The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 37

THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE. NEW YORK. SUNDAY. MAY 2. 1909.

22 Great East New York Section Rich in Promise of Steady Growth feagaL iS- EAST NEW YORK AS SEEN FROM HIGHLAND PARKWAY. edied there will doubtless be the same GROWTH OF EAST NEW YORK. sort of Increased development there. With Jamaica Bay Improvement. To the southward of the built-up portion of the East New York region there From Rural Region to Center of Metropolitan Activity.

is a stretch of many hundreds of acres of Widespread Signs of Activity From Ridgewood to Canarsie Forecast a Remarkable Residential and Industrial Development Jamaica Bay Improvement, Now Assured, Transform Surrounding Brownsville Re-awakening Ridgewood Showing Much Growth vacant land where building operations will be extensively carried on in the near future. With the dredging of Jamaica Development in Cypress Hills, Brownsville and Ridgewood Ja-, maica Bay Improvement. Bay for the proposed commercial development material will be secured to fill in much of the prcsjnt marsh land extending on both sides of Canarsie, In one direc tion to Bergen Beach and In the other to Old Mill Creek, which is near the borough have sold as quick as they were put up, and that is the case with everything that has been built here in a first-class manner. Real estate operations are looking up and there will be a renewal of activity with the new conditions prevailing In the business world and the relief from the strained financial situation. Tho outlook is now as bright and encouraging as anyone need wish." A Good Field for Investment.

East New York is a center of railroad lines converging there from all other parts of the city. There are direct train) from Manhattan over both the Brookiyi Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge to it. The Long Island trains run to it no: only from Flatbush avenue, where direst connection is made with the subwav to Manhattan and the Bronx, but from Long Island City, Manhattan Beach, Jamaica and all parts of Long Island. There is an elevated line to Canarsie, a Long Island branch to F.ockaway and it is expectel that the Interborough trains, In the subway under the East River at the Battery, will continue up the Atlantic avenue subway to and through East New York to Rockaway and other sea shore points. One of the active real estate brokers in East New York is Frank A.

Lane, who has been engaged in operations there for quate service when sufficient trains and trolley cars are operated. A Miniature City Has Grown TJp. "We have a miniature city here with everything necessary for the conduct vt business from the bank down. Therd are a large number of manufacturing establishments. There are iron foundries," carriage makers, brush makers, clothing manufacturers and novelty article makers.

If we ever get the Jamaica Bay improvement we will be a commercial center, and the growth of business and rise, of values will be something enormous and the rest of Brooklyn will have to take second place. "A healthy business condition has now been restored. We do not want another real estate inflation, but wo da want a steady Increase in the number of tenants, and that we are beginning to have. Far lower rentB can be secured here within twenty-two or twenty-three minutes of the heart of New York City than can be got anywhere else, and when people find that out they will, come here. When building is resumed on an extensive scale here the vacant lots will first be filled and then the growth will extend to Canarsie.

Already there have been some rows of new houses put up on streets running down that way which Atlantic avenue trolley running In all directions. "It is a great pity that we have not got an active board of trade to work for the good of the people of this section. It was by public spirited work that we secured Highland Park and the Eastern Parkway extension, which connects it with the rest of the park system. It was public spirit that secured the addition to Highland Park along Jamaica avenue. New Parkway Connections.

"The connection of Highland and Forest parks hy the proposed driveway running through Cypress Hills Cemetery Is assured end will make a desirable extension of the parkway system. As to the other proposed Parkway extension to mi through Brownsville and New Lots avenue, it remains to be seen whether can be carried out. If it should be assessed In the property adjacent It would crush out the small property holders. If put in the city at large, it will rest with the city to say whether It Is needed. As to the argument that It will bring wealthy people to the region by opening up a driveway through It, I feel sure that with two parkway routes the choice of wealthy people will be for the one on the ridge with Its extended view, and not At a recent dinner of a Manhattan Realty Corporation an enthusiastic Brooklyn speaker remarked: "There 18 a little island to the west of Brooklyn that will some day be known as West Brooklyn." While this may be regarded as an idle fancy, for more than two-thirds of a century the name East New York has been employed to designate a part of the territory now embraced in the greater city on this side of the Kast River.

