-PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 CITY LAND VALUES 
 
 /.^vl^> 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD M. HURD 
 
 President, The Lawyers' Mortgage Insurance Co. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE RECORD AND GUIDE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ^903) 
 
• • • • 
 • • • • •• 
 
 ' • • •/ • 
 • • • • 
 
 /^""^^Tf? 
 
 
 1 
 
 r:sRAL 
 
 Copyright, 1903, 
 By Real Estate Record Association. 
 
Example of highest type of Improvement of short block front. 
 A skyscraper on each corner and a low building — controlled by one 
 or both of the skyscrapers— in the middle, giving a light well above. 
 Broadway, between Cedar and Liberty Streets. 
 
Principles of City Land Values* 
 
 Preface. 
 
 When placed in charge of the Mortgage Department of the 
 U. S. Mortgage & Trust Co. in 1895, the writer searched in vain, 
 both in England and this country, for books on the science of 
 city real estate as an aid in judging values. Finding in economic 
 books merely brief references to city land and elsewhere only 
 fragmentary articles, the plan arose to outline the theory of the 
 structure of cities and to state the average scales of land values 
 produced by different utilities within them. 
 
 The material for this study of the structure of cities — includ- 
 ing their locations, starting points and lines of growth — has 
 been gathered from a large number of local histories of Ameri- 
 can cities, old maps, commercial geographies, &c. 
 
 The material for the study of average scales of values has 
 been drawn from the mass of valuations of land and buildings, 
 rentals and mortgages, obtained in about fifty cities in the 
 course of the mortgage business of the U. S. Mortgage & Trust 
 Co. and also from many visits to these cities. 
 
 The viewpoint is that of a conservative lender on real estate 
 and while the examples cited are chiefly from the smaller cities, 
 it is believed that the principles stated are universal and differ 
 only in application and in resulting combinations. 
 
 Special acknowledgment is due for aid in figuring the struct- 
 ural and commercial value of buildings and in the preparation 
 of maps, to Cecil C. Evers, late member of the American Insti- 
 tute of Architects. 
 
 '..' i\ u » 
 
Table of Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER I.— General Principles 1 
 
 Economic rent the basis of value.— Urban economic rent the 
 residuum after payment of all charges and interest on build- 
 ings.— Intrinsic vs. exchange value.— Utility precedes value 
 in city land.— Ground rents^ based on social service of loca- 
 tions.— Structure of cities controlled by definite laws.— Cities 
 originate at point of contact with outer world, and grow in 
 line of least resistance or greatest attraction or their result- 
 ant—Central or axial Growth.— Influence of buildings.— Final 
 basis, psychological. 
 
 CHAPTER n.— Forces Creating Cities 19 
 
 Defence against enemies.— Commerce. — Manufacture. — Political 
 forces.— Social forces, i.e., culture, education, art, fashion, 
 amusfements.— All forces intermingled in the larger cities.— 
 Final basis, energy, enterprise and intellect of people. 
 
 CHAPTER III.— Locations of bities 22 
 
 Situations for defence originally most important.— Later trade 
 routes located by topography create commercial cities, where 
 break in transportation occurs. — In manufacturing, extractive 
 Industries follow raw materials, and cheap power, and later 
 seek the largest cities for labor supply, home markets and 
 cheap transportation.— Political locations compromises.— ETx- 
 act starting points analyzed. — Topographical influences most 
 compelling. 
 
 CHAPTER IV.— Ground Plan of Cities 33 
 
 First influence consists of topographical faults, i.e., water sur- 
 faces or sharp variations from levels.— Characteristics of 
 platted cities, straight streets at right angles, permitting 
 free movement throughout.— Characteristics of haphazard 
 growth, irregular tangle of crooked and narrow streets pre- 
 venting quick access to business center.— Some early plats 
 attempt to forestall later needs and some to determine cen- 
 ter of city.— Normal sizes of streets, alleys, blocks and lots: 
 percentage of public and private land.— Unit from which plat 
 built up. 
 
 CHAPTER v.— Directions of Growth 56 
 
 External influences.— First lines of growth of waterfront city 
 parallel to water front; of inland town, along intersecting 
 turnpikes and of railroad town, away from railroad station 
 along principal turnpike.— Contest between axial and central 
 growth.— Normal city star-shaped.— Framework of cities laid 
 down by water courses, turnpikes and railroads.— Influence of 
 public buildings and exchanges.— Continuity the vital feature. 
 
 vii 
 
CHAPTER VI.— Distribution of Utilities .75 
 
 As city evolves, continual specialization in business and dif- 
 ferentiation in social grades.— Classification of utilities and lo- 
 cations sought.— Distribution of business utilities, economic, 
 of residence values, social.— Movement of point of highest value. 
 — Direction and rate. 
 
 CHAPTER VH.— Currents of Travel 89 
 
 Regularity of daily travel the basis of its effect on city struc- 
 ture.— Chief daily movements between residence and business. 
 —Shopping habits of various classes— Retail stores chiefly 
 located by currents of travel. — Change of axis of city traffic. 
 —Fluidity of daily travel.— Street railroads, elevated, under- 
 ground, bridges, ferries, etc. 
 
