the city and appeared to
depress its real estate values, and yet
through the entire century can be disa
ecrned one progressive movement--cali
Il q game OF a struggle. as you please.
II consists of a frequently recurring
displacement in turn, of the residences.
hotels theatres, Institutions. retail and
wholesale business, by pressure arising
from their constant mutual need for ex-
pansion.
Trail of the Retail Centre.
The retail centre, beginning on lower
Pearl street, first moved west to William
street, then 10 Catherine street, TO
Broadway at Chambers street. and there
after progressed steadily. northward to
Union square, and successfully occupied
Fourteenth street Twenty third street.
Thirty-fourth street Forty-second street,
and is now rapidly spreading into Fifty
seventh street.
Tho New York Historical Society has
had six homes before finally locating in
It's present building on Central Park
West at Seventy sixth street Columbia
College. from its original location at
Barclay street, moved twice before
finally securing what seemed to be ade-
Quate space on Morningside Heights,
where II now again finds its future ex-
pansion limited by the city's growth
sround IL.
At all periods OF New Yorl1s develop
rnent its citizens have been proud of
their achievements and have erected
buildings which, being the best example
OF the builders art at the time, seemed
&c them to be monumcntal--only to be-
come antiquated and inadequate and in
many instances replaced in a few brief
years.
In 1894 Philip Horene in his diary re-
fers to the Astor House as IAN ornament
70 the city, which "for centuries to come
~rfI n q Il.