The name was selected not as a mere territorial designation like West New York in New Jersey, North New York in Westchester County and South New York in Staten Island, but embodied an idea that may find fruition In the proposed creation of a harbor and port of entry EV sections of Brooklyn hold forth brighter promise of future development than does East New York. Away back in the first half of the last century, when the only public transportation link between the old City of Brooklyn and that far-flung region was a stage coach making but one round trip a day, its name was bestowed in the belief that it would some day rival New York as an international seaport. line. The construction of docks and wharves along this water front, in accordance with the proposed plans, would mean the development of this territory In a business way that would bring about the ultimate realization of the dream of the original East New York promoter that the port on the shor of Jamaica Bay would rival that on the water front of Manhattan iBland. Northward of East New York extendn the1 backbone of Long Island, and on this are Highland and Forest parks, the Ridgewood Reservoir and the Evergreens and Cypress Hill cemeteries.

Still farther northward is the region of Ridgewood, which Is rapidly being built up with rows of substantial homes. Over a thousand houses have been constructed in the Ridgewood region within the past year and plans have been provided for many more. The establishment of a bank at St. Nicholas and Myrtle avenues. Just over the Queens County line, is tho One of Brooklyn's many daring pioneers, looking far, far into the ahead, saw a vision in which Jamaica Bay took on a likeness similar to that of New York Harbor.

Its channels were dredged. Ocean-going vessels plied its waters, its banks were rimmed with out Trommer's Brewery Restaurant 3 stretching piers, and upon the adjacent farm lands was reared a great industrial community. A fantastic dream his neighbors called this vision, but the pioneer had enough faith in It to rechristen the old township of New IiOts, "East New York." That was seventy-five years ago. To-day East New York, Including Brownsville, together with Ridgewood to the north and Canarsie to the south, has been transformed from a near-wilderness into a well-populated district. The full development of all this section to its destined plane is hanging fire only until work on the Jamaica Bay improvement is actually under way.

That improvement cannot now be long delayed. The favorable report of the commission appointed two years ago by Mayor McClellan has been approved by the War Department at Washington. The department will ask Congress, at its next regular session, for an appropriation sufficient to dredge the inlet, and so soon as the funds shall have been voted the dredges will get in action. Following the inlet improvement the. important channels of the bay itself will be widened and deepened, after whicb the building of piers will be undertaken by the city.

A VISION NEAR REALIZATION. If, as now seems probable, by the digging of a canal across Long Island, this great basin shall also become the seaboard terminus of the barge canal, Jamaica Bay will indeed rival New York Harbor as a uort of entry and export. By leaving the Hudson River at Spuyten within the scope of the waters of Jamaica Bay. When the region lying east of Flatbush was first taken up by the early Dutch settlers who found that there were available farm lands there, although not as fertile as those In Mldwout, or Flatbush, they designated the territory as the New Lots of Flatbush. When, in later yean, it was found desirable to add another town to the Ave original ones of Kings County this region was cut off from Flatbush and designated as the Town of New Lots.

With the opening of the Erie Canal In 1825 the port of New York first gained pre-eminence in the commerce of this country and surpassed Philadelphia, until then the leader in business, population and political Importance. A few years later a municipal character was given to Brooklyn which emerged from its village chrysalis with a full fledged city charter. Soon after It began its Independent cor-poratod existence in 1834 the possibilities of the New Lots region were discovered by John R. Pitkin. The story was told of Dr.

T. De Witt Talmage. In the palmy days of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in Schermerhorn street, that while the edifice would actually seat 2,650 persons, the dominie, as latest provision for me convemeuco residents of that region, which is in the borders of the sister boroughs anrt enjovs the advantages of both. With transit facilities' the Ridgewood section! is most amply supplledc Jiavlng not only elevated connection over both the Brook-; lyn and Williamsburg bridges, but more than a dozen trolley lines extending In all directions, making access to all points where one might wish to go easy and speedy. Development of Home.

Kegion. The whole easterly part of the borough on the side toward the ocean Is having a rapid development as a center of homes. Schools and churches keep paco with population. The Carnegie Library in East New York is one of the finest in the borough, occupying the frontage of an entire block on Arlington avenue In the heart of the best residence quarter. The proximity of Highland Park and Forest Park to great home sections makes these pleasure grounds popular with and profitable for the residents.

Perhaps no place in the entire borough Is visited with more Interest by people on holidays than the great Ridgewood Res- ervolr, into which the water supply for the borough is pumped from the mains i he was cauea Dy nis parishioners, al in which It flows from out on Long lsi- i ways said it would seat 4,600, one of his Duyvil and proceeding to Flushing Bay via tne Hariem jttiver snip cauai, the Bronx Kills and the East River, all the Erie Canal barges, laden with the products of the West, could reach Jamaica Bay, were a little eight-mile canal dug from Flushing to Hawtree Creek. Action preliminary to this supplemental improvement has already been taken, with every prospect of ultimate success. And thus is the vision of that old "fantastic dreamer," John R. Pitkin, the pioneer of East New York, on the threshold of realization. It was soon after the annexation, in 1886, of the East New York section to the old City of Brooklyn that the development of that vast territory began.