 CHAPTER Vin.— Types of Buildings 97 
 
 Suitability to location.— Proportion of cost of building to 
 value of land.— Effects of skyscrapers.— Table of business 
 buildings suitable for various locations.— Table of residences 
 suitable for various locations. — Depreciation and life of build- 
 ings.— General effects of buildings. — Nuisances and restrictions, 
 
 CHAPTER IX.— Rentals and Capitalization Rates 122 
 
 Basis of gross business rents, what the property earns for the 
 tenant; of gross residence rents, what the tenant can afford 
 to pay.— Deductions from gross rents in properties of different 
 character, and table of percentages.— Effects on net rents of 
 fluctuations in gross rents.— Capitalization rates. 
 
 CHAPTER X.— Scale of Average Values 133 
 
 starting with i.o value in city site, aveiage values of acreage 
 on outskirts, mechanics' residence lots, better grades of 
 residence lots and business lots.— Tables of average values 
 for best business and best residence land in cities of different 
 sizes and in certain selected cities. 
 
 CHAPTER XI.— Summary 145 
 
 Review of evolution of value in city land, economic lent 
 factors of attraction and repulsion.— Value by proximity and 
 by accessibility.- Reactions of utilities.— Scope of individual 
 Inquiry. — Problem always complex, change a law of life.— 
 While conditions change, values will change.— The study of 
 principles should reduce errors in judgment to a minimum. 
 
 Vlll 
 
Principles of City Land Values. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 Economic rent, .the basis of value.— Urban economic rent the 
 residuum after payment of all charges and interest on build- 
 ings^Intrinsj.c vs. exchange value.— Utility precedes value 
 in city land.lrGround rents based on social service of loca- 
 tions. -^rStructure of cities controlled by definite laws<r-Cities 
 originate at point of contact with outer world, and* grow ih 
 line of least resistance or greatest attraction or their result- 
 ant^Central or axial Growth. -^Influence of buildings.— Final , 
 basis, psychological. > U 
 
 THE basis of agricultural land values has been established 
 since the time of Ricardo, and throws light on the funda- 
 mentals of our problem. Value in urban land, as in agricultural 
 land, is the resultant of e^qnoimc^pr, ground ..xept capitalized^ 
 As first laid down, the theory of agricultural ground rents em- 
 phasized fertility as a source of rent. Later, when it was noted 
 that it was not the most fertile lands that were first occupied 
 but rather those nearest new settlements, accessibility or prox- 
 imity to cities was recognized as an important factor in creating 
 agricultural ground rent. In cities, economic rent is based On 
 superiority of location only, the sole function of city land being 
 to furnish area on which to erect buildings. 
 
 Urban economic rent is ascertained by deducting from the 
 gross rent of land and building, first, all charges for services, 
 such as heat, light, elevators, janitors, agents' commission for 
 collecting rents, etc.; second, taxes, insurance, and repairs, and, 
 finally, interest on the capital invested in the building. Thig 
 interest on the cost of the building must exceed the average in- 
 terest rate by an amount equal to the annual depreciation of the 
 building, thus providing a sinking fund sufficient to replace the 
 building at the end of its life. To make a correct showing the 
 building must be suited to the location and managed with or- 
 dinary ability, or the apparent economic rent will have little or 
 no bearing on the value of the land. 
 
2 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 The rate of capitalization, turning income into value, is based 
 on the average interest rates of all investments and fluctuates 
 with them, although within closer limits and more slowly. Wide 
 differences occur in the rates of capitalization of rents from land 
 of different uses in the same city, and smaller differences from 
 land having the same use in different cities. Where a locality 
 is advancing in value, capitalization rates are low, where station- 
 ary they are normal, and where declining they run very high. 
 After the vital factor of prospective increase or decrease of value, 
 the lesser factors -are stability of rents, ease of convertibility, — 
 in part by mortgaging or in whole by selling, — and character of 
 utilization, as involving the rates of depreciation of different 
 classes of buildings. In general, the larger the city and the 
 higher the class of property, the greater the stability of rents, 
 and ease of convertibility and the lower the rate of capitaliza- 
 tion. Differences in rent are plainly apparent, but differences 
 in rates of capitalization are frequently overlooked, although a 
 very large proportion of value in urban land comes from a low 
 rate of capitalization. To illustrate, of two pieces of land yield- 
 ing an economic rent of $10,000 annually, one well located and 
 improved with ofllce building or retail shop might sell, exclud- 
 ing the building, on a 4 per cent, basis, or for $250,000; while the 
 other, covered with cheap tenements, might sell, excluding the 
 buildings, on a 10 per cent, basis, or for $100,000. The rate of 
 capitalization is ascertained by figuring backwards, i. e., divid- 
 ing average prices paid for similar land by the net income, 
 which shows the interest rate which the community is satisfied 
 to receive on such investments. 
 
 While intrinsic value is correctly derived by capitalizing 
 ground rent, exchange value may differ widely from it. As ordin- 
 arily expressed, "value" means exchange value, average sales be- 
 ing considered the best test of value, and since all ownership lies 
 subsequent to the date of purchase, the estimated futiu-e pros- 
 pects form the mastering factor of all exchange values. Al- 
 though speculation in the sense of assuming large risk for the 
 chance of large gain, is normally confined to limited sections of 
 cities where marked changes of utility are taking place, specu- 
 lation in the sense of an attempt to make money from an in- 
 crease in the value of property apart from its earnings, is a fac- 
 tor in all real estate transfers. We may note that real estate spec- 
 ulation is always for the rise, speculation for the fall or "short" 
 sales being impossible, owing to the non-representative quality 
 of land. 
 
