December 30, 1883
 

The Record and Guide.
 

147
 

Mount Sfc. Vincent Hotel, in the Central Park. A good eating and
drinking place for visitors to the park is needed afc fchafc poinfc, and
the cost would be inconsiderable in view of the convenience it
would be for the public.
 

The land speculation in the Northwest is moving south. A syn¬
dicate of Buffalo capitalists have purchased 150,000 acres of South¬
ern Missouri land to resell to actual settlers. The land is on the
St. Louis & San Francisco Road, 175 miles southwest of St. Louis.
Whenever the Indian Territory is opened—and it must be some
day, there will be an active speculation in southwestern lands.
Any one who wishes to lay by a heritage for his family, can do so
by purchasing a section of land, on or near a railway in the
far West. But one can do quite as well, and make as sure a ven¬
ture in New York City.
 

The courts and the lawyers have succeeded in making a very tan¬
gled knot of the Western Union dispute. Having made such vast
sums of money out of insolvent corporafcions, fche legal fraternity
were apparently determined to exploit some of fche wealfchier
corporafcions, Whafc a commentary is the whole history of Wes¬
tern Union litigation upon our great legal lights and the practice of
our courts. The former authorize schemes which the latter
declare illegal and void. Indeed our laws and our legal decisions
seem expressly designed to bring in big fees for counsel, as
neither equity nor common sense can justify them. How wise
is the Stock Exchange, which promptly expels any of its mem¬
bers who appeal to a court to settle the merits of a transaction.
 

All About Home Clubs.

The attention of the public has been directed to the erecfcion of " Home
Clubs," or co-operative aparfcment associations, by the announcement in
the last issue of The Record and Guide that a stupendous building of this
character was soon to be constructed on the famous Fiffch Avenue Plaza
lots that will far outrival any of the magaiflcent buildings of a similar
character thafc have already been erected. This club will entirely cover
twelve city lots and will be many stories high, the situation selected
beiag particulary favorable for a building of enormous proportions. It
will have fchree fronts: that on Fifth avenue, from which it will be 300 feet
distant, comprises thewhole block from Fifty-eighth to Fiffcy-ntuthstreets,
on the former of which it will run west a distance of 135 feet, while on
the latter it will have 'a frontage facing Central Park of 175 feet. The
cost of this improvemenfc will probably reach, including the sum paid for
the ground, $3,000,000.

The erection of " Home Clubs" was originally commenced in 18.^0, and
they were organized under the general corporation act of 1848, under which
the various owners became copartners. In the following year an amend¬
ment to the act of 1848 was passed (Chap. 589, laws of 1881) which provided
for the formation of sfcock companies for tbe purpose of acquiring title to
ground and erecting thereon such structures as the stockholders deemed
expedient. Under this law, and the amendments thereto, various Home
Clubs have been formed, the method of procedure being as follows: A num¬
ber of gentlemeu of congenial tastes, and occupying the same social posi¬
tions in life, meet together and agree upon a suitable site for, and the erection
of, an apartmen fc house. They nexfc proceed fco form fchemselves infco a stock
company, elect a presidenfc, secretary and treasurer, each member pledging
himself to contribute whatever amounfc he may desire to the capital stock,
which is made payable in installments. Each stockholder becomes entitled
to a fif fcy years' lease wifch renewals, or virtually a perpetual lease of an
aparfcment of greafcer or less dimensions in proportion fco the a.mounfc of
stock held by him. A fixed rental is established for each apartmenfc to
laeefc fche current running expenses, such as coal, gas, janitor, bell-boys,
taxes and interest on mortgage.

The reason that each stockholder is given a perpetual lease of his apart¬
ment instead of the fee is, fchat many restrictions can be embodied and
enforced ia a lease thafc have been held when properfcy is owned in fee to be
of non-efEect. When the sfcock becomes full paid, certificates are issued
for fche same fco the stockholders, which fchey keep or sell as they may desire
and fchey may also sub-l?t fcheir apartments subjecfc fco the approval of
the other members of the club. It will be noticed from whafc we have
jusfc stated that a person need not necessarily be a stockholder in a club in
order to be able fco lease an aparfcment, nor is ifc necessary for a stockholder
fco reside in a club in whieh he owns stock.

The object of the whole co-operative movement is "that it shall act
as a mufcual benefit society, and ifc was originally expected by
the projector of the Home Club system, that it would be adopted by
persons of quite moderate means, but for two reasons the reverse is the
case, and in all the clubs fchus formed, the stockholders are men of wealth.
The flrsfc reason is, that men of^small means, say a young clerk, with a
couple of thousand dollars laid by in bank, before making an investment
such as the purchase of an apartment, will consult the various branches of
his family as to its desirability, and iu nine cases oufc of fcen, they will
frighten him with their opinions on a subject, about which they know
lifctle or nothing. Secondly, rich men are accustomed to invest in various
enterprises, and are wilUng and able to risk something, and generally have
alegaladviser; while the man of more hmited means is afraid to employ
a lawyer to investigate the matter for him on account of a possible large
When this movement was in its incipiency, ground was purchased at
 

fee.
 

the corner of Lexington avenue and Eightieth street, for the erection
of tbe first Home Club, which was designed for persons in the moderate
walks of life, but had to be abandoned for the reasons which we have
already stated.
 