One improvement after another contributed to its steady upbuilding, until the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge produced the We brew one of the highest grades of pure Bavarian nud I'ilsener Beer. Wold lu boxes of 24 bottles and de aamirers explaining, "The dominie always sees things large." Mr. Pitkin was one of the men who saw "things large" and in looking over New Lots he saw the future pregnant with possibilities for the commercial development of the region. Viewing the expanse of Jamaica Bay from the high ground overlooking it he saw a vision of the commerce of the wmld at wharves which could be built there, teeming warehouses crowding the banks of the waterways which could be dredged liverer! nt'vour residence: price. $1.25.

Connected with the Brewery is one of the nest appointed resuuuum iu Service unexcelled, dinner pur- Brooklvn. Here you miiv enjoy the most tasty dishes nt reasonable prices, ties. Bushwkk Avenue and Conway Street. Telephone 288 Fust New York. iniana, countless lactones engaged In the production of articles for shipment and a HWARZ GEORGEJ.SC for the one through the low land near the water front, "The Jamaica Bay improvement is bound to come In time, though it may not be in your day or mine.

It will realize what Pitkin dreamed seventy-five years ago when he founded the email hamlet of East New York, connected with Brooklyn by a stage-coacb trip which took half a day, and one coach made tho irn once rtav each way. He had Wlost The Largest and Reliable great ideas of rivaling New York, and so chose the name and laid out streets and, before it finds its wav into other mains that carry it to the various parts of the borough. On a clear day an extended and extensive view Is to bo so-cured from the reservoir heights, stretching from Long Beach to Sandy Hook along the shore, and taking in the scope of the entire metropolitan district from Staten IBland to the Orange Mountains In New Jereey and the hills of Westchester to the north and much of Long Island In the distance eastward. Sweot by the healthful breezes from salt water and enjoying most salubrious sanitary conditions the East New York region and Its environments possess many attractions for homeseekers who have fully appreciated its opportunities. Optimistic as to the Future.

When asked about real estate conditions in the East New York region, A. H. Weston, who hag had mora than a score of years of experience there, and who has the pavilion office at Fulton and Jerome streets, said to a representative of the Eagle: "I Vegard the outlook as excellent; not that there is any especial activity now, but that it will come as soon as normal conditions are restored, and that will be in a short time. We shall have a return to a steady advance In building operations, which will be better than any boom. Iu fact, we do not want a boom, for that is always followed by a reaction.

But 1 am optimistic in regard to the future. In my twenty-two years here have alway3 been optimistic, and I see no reason to depart from my usual custom. When 1 came here, most of the territory now built upon was farm land, and no one can prophesy what we shall see in another like period. "Here in the region properly called East New York there are no lots to be built upon save to the south of Atlanis avenue, where the land stretches away to the shore of Jamaica Bay. In the Brownsville region, where they had so big a boom and overbuilt until they had a setback, everything Is quiet, but th? time will come when building will bo resumed and will extend down to Canarsie.

There are some one and two family houses going up In that region. Oit at Cypress Hills there are fully 400 new FURNITURE Dustnug population drawn to such a center of industry. With prophetic imagination he proceeded to lay out a prospective city and put lots on the market. The streets were named for the states of the Union, the names of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont still surviving. But the crown of his forecast of the future was the bestowal of the name East New York on the place which ho fondly hoped would rival and outstrip New York itself.

But all these hopes were dashed when the prosperity which preceded it culminated In the disastrous panic of 1S37, and the bottom fell out of East New York real estate, together with many other promising enterprises. The original promoter suffered so severely that tho region knew him no more, but in recent years his name has been bestowed on the street which was formerly called Eastern Parkway, being the original extension of that boulevard from the old city line where it terminated; the selection df a new name for it having been made accessary by the construction of the Eastern Parkway extension to Highland Park. But the name East New York survived to designate the principal residence region In the bid town of New Lots. In 1886 the town was annexed to the City of Brooklyn as the Twenty-sixth Ward, coming into the city several years in advance of Flatbush and the rest of the county towns. The only official use of the names of New Lots and East New York remaining is as designations of streets which extend through the ward on either side of Pitkin ave- AND which he designated for the states oi tne Union.