 Even where properties are fully improved for their present 
 use, if a new utility arises or is anticipated, since this may m- 
 
EVOLUTION OP A CITY. 
 Paris in 56 B. C. (Lutece) Site , )n Island chosen for defence. 
 
 (Maps printed in 1705.) 
 
EVOLUTION OP A CITY. 
 Paris in 508 A. D. First walls surrounded buildings on island. Second walls on north sid< 
 First beginnings of axial growth along each roa<? issuing from the walls. 
 
EVOLUTION OP A CITY. 
 Paris under Louis the VII. Axial growth outside the walls has developed into centers at road 
 
 intersections. 
 
EVOLUTION OP A CITY. 
 
 Paris 1180 to 1223. New walls, Include much greater area. Central growth takes place 
 
 around the abbeys and churches erected mostly on ihe sites of the old Roman temples. 
 
EVOJL,UTION OP A CITl. 
 
 Paris 1367 to 1383. Third wall on north side includes added area. City shows marked 
 growth on north side within the walls and on the south side, outside the walls. 
 
EVOLUTION OF A CITY. 
 Paris 1422 to 1580. The Tullleries cause strong axial growth out the Faubourg St. Honor 
 
EVOLUTION OF A CITY. 
 Paris 1589 to 1643. The hills to the north check extension in ttat direction. 
 
EVOLUTION OP A CITY. 
 
 Paris In 1705. The city has spread In all directions. The high land to the north is being cut 
 
 up into building tracts. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 volve a different basis of economic rent, capitalization rate and 
 value, by such estimated difference the exchange value may vary 
 from the present intrinsic value. If the new utility does not 
 arrive, prices may advance and recede, while values do not 
 change, but if the new utility arrives, both prices auu values 
 will alter their levels. 
 
 To be reckoned with under the head of future prospects are 
 not only local changes of utility, but the rate of growtn of the 
 city as a whole, the prosperity or depression of the surrounding 
 section and the success or failure of the industries directly sup- 
 porting it. Moreover, general financial and economic condi- 
 tions enter so largely into exchange values, that values are at 
 times not based on income, or supply and demand, but represent 
 simply a condition of the public mind.^ 
 
 First houses in Grand Rapids, Mich. Located on river bank. 
 
 The dependence of value in land on economic rent is clearly 
 seen in the origin of any city, utility in land arising when the 
 first buildings are erected, but not value in land, as is evi- 
 denced by the fact that the first settlers are commonly allowed 
 to build their houses wherever they please and enclose whatever 
 land they need, as occurred in New York and many other cities. 
 As a city grows, more remote and hence inferior locations must 
 be utilized and the difference in desirability between the two 
 grades produces economic rent in locations of the first grade, but 
 not in those of the second. As land of a still more remote and 
 inferior grade comes into use, ground rent is forced still higher 
 in land of the first grade, arises in land of the second grade, but 
 not in the third grade, and so on. Any utility may compete for 
 any location within a city and all land goes to the highest bid- 
 der, but owing to the limited suitability of certain areas for cer- 
 
12 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 tain purposes, some land has but one utility. Whatever com- 
 petition there is here, will be among those of the same class of 
 utilization. Where, owing to increase or decrease of various 
 utilizations, their area and location change, competition among 
 different classes of utilization arises. Practically all land within 
 a city earns some economic rent, though it may be small, the 
 final contrast being with the city's rentless and hence, strictly 
 speaking, valueless circumference. The prices at which land on 
 the outskirts of a city is held may represent either the cost of 
 platting and opening streets, or more frequently the discounting 
 of future hopes, the chief factor lowering values being the ex- 
 tent of competing land due to the fact that area increases as the 
 square of the distance from any given point. 
 
 Ft. Wayne, 1794. Site chosen at intersection of small rivers (also 
 of Indian trails). 
 
 An apparent exception to the law of no value in the site when 
 a city starts, occurs where a city is speculatively undertaken and 
 the lots sell at high prices in advance of utility. The difference 
 between price and value is usually demonstrated before many 
 years, the invariable reaction carrying the prices of lots as far 
 below their value as they were formerly above it. Thus lots in 
 Columbus. Ohio, which sold in 1812 at $200 to $300. sold in 1820 
 at $7 to $20, and more recently there are the collapses in the 
 early history of the speculatively started towns of West Super- 
 ior, Wis., Tacoma, Wash., Wichita., Kan., and Sioux City, 
 la. The attempt to force economic rent into city land seems 
 to be uniformly unsuccessful, history showing that cities grow 
 and are not made, and that human beings cannot be uprooted 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 13: 
 
 and moved in large numbers and immediately adjust themselves 
 to the different opportunities of a new environment. 
 
 Why are ground rents paid for some locations and not for 
 others? In general terms the difference in desirability is based 
 on the social service which they render, or conversely, the sac- 
 rifice which they save. The land which is most convenient is 
 first utilized, and that which is less convenient is made of 
 service in accordance with its diminishing facilities. Since con- 
 venience means economy in time and effort, the value in any 
 piece of land will represent the cost saved or the pleasure ob- 
 tained by its use, as compared with the use of land worth noth- 
 ing, multiplied by the number and economic quality of the peo- 
 ple for whom the saving is made. Thus the value of all urban 
 
 Eay City, Mich, 1837. Point of origin at first dock. 
 
 land ranges from that which least serves the smallest number 
 of people of the lowest economic quality, up to that which best 
 serves the largest number of people of the highest economic 
 quality. 
 