Club on a paying basis was established on Fifty-seventh streefc, east of
Seventh avenue, which was called the "Rembrandt." The next
club was the " Hubert," which wai erected on Fifty-ninth sfcreefc, between
Broadway and Sevenfch avenue. These two houses were erecfced under
the general corporation act of 1848, but soon after the passage of the
amendment to tbat act to which we have already referred, they were reor¬
ganized into joint stock companies. Since the passage of the amendment
in 1881, the following clubs have been organized, the " Hawthorne," Fifty-
ninth streefc, befcween Sixfch and Seventh avenues; No. 80 Madison avenue,
corner of Twenty-eighth sfcreet; the "Berkshire," comer of Madison ave¬
nue and Fiffcy-second street; the Central Park apartments.Tafc Fifty-ninth
street and Seventh avenue, comprising eight difEerent sfcrucfcures,
known as the "Lisbon," "Cordova," "Barcelona," "Madrid," "Sara-
gossa," Grenada," " Valencia," and " Tolossa;" No. 120 Mad¬
ison avenue, corner of Thirtieth sfcreet; "Knickerbocker," Fifth avenue
and Twenty-eighth street; fche " Barrington," Twenty-fifth street, easfc of
Madison avenue; the "Mounfc Morris," One Hundred and Thirtieth street,
east of Fifth avenue; and the "Chelsea," .Twenty-third street, between
Seventh and Eighth avenues. Only the first]three of these houses are as
yet completed, the others being in various stages of constrsction, the
entire amount of capital already: invested in ^these Home Clubs having
reached fche enormous sum of nearly $10,000,000 in less than three years.
Of the buildings we have named the following are, or will be fire proof:
No. 80 Madison avenue, the " Central Park" Apartments, No. 120 Madi¬
son avenue, the "Knickerbocker" and the "Chelsea," while the "Haw¬
thorne" and the " Mount Morris" are semi-fireproof.

In all these companies a portion of the apartments are reserved by the
stockholders to be leased for the benefit of the company. When the
income from such aparfcmenfcs, in addifcion fco the fixed rental paid by the
stockholders for the use of their apartments, is greater than the running
expenses of the company, a dividend is declaimed. Up to the present time
investors in the stock of fchese clubs have received from 12]4 fco 25 per cenfc.
upon fcheir capital.

The question naturally arises how can a club be guarded against the
entrance of objectionable members? The answer is, that a clause in each
lease binds the member to which said lease is granted to transfer the same
only to such persons as may be agreeable to a majority of tbe members of
the club. There is also a provision in the by-laws fchat in case the club
refuses to accept as a member a person to whom an owner wishes to trans¬
fer his lease an arbitration may be demanded to decide whether such per¬
son would be a desirable member. Already a large number of aparfcmenfcs
have been sold in the various clubs without any trouble, and with as much
ease as a man would dispose of his house, and in nearly all cases at a con¬
siderable advance over the price paid by the original purchaser.

In order to successfully form a Home Club ifc is necessary first fchafc the
ground should be purchased at the lowest market rates without the inter¬
vention of any speculator or promoter, and second, that the building itself
should be erected under the supervision of a competent architect without
the payment of any commissions whatever beyond fche usual fee. Consid¬
erable difficulty is found fco ufcilize fco advanfcage fche ground floors in fchese
houses except when they are located upon business streets, in which case
they are used for stores. Mr. Hubert, who was the original projector of fchis
entire system of co-operative buildings, also devised by his system of
double floors in a measure fco overcome this difficulty, but still aparfcmenfcs
may be renfced on fchis floor afc nearly one-half of the rental demanded for
the second floor. When this system of co-operative building was first
commenced threats were frequently made that the buildings would ba
burned to the ground, while Mr. Hubert was constantly in receipt of letters
notifying him that his fife would be taken if he did nofc sfcop fche work.

In fche course of time, it is hoped that our great money-lending institu¬
tions will deem it expedient to advance money to persons desirous of
purchasing stock in a co-operative building, accepting as secm-ity the lease
of the apartment to which they would become entitled, allowing them to
pay off the same in easy iastallments. It is only in this way that Home
Clubs can ever be made to benefit the masses of the people and carry out
fche original idea of their projector.

Investmenfcs in Home Clubs should be carefully made, and fche same con¬
sideration given to them as fco the other business ventures in which or^
may engage. We have heard of one case where a lady artist joined a club
and selected her apartment, which was to involve a payment of $11,000,
bufc so great were the changes made in the original designs that she found
when her apartment was completed, thafc her outlay was fully double
that sum. In fact it may be stated that the tendency of all co-operative
associations is to'extravagance, rather than economy. When a Home Club
is once in operation the system of co-operation may be greatly expanded:
for instance, in the "Hubert" fche supply of coal and wood is purchased at
firsfc cosfc by fche compaay, and each sfcockholder purchases from it tickets
calUng for a specified amount of the same as occasion may require. This
has been found fco work well, saving fco the stockholders about 40 per cenfc.
of the usual retail price, but when the same system was applied to ice it
was found nofc fco work at all, and fche company seeing that they were
losing money on this article stopped supplying it. Some enthusiasts claim
thafc fche fcime will come when nofc only cooking but laundry work will be
done by co-operation, but it is only fair to state that the originator of
and fchose besfc posfced in Home Clubs strongly deprecate it being pushed to
such extremes.

As to fche managemenfc of fchese houses, it has been found up to the pres¬
ent time fchat there was always some member of the club who would
undertake this duty, but doubtless as the novelty of the scheme wears off
it will be found necessary to employ some competent person to supervise
fche affairs of each club, or perhaps some real estafce firm may make a
specialfcy of fchis mafcfcer.
 

Fashions in every deparfcmenfc of indusfcry chauge so rapidly now, that
whereas afc one time a fashionable design in carpets or draperies would
The second attempt was more successful, and a Home 1 mnfora season, now-a-days a new design will appear every week.