He "tra9a real estate Jules Verno and was laughed at. for his efforts. He failed to carry out his ideas but now. thirty or forty years after his bones have crumbled to dust, his plans are taking shape toward realization. All that remains of the fame of Pitkin is his name bestowed on a street in this region, which has taken on metropolitan characteristics by the influx of the foreign-born population of the metropolis.

"But this region has a future of great gri-wth and expansion. If there is as much change in the next twenty-two years as in the past, the result will be something marvelous." Real Estate Situation in Brownsville Improved. William B. Roth, manager of the State Bank's Brownsville branch, at Stone and Pitkin avenues, said to a nf v.o Enele: "The real estate CARPET HOUSE sensational boom which sent property values, especially In Brownsville, soaring. Rows upon rows of buildings shot up on vacant lots, varying in kind from the private dwelling house to the modern apartment house.

Stores and industrial plants to provide for the inruBhing population were erected with equal rapidity and in great number. It began to look as if the boom involved a bubble that could not be pricked, when the panic of 1907 swept over the country and caused its collapse. Some there are who say that the boom, irrespective of the financial flurry, was nearing its end. They assert that, with Brownsville thickly with; few vacant lots left in what is strictly called East New York, with Ridgewood well built up and Canarsie awakening, the limit had been about reached, that real estate operators should have realized it was time to halt. ACTIVITY FOLLOWS DEPRESSION.

But conditions, as they exist to-day, all go to refute the truth of this pessimistic assertion. Beyond contradiction they establish the truth of converse. Reaction has spent its force. Hot on the trail of depression follows anoher era of prosperity. All over the larger East New York section are unmistakable signs of activity.

Real estate Is rapidly changing hands, building Is going forward again, the population is rising, all indications point to a steady, persistent growth which, in a few years to come, will justify the name John Pitkin gave to that section of Brookjyn. Especially marked is the present development in the Cypress Hills and Ridgewood districts. In Cypress Hills more than 400 new buildings, most of them one and two family houses, are now going up. Lots that only four years ago sold for' a maximum of $300 are now being marketed at an average price of $1,500. From a residential standpoint particularly Ridgewood is advancing 'with giant strides.

Fully 1,000 houses have been erected there within the last twelvemonth, and real estate experts predict a busy season for the builders and their mechanics. Excellent transit facilities Berve both these thriving localities. In Brownsville and Canarsie activity is not so fully apparent. Yet lack of marked activity does not imply stagnation. In Brownsville real estate, both improved and unimproved, is steadily increasing in value.

Many two-family houses are in course of construction, and so soon as the inhabitants accustom themselves to changed local conditions a more noticeable growth is certain to take p'lace. Even in Canarsie, which, more than other districts of the larger East New York, depends upon the pending Jamaica Bay improvement for its destined development, real estate business is reported to be good. With the coming of the signs of a wider activity are beginning to appear. SECTION EQUIPPED WITH MANY ADVANTAGES. Advantages bestowed by nature, public improvements or varied scope IN situation here in Brownsville is much ira- i nrncrt over last year.

The bulldinif of Ridgewood Section. Transit Facilities Drew Population, With city annexation a great stimulus wag given to growth, and with the con This Handsome Three-Piece Suit to Eagle Readers, $24.98. large apartment houses has stopped, hut the people are coming and occupying those already constructed so that now practically all are filled. There has i.ever been a time when good dwellings for one and two families have not been In demand here, and they are up as fast as tmllt. The only troublo was with tho tenement house of the cheaper sort, which was overbuilt in this section.

But now that has been stopped and rentals are gradually getting beck to their former basis. "I fully expect that within a hill a year more there will be a demand for mere structures of this size, threo and fnu utnries and some of five, which 1277,1279, 1281, 1283 MYRTLE AVE, AT HART ST. AND MYRTLE AVE. Telephone 114i Bu.hwick. were put up here In such numbers three i houses under way.

mostly or tne two family type. Here in East New York proper there is some building in the few lots left vacant In the filling up of. the surrounding property. A new development is the construction of houses on tho south side of Highland Boulevard, near Highland Park. When that parkway was laid out all the houses on the south sido were removed to the north side, as they encroached on the property taken by the dev.

but the authorities failed to acquire the ground on the slope, supposing that it would not be built upon, and now owners arc making use of it. It was a lack of public spirit that prevented the acquirement of this property, so that the view along the parkway should be unobstructed. Great Advance in Values. "Out in the Cypress Hills region they are building on lots that bring $1,500 now and four years ago a man was lucky if he got $500 for them. But the region la almost filled up and soon' there will be no more lota to build on.