 Since value depends on economic rent, and rent on location, 
 and location on convenience, and convenience on nearness, we 
 may eliminate the intermediate steps and say < aat value depends 
 on nearness. The next question is, nearness to what? — which 
 brings us to the land requirements of different utilities, their dis- 
 tribution over the city's area and the consequent creation and 
 distribution of values. 
 
 Our problem divides itself into two sides, o^e the study of the 
 structure of cities, their origin, growth and movements, the- 
 other, an analysis of the gross rents due to various utilities,. 
 
14 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 their economic rents, rates of capitalization and resulting land 
 values. 
 
 Beginning with the structure of cities, if cities grew at ran- 
 dom the problem of the creation, distribution and shifting of 
 land values would be insoluble. A cursory glance reveals simi- 
 larities among cities, and further investigation demonstrates 
 that their structural movements, complex and apparently irregu- 
 lar as they are, respond to definite principles. The basis of this 
 similarity is that the same factors create all modern cities; com- 
 merce and manufactures, with political and social forces, being 
 everywhere operative, the chief difference in influence coming 
 from variations in their relative power. 
 
 Cities originate at their most convenient point of contact with 
 
 Marietta, Ohio, 1788. 
 
 Laid out as military post with water pro- 
 tection on two sides. 
 
 the outer world and grow in the lines of least resistance or great- 
 est attraction, or their resultants. The point of contact differs 
 according to the methods of transportation, whether by water, 
 by turnpike or by railroad. The forces of attraction and resist- 
 ance include topography, the underlying material on which city 
 builders work; external influences, projected into the city by 
 trade routes; internal influences derived from located utilities, 
 and finally the reactions and readjustments due to the continual 
 harmonizing of confiicting elements. The infiuence of topog- 
 raphy, all-powerful when cities start, is constantly modified by 
 human labor, hills being cut down, waterfronts extended, and 
 Bwamps, creeks and low-lands filled in, this, however, not tak- 
 ing place until the new building sites are worth more than the 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 15 
 
 cost of filling and cutting. The measure of resistance to the 
 city's growth is here changed from terms of land elevation or 
 depression, and hence income cost, to terms of investment or 
 capital cost. The most direct results of topography come from 
 its control of transportation, the water fronts locating exchange 
 points for water commerce, and the water grade normally deter- 
 mining the location of the railroads entering the city. As cities 
 grow, external influences become constantly of less relative im- 
 portance, while the original simple utilities develop into a mul- 
 titude of differentiated and specialized utilities, tending con- 
 stantly to segregate into definite districts. 
 
 Growth in cities consists of movement away from the point of 
 origin in all directions, except as topographically hindered, this 
 
 St. Anthony, 1857, now East Minneapolis, on east side of river. 
 Minneapolis itself originated as an overflow from St. Anthony, the 
 starting point being determined by the bridge resting on the islands 
 shown. 
 
 movement being due both to aggregation at the edges and 
 pressure from the centre^. Central growth takes place both from 
 the heart of the city and from each subcentre of attraction, and 
 axial growth pushes into the outlying territory by means of rail- 
 roads, turnpikes and street railroads. All cities are built up 
 from these two influences, which vary in quantity, intensity and 
 quality, the resulting districts overlapping, interpenetrating, > 
 neutralizing and harmonizing as the pressure of the city's 
 growth bring them in contact with each other. The fact of vital 
 interest is that, despite confusion from the intermingling of 
 utilities, the order of dependence of each definite district on the 
 other is always the same. Residences are earlv driven to tl^f ^ 
 circumference, while business remains at the centre, and as resi- 
 
16 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 dences divide into various social grades, retail shops of corre- 
 sponding grades follow them, and wholesale shops in turn fol- 
 low the retailers, while institutions and various mixed utilities 
 irregularly fill in the intermediate zone, and the banking and 
 office section remains at the main business centre. Compli- 
 cating this broad outward movement of zones, axes of traffic 
 project shops through residence areas, create business subcen- 
 tres, where they intersect, and change circular cities into star- 
 shaped cities. Central growth, due to proximity, and axia l 
 growt h, due to accessibility, are summed up in the static power 
 of established sections and the dynamic power of their chief 
 lines of intercommunication. 
 
 Turning to the various types of buildings occupied, we note 
 that buildings are frequently spoken of when it is the utility 
 
 Los Angeles in 1857. A Mexican city which has disappeared under 
 American rebuilding. 
 
 carried on within them which is meant. That it is utilities and 
 not mere buildings which are Influential should be strongly em- 
 phasized, since the view is commonly held that buildings create 
 value in land, so that where expensive buildings are erected the 
 land will be expensive, and where cheap buildings are erected 
 the land will be cheap. It is easy to disprove such a superficial 
 view by noting misplaced buildings, such as a business building 
 in a residence section, a residence in a business section, or an ex- 
 pensive residence or business building in the midst of cheap ones, 
 which, even though occupied, probably do not yield enough to pay 
 taxes. Also the buildings of an entire section may by no means 
 evidence the value of the land, as note the handsome residences 
 on the upper west side of New York on cheap land by contrast 
 with the old brownstone residences on the costly land near Fifth 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 17 
 
 Avenue; or witness any declining business section from which 
 the tenants are removing, so that values are falling, although 
 good buildings remain. Nevertheless, it is true that the quick- 
 est method of arriving at an approximate estimate of the value 
 of land is by looking at the buildings by which it is covered, for 
 in general, buildings are properly located. To say, however, 
 that buildings create land values is to reverse the truth, build- 
 ings being the servants of the land and of value only as they 
 fulfil its needs. 
 
