Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1913 — NEW YORK A CITY OF FLATS [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK A CITY OF FLATS

First Modern Apartment House Built 43 Years Ago. Rutherford Stuyvesant Got the Idea From Paris and Other Realty Owners Took It Up—Bring Very High Rentals Now. New York. —It might have been centuries instead of forty-three years since the first apartment house was. erected in this city, so great has been the improvement in this popular type of dwelling. Rutherford Stuyvesant, a member of the old Stuyvesant family, was the first to introduce the apartment in this country. He had seen apartments in Paris! They were popular there with the best of people. Besides, it increased the ability of the owner to pay his tax bills and other expenses. The tax problem interested, Mr. Stuyvesant, as he owned considerable property about the city. Probably this was the reason for his interest in Paris apartment houses. After convincing himself that they would go in New, York, he erected the Rutherford, at 142 East Eighteenth street, soon after the Civil war. It was known as the French flats, and was the talk of the town. The Rutherford Stuyvesant iiouse is still standing, and according to brokers, has comparatively few vacancies. It is five stories high, 112 feet wide and ninety-two feet deep. There are four apartments of seven rooms each to a floor. It has steam heat and hot water and is absolutely soundproof. The reception that met the apartment house was so great that many builders the apartment house field. Of late years the number has increased considerably. These builders have given up the construction of all but apartment houses, which has got to be a science requiring constant attention and application. Through this specializing New York baa been forced in the last ten years into the front rank as the apartment center of the world. Many of our apartments here rival palaces in grandeur and fittings. Scores of such houses may be found on Park avenue, Fifth avenue, Madison avenue, Broadway, West End avenue, Riverside drive and crosstown streets to the east and west of Central park. A private dwelling fitted in the fashion of many of the suites in houses along these streets would rent for figures many times that which is asked for these apartments. Many families hsve learned this and are giving up coitly dwellings to live in apartmen'. houses, in which they are deprived of nothing that they had in the dwellng, yet are saving several thousand dollars a year by the change, enough 'n many cases to maintain the latest ir. motor cars. Rent» have increased, but tho great improvement that has been made in apart? *ent houses warrants the increase. In other words, the increase in re»'a has not been as great as the increise made in the construction and appointment of these houses. South of One Hundred and Sixteenth street there is not an apartment house where a suite may be had for less than sl6 a room. In many of the best apartment houses SSO a room is nothing unusual. Apartments bf two and three rooms bring comparatively more rent than the large suites, S2O a room being the lowest redtal that a small size apartment can be had for. They run as high as S6O and S7O a room. In some of the ei* pensive small suite apartments to the west of Park avenue and on the side streets along the west side, $75 a room Is often received. Up to two years ago there were kitchenettes attached to small suite apartments. This year builders have not been permitted to build kitchenettes; instead miniature kitchens have been introduced.

Park avenue has usurped the honor of being the leading apartment street of the city. It is only a few yfears since builders of apartments gave any attention to the east side of the city. All their operations were along Broadway! Riverside drive and West End avenue. It is only a few years since the first apartment house was erected in Park avenue, yet most of the blocks on either side of the avenue from Fifty'second to Eighty-third street, are HneH now with tall apartments, which are said to be the best in the city. Though Park avenue is considered the leading apartment house avenue in the city, rentals there are not exorbitant—in fact, apartments in new buildings may be got to fit almost any purse. Six rooms and two baths can be had for $1,700 a year. Suites can be had even for less rent than this. From $1,700 rents range gradually to SIO,OOO, which is about the highest rental paid on the avenue. This rent is obtained in the seventeen story apartment at Seventyninth street. Prices in this house are from $9,000 to SIO,OOO. About two blocks away, at the corner of Fifth avenue and Eighty-first street, as high as $5,000 a year may be paid for apartments. This probably is the highest-priced apartment house in the world. * West End avenue has been the scene of most of the apartment house building on the west side since last season. Half a dozen fine houses have been erected there.