The building operations would extend across the old city line Into Queens Borough but the people do not want to go into a region that Is unsewered and is not provided with transit, facilities. When that region gets these Improvements, it will speedily be occupied. "We have here In East New York everything that a metropolitan district needs. There are schools, churches, libraries, social organizations, manufactories, commercial facilities and regions of fine homPB. Our parks are beautiful and readily accessible and we are convenient to the seashore nt all points.

The transit facilities ere many to all parts of the city. We have direct trains over both ynd comprehensive transit facilities serve to attract to the East New York section thousands upon thousands of homeseekers. Highland and Forest parks are easy of access to residents, while the proposed extension of the Eastern Parkway to Forest Park will give to that district one of the finest driveways in all the greater city. 1 The lofty hill upon which the Ridgewood Reservoir stands is not, of course, a nark in the official sense of the term, but there are few parks in struction of elevated roads the population rapidly increased. It was In 1888 that the first trolley ar in Brooklyn was operated in Jamaica avenue, and the region secured additional stimulus.

But it was not until after the Williamsburg Bridge added to the means of communication across the East Rver that the East New York region underwent its greatest real estate advance. An outlying portion of it, to which the name of Brownsville had been given, from the owner of a farm cut up into building lots, was the scene of a building boom which transformed it Into a crowded center of population In a few months, with a marvelous advance of values. But there was too much Inflation, and the Inevitable crash came when financial conditions became stringent. It was found that there had been overbuilding for normal conditions, and a halt was called. The result has been that the only building operations resumed have been of one-family and two-family houses, for which there is a constant demand, and no larger structures have recently been undertaken.

The greatest building activity to be found anywhere In the Twenty-sixth Ward region Is In the section near the boundary of the borough to the eastward, which is locally designated as Cypress Hills. There hundreds of houses have been erected north of Atlantic avenue in the last year, and hundreds more are under way or planned, with the result that nearly all the available lots have been taken up. A further extension of building operations will have to be soulh of Atlantic avenue or eastward Into the Borough of Queens, and the lack of sewers and of transit facilities are serious drawbacks to operations there. When these defects are rem I Kr 1 1 1 years ago. But i ao not rjiijrt boom; in fact we do not want a boom; the normal, Bteady growth being far better.

There have been many hundreds of structures put up here In the last few years. We have a population estimated at 150,000 In Brownsville, Is I'ast of Ralph avenue and south of A.liiutiij avenue. "Twenty years ago this was all farm land with a little settlement on the land which had belonged to a Mr. Brown, from whom tt took its name. When the car line was laid In Rockaway avenuo it opened up the region, and the Hamburg avenuo cars were put in operation to Canarsie.

They brought many persons from the part of the Eastern District which they traverse. Then came the construction of the Williamsburg Bridge, which opened up the region to the dwellers in crowded Manhattan. The extension of the operation of elevated trains to thlB part of the borough from the other end of the bridge also did much to make It accessible. Now we have also the Ralph avenue, the Liberty avenue and the St. John's place cars besldea those in Fulton street and Broadwny, where they, run on the surface as well as overhead, and we have In Atlantic avenue a subway route connecting directly with the Manhattan subway trains at Flatbush Brooklyn which attract more pleasure seekers than may be found near the reservoir on a fair Sunday afternoon.

From the hilltop may be had as fine a view as anywhere in the greater city. With the naked eye the visitor, on a clear day, may take in at a glance all the wide expanse of land, rivers and ocean lying between the Orange hills in New Jersey, 'Sandy Hook and Long Beach. To the east the meadows of Long Island unveil themselves, while far away to the north glimpses are to be 'seen of the woodrcovered hills of Westchester. With public schools, churches and social and political clubs the larger East New York is well provided. The Carnegie Library, situated almost Telephone Call, 164 East New York.

Established 1887. B. SCHUBERT CONTRACTOR FOR CEMENT PAVEMENTS CURBS. STEPS AND COPINGS, WATERTIGHT CELLARS AND STABLE FLOORS. DEALER IN PORTLAND CEMENT.

Office and Yard: 155-159 JAMAICA AVENUE, Brooklyn, N.Y. OLDEST RELIABLE CONCERN OF EAST NEW YORK. in the heart of the section, is generally conceded to be one of the best institutions of tha! character endowed by the "Steel King." At Forest Park there is a public golf links, while during the summer season the beaches are all'jpf them within easy reach. the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridgi close connection with the subway by the avenue. AH these give us ample and ada-.