 Chattanooga, 1863. Population chiefly soldiers. Market Street 
 from 5th to 8th Streets, shown in center of picture (even then the 
 principal street). 
 
 The continual readjustments in the life of a city reflecting the 
 total social relations of its inhabitants, lead to the concept of a 
 city as a living organism. That such a concept is popularly held 
 is shown by the common phrases, the "heart" of the city, to 
 represent the business centre, the "arteries" of traflBc to repre- 
 sent the streets, the 'lungs" of the city to represent the parks, 
 and to carry the simile further the railroad depots and wharves 
 may be called the mouths through which the city is fed, the 
 telephone and telegraph lines its nervous system, while man in 
 
18 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 his residence has been likened by Spencer to a particle of 
 protoplasm surrounding itself with a cell. 
 
 One fruitful source of error in studying land values is to 
 regard the problem as involving only a point of time instead of 
 a period of time. Any valuation based on present facts alone is 
 incomplete, consideration of past influences and future pros- 
 pects being vitally necessary. The life of value in land, whether 
 the unit taken is a city, a section of a city, or a single lot, bears 
 a close analogy to all other life in being normally characterized 
 by a small beginning, gradual growth and increased strength, up 
 to a point of maximum power, after the attainment of which 
 comes a longer or shorter decline to a final disappearance. Thus 
 all value in city land undergoes a continuous evolution from a 
 state of non-existence through a cycle of changes, to a final dis- 
 solution, or to a new birth, when the process is repeated on the 
 same land. One more qualification should be made limiting the 
 working of economic laws, viz., the individual factor, which may 
 create or destroy cities, sections within cities, or individual prop- 
 erties within sections. A striking uniformity exists, however, 
 in the obedience of individuals to economic laws, self-interest 
 being a compelling factor, so that individual sections, especially 
 on the negative or destructive side, may be classed as excep- 
 tions. 
 
 Underneath all economic laws, the final basis of human action 
 is psychological, so that the last stage of analysis of the prob- 
 lems of the structure of cities, the distribution of utilities, the 
 earnings of the buildings which house them, and the land values 
 resulting therefrom, turn on individual and collective taste and 
 preference, as shown in social habits and customs. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Forces Crcatingf Cities.' 
 
 Defence against enemies.— Commerce— Manufactures.— Political 
 forces.— Social forces, i.e., culture, education, art, fashion, 
 amusements.— All forces intermingled in the larger cities. — 
 Final basis, energy, enterprise and intellect of people. 
 
 Defence against enemies, the chief factor in primitive times 
 creating cities, survived as an influence affecting the first settle- 
 ments in this country, the early forts on the Atlantic Coast and 
 in the West drawing population around them in the same way 
 that the Roman camps on the borders of the Danube and Rhine, 
 and the Cossack camps in southern Russia started cities. With 
 the establishment of civilized government the necessity for de- 
 fence has vanished and population is concentrated either by 
 commerce or manufactures, or by the less important political 
 and social factors. 
 
 Commerce, or the distribution of commodities, involves their 
 storage and transfer, and requires warehouses, docks and freight 
 depots, while the population engaged in this business requires 
 residences, shops and public buildings. Where the products 
 handled are of low value, and the handling is a simple trans- 
 shipment, the result of even a large flow of commodities in 
 locating population at a point of trans-shipment may be small. 
 It is when the transfer of goods is accompanied by a breaking 
 of bulk or by a change of ownership, there being then added the 
 complex mechanism of commercial exchange performed by im- 
 porters, exporters, wholesalers, retailers, insurers, brokers and 
 bankers, that wealth is accumulated and localized, with conse- 
 quent power to control business for local beneflt. 
 
 Manufactures are of constantly increasing importance in city 
 growth, owing to the development of the factory system and 
 the advantages of labor supply, transportation, and markets in 
 the larger cities. Diversifled manufactures are a creation of 
 the last fifty years, the law of development being an evolution 
 from a rough working of coarser forms of necessary articles in 
 the newer sections of a country, through various grades of refin- 
 ing and specialization, to a great variety of necessaries and 
 luxuries in the older and more populous sections. A city created 
 
20 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 solely by manufactures is a modern development, among such 
 being Essen, Germany, Pullman, 111., and South Bend, Ind. 
 
 Political forces operate to build up a city when it is the seat 
 of national, state or county government, either legislative, exec- 
 utive or judicial, or all combined. The administration of govern- 
 ment as a single factor has created but few cities, Alexandria 
 furnishing an ancient example, St. Petersburg, Moscow and 
 Washington later examples, and in this country a few state capi- 
 tals being arbitrarily started, such as Columbus, O.. Indianapolis, 
 Ind., and Lincoln, Neb. Nevertheless the rapid growth of Berlin, 
 London and Vienna has been largely due to the centralizing of 
 national government in those cities. In many American state 
 
 Boston Back Bay about 1845. Since filled in and made the most 
 fashionable residence section of the city. 
 
 capitals, city growth is injured by public attention being diverted 
 from business to politics. 
 
 All other factors creating cities may be broadly classed as 
 social, cities being centres of culture and furnishing education, 
 art, fashion, intellectual stimulus and amusements to their trib- 
 utary country. The social factor operates in direct ratio to the 
 size of the city, social ambition and opportunities constituting a 
 steady attracting force through the various grades of cities, 
 migration being from the farm to the village, from the village 
 to the town and from the town to the city. Thus the fact that 
 New York counts among its inhabitants the great majority of 
 American millionaires is of vital importance in maintaining its 
 luxurious standard of hotels, shops, theatres, clubs and restau- 
 rants, which in turn attract the pleasure-seeking travel of this 
 country. In so far as a city is a market or consuming centre, 
 business is created and population attracted, cities in some cases 
 being consuming points only, such as Atlantic City, St. Angus- 
 
FORCES CREATING CITIES. 21 
 
 tine, Newport, etc., where wealth is not created, but a city is 
 required to minister to those distributing wealth. 
 
 All cities which have attained any considerable size include in 
 varying proportions all the above factors of commerce, manu- 
 factures, political and social forces. In each city the sections 
 built up by the different factors may be clearly distinguished, 
 these flourishing or decaying according to the prosperity or de- 
 cline of their special factors. Thus the railroads, docks ana 
 warehouses evidence the city's commerce; the factories its in- 
 dustrial energies; the retail shops the consuming power of the 
 population; the residence sections the wealth, social grades and 
 numbers of the citizens; and the buildings of public and semi- 
 public utility the standard of civilization and civic pride of the 
 city. 
 
 The underlying factors which start all the processes creating 
 and distributing wealth, are the energy and enterprise of the 
 people, these being in the last analysis the sole sources of 
 wealth. Raw materials, waterways, favorable climate and other 
 natural advantages are only indirectly decisive and always pre- 
 suppose men to exploit them. 
 
CHAPTER IIL 
 
 Location of Cities* 
 
 situations for defence originally most Important.— Later trade 
 routes located by topography create commercial cities, where 
 break in transportation occurs.— In manufacturing, extractive 
 Industries follow raw materials, and cheap power, and later 
 seek the largest cities for labor supply, home markets and 
 cheap transportation.— Political locations compromises.- ESt- 
 act starting points analyzed.— Topographical influences most 
 compelling. 
 
 Situations favorable for defence determined the location of 
 ancient cities, as with the Greek colonies on a promontory or 
 an island, the Etruscan cities on hill tops, Athens with the 
 Acropolis, Rome on seven hills, Paris on an island and Lon- 
 don in the midst of swamps. In modern times the individual 
 settler locates his cottage to satisfy his first needs for water, 
 wood, grass, shelter, etc., and small settlements are widely scat- 
 tered in all available spots. It is largely geographical superi- 
 ority which renders certain localities capable of satisfying more 
 extensive demands and lifts small settlements into cities. 
 
 Trade routes, the lines of least resistance between the sources 
 of products and their final markets, have in all ages located 
 commercial cities at the points where a break in transportation 
 occurs. Where a traae route traverses an ocean or lake, cities 
 arise at the harbors which have easy topographical approach 
 from productive regions and from which markets can be readily 
 reached. For example, the phenomenal growth of New York 
 is due to there being but one topograhically easy route from the 
 West through the Appalachian Range to the Atlantic Coast, con- 
 centrating the flow of products to New York, aided first by the 
 Erie Canal and later by the New York Central and other rail- 
 roads. Where a gulf exists, the trading city is commonly located 
 at the innermost angle, as with Christiania, Liverpool, Genoa, 
 Naples, Venice and Hamburg. Where the action of the sea 
 closes harbors, ancient cities were ruined, as with Ephesus, 
 Utica, and the coast cities of Asia Minor and northern Africa, 
 while modern cities retain their harbors by constant dredging. 
 
 Where the trade route follows a river, cities arise either near 
 the mouth where ocean and river navigation meet, as at New 
 Orleans or Philadelphia, at the head of rivers where river and 
 crtek navigation meet, as at Albany, Richmond and St. Paul, at 
 
LOCATION OF CITIES. 
 
 23 
 
 the confluence of two or more rivers or branches of the same 
 river, as at St. Louis, Omaha, Mayence, Coblentz, and Cairo, at 
 the intersection of a river and a canal, as at Richmond, Syra- 
 cuse, Evansville, and Fort Wayne, at an obstruction in the river 
 requiring unloading, as formerly at Louisville, or at a marked 
 bend changing the direction of a river, as at Cincinnati, Kansas 
 City, Madgebm-g, Toulouse, and Lyons. 
 A river in forming a natural highway forms also a natural 
 
 '^^^^'^I'T'^^^TTTTT?;^'^' 
 
 Constantine, North Africa. Typical site of ancient Mediterranean 
 city on flat-topped hill, chosen for defence. 
 
 barrier to intercourse between its two sides, so that facilities for 
 crossing the river may so concentrate travel as to create a small 
 trade route and thus a town at the river crossing. For example, 
 Harrisburg started at a ferry across the Susquehanna River; 
 Rockford and Reading at fords in the Rock and Schuylkill 
 Rivers, and Terre Haute at the bridge of the National Pike 
 across the Wabash River. Deep water in rivers will locate cities, 
 as with Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, Bremen, Rotterdam, 
 Antwerp, and Havre. New Orleans owes its location to the fact 
 
24 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 that the land on which it was built was a few feet higher than 
 any river land within many miles of it. 
 
 Land trade routes, prior to the time of railroads, created cities 
 at their intersections, commonly in the centre of great plains, as 
 with Paris, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, and Prague. Other points 
 were where plain and mountain met, requiring a change in trans- 
 portation, as with Turin, Milan, Augsburg, and Munich. The 
 old trails from the Missouri River to the West caused the begin- 
 
 "--iKr^\ -"'■m 
 
 •a 
 
 j>^.K, 
 
 
 
 W-' 
 
 '•i 
 
 Boston, 1777, showing how nearly the site was an island; site chosen 
 chiefly for protection against Indians and wolves. 
 
 ning of a number of towns as oufltting points, such as Council 
 Bluffs, St Joseph, and Topeka. 
 
 When railroads were invented, they superseded all other land 
 trade routes, and owing to the greater economy, both in the con- 
 struction and operation of railroads which follow a water grade, 
 their influence has in most cases strengthened existing cities 
 located by water routes. The exceptions to this occur where rail- 
 roads run contrary to the general topography of the country, as 
 in the Mississippi Valley, the trade routes now running east and 
 west and not, as originally anticipated, north and south; where 
 
LOCATION OF CITIES. 
 
 25 
 
 mountain barriers are overcome by means of tunnels, such, as 
 those under the Alps and the Cascades, and where railroads in 
 process of building have made temporary terminal points, wMch 
 started cities, as with Worcester and Atlanta. 
 
 In manufacturing, the extractive industries locate near raw 
 materials, lumber mills being built near forests, as in Saginaw, 
 Bay City, Minneapolis, and Seattle; iron foundries near iron or 
 coal mines, as in Pittsburg; smelters near gold and silver mines. 
 
 mre/t. 
 
 Savannah, 1818. Showing line of fortifications, also rice swamps 
 on either side, which have restrained growth of city to one direction. 
 
 as in Denver and San Francisco; salt works near salt wells, as in 
 Syracuse, and formerly in Lincoln; oil refineries near oil wells, 
 as in Cleveland; salmon canneries near the waters where salmon 
 run, as in Portland and Seattle; fruit canneries near orchards, as 
 in Los Angeles and San Jose; beet sugar factories in or near beet 
 sugar fields, as in Saginaw and Bay City. The extractive industries 
 migrate as raw materials are exhausted. Thus the lumber indus- 
 try has moved from Maine to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 
 and finally the Pacific Coast, and the meat-packing industry 
 from New York to Buffalo, Indianapolis, Chicago, and finally 
 
26 
 
 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 3^^S>''^'' 
 
 ABIT -WAS 
 
 Ajagca aoth, 1749. 
 
 4^— Ammafiilaal'E'BoaMt 
 iJ.- QoArA House and Bazrackt. 
 iS^TovdJtsr Marline. 
 !>.— Tarlsh Ciiurctu 
 Z^Frkat's Houee. 
 
 O.— Boyat Qardaos. 
 9^-lMUTulaal OArtfcn. 
 
 ICBHCHCHffl 
 
 FH 
 
 DETROIT RIVER 
 
 Detroit, 1749. Showing old plat and first houses within the 
 fortifications. 
 
 ALLEGH ENY 
 
 PLAN or 
 
 FORT PITT. 
 
 A.. Wtrl Jfufurm: 
 
 J. ttockMU ntrt ffM. 
 
 SCAIC 
 ioon too 10 
 
 tealt SOC n.ptrintK 
 
 Starting point of Pittsburg. Fort at junction of rivers for military 
 reasons. 
 
LOCATION OF CITIES. 
 
 27 
 
 Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Joseph, near the centre of the corn 
 belt. 
 
 Water power, when of sufficient volume and fall and located 
 in a section of natural resources, has created many cities, such 
 as Pall River, Lowell, Minneapolis, Spokane, and Schaffhausen. 
 Also in many cities water power greatly stimulated the early 
 growth, although steam has since supplanted it, as in Provi- 
 dence and Philadelphia. The recent development of electric 
 transmission of water power for long distances is promoting the 
 growth of Buffalo, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore., 
 and Seattle. 
 
 As industries become more specialized a steady supply of 
 highly trained labor becomes of greater importance, tending to 
 
 First map of Memphis, showing start of city at junction of Wolf 
 River and Mississippi River. 
 
 draw them to the larger cities, but opposed to this is the greater 
 danger of strikes in large cities, which creates a slight counter 
 movement towards smaller villages. A further argument for the 
 larger cities is that they furnish a home market for much of the 
 product, and that being located on trade routes low transporta- 
 tion rates are given, the commercial and industrial factors thus 
 reacting on each other. Climate is a factor to be reckoned with 
 in the textile industries, cotton and woolen manufactures being 
 aided by a moist atmosphere. The general tendency of manu- 
 facturing seems to be, first, to create many small towns, and 
 later to promote the growth of the larger cities already started 
 by commerce. 
 
 Where politics govern in selecting a city site the location is 
 ordinarily a compromise. Thus Washington was located half 
 
28 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 way between the north and the south, before the west was de- 
 veloped, and Columbus and Indianapolis were located at the 
 geographical centres of their respective states. The influence 
 of climate in locating cities is shown in such summer resorts as 
 Newport, Bar Harbor, and Lenox, and such winter resorts as 
 Los Angeles, St. Augustine, Atlantic City, and Pasadena. 
 
 The exact starting point of cities is worth noting, since all 
 growth consists of movement away from it To say that a city 
 owes its location to a harbor, to the head of river navigation or 
 to a fertile inland plain, is somewhat indefinite, since a large 
 
 Baltimore as laid out. 1730, and showing present boundaries. 
 
 part of the harbor may be neglected and valueless, and the head, 
 of river navigation and the inland plain may furnish many other 
 locations apparently equally desirable and yet not utilized. In 
 the early days when protection was all-important, the fort was 
 the point of origin, but with commercial cities the starting point 
 Is the most convenient point of contact with the outer world; 
 this being a wharf where deep water and a high bank meet, if 
 transportation Is by water, the intersection of turnpikes 
 topographically located, if transportation is by wagon, and a 
 railroad depot placed for the convenient shipping of products, if 
 
LOCATION OF CITIES. 
 
 29 
 
 transportation is by rail. With river cities the requirement of 
 deep water and a high bank, and further, the avoidance of swift 
 currents, was frequently best met where a creek ran into a river, 
 the first docks of New York being on the creek where Broad 
 St. now is; of Philadelphia, where Dock Creek joined the Dela- 
 ware River; of Toledo, where Swan Creek joined the Maumee 
 River; of Memphis, where Wolf Creek joined the Mississippi 
 River, and of Richmond, where Shockoe's Creek joined the 
 James River. Where steep hills descend close to the water's 
 edge there are in some instances two starting points for the 
 
 Lucca, Italy, in 1870. Example of European city surrounded by 
 fortifications, tending to concentrated land utilization. 
 
 town, one for business buildings at the water's edge and the 
 other for residences on the hill, as at Richmond, Knoxville, and 
 Kansas City. At Omaha, owing to variations in the height of 
 water, the town started about ten blocks back from the water- 
 front. 
 
 Where the first settlers, having in mind a future city, lay out a 
 plat at the inception of the city, the starting point of the city may 
 be determined arbitrarily, the central point being a public square 
 or a public building. Corporate or private ownership is in some 
 cases suflSciently powerful to alter the location of a city, either 
 
30 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 by forcing it away from the original point of the older settle- 
 ment, as at West Superior and Tacoma, or by preventing it from 
 occupying its normal site, as at Houston. 
 
 Sometimes the first location of a city is so unsatisfactory that 
 the entire settlement is moved, as with Akron, O., where the soil 
 did not hold the water from the power canal for the flour mill. 
 Hence the mill was moved and the town followed. Also Charles- 
 ton, S. C, first started on the west bank of the Ashley River, and 
 Mobile moved in 1710 from 27 Mile Bluff. Small towns have 
 been bodily moved either to avoid municipal debt or to secure 
 
 (D9AI&A &ne \SmSi\S. 
 
 &•<« I MXinoo 
 
 Osaka and Kobe, Japan. Example of city, back from waterfront with 
 smaller city serving as a port. 
 
 better locations. Recently in the Dakotas several towns were 
 moved on rollers from six to twelve miles, from the small rivers 
 on which they were first built to the new extension of the Chi- 
 cago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. In most cases vested in- 
 terests, both in the buildings and in the value of the land, are too- 
 powerful to permit of a wholesale moving, the efforts of inhabit- 
 ants being aimed towards counteracting any deficiencies of loca- 
 tion by increased or differently directed labor. 
 
 While we may properly speak of cities as having started from 
 one centre, the largest cities have swallowed up many villages 
 
LOCATION OF CITIES. 
 
 31 
 
 and towns, both their own offshoots and independent settle- 
 ments. Thus New York absorbed Greenwich, Chelsea, Bowery, 
 Harlem, Brooklyn, Long Island City, etc.; Philadelphia ab- 
 sorbed Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, Kensington, South- 
 walk, Moyamensing, etc., and Boston absorbed Roxbury, Dor- 
 chester, Charleston, Brighton, Bast Boston, South Boston, etc. 
 The impetus of the chief city is so great as to practically ob- 
 literate the influence of the smaller towns. 
 
 The importance of studying the geographical location of cities 
 is due to the insight thus obtained into their structure, the dis- 
 tribution of population conforming to the same principles within 
 
 M 8b r e o t 1 
 
 Ancient Alexandria. Rectangular plat laid out by the Royal architect. 
 
 a city as without. Topography operates in a similar manner, 
 whether within or without a city, in causing population to flow 
 along the same levels. Water surfaces, whether within or 
 without a city, if navigable, facilitate the movement of popula- 
 tion, and if non-navigable prevent it. The law of continuity is 
 the same, every city being a link in the chain stretching from 
 the first settlements in a country to the last, and every growth 
 within a city a part of the chain of development which first 
 reaches the city from the outside and continues its life within. 
 Manufacturing has the same centralizing* effect, whether on a 
 large scale it creates a city or on a small scale it builds up a dis- 
 
32 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 trict within a city. The small streams of products from the 
 farm, the forest or the mine flowing together on the way to their 
 markets, create trade routes, and similarly the inhabitants of a 
 city, controlled by economic forces and flowing together on their 
 daily way to their places of business, create traffic streets or city 
 trade routes. Railroads which create cities at their terminals 
 
 OTIS fMORroT) 
 
 Modern Alexandria. City shifted onto the former Island of Pharos. 
 Reversion to irregular plattings. 
 
 and, in lesser degree, at their transfer points, have their coun- 
 terpart in street railroads which draw utilities and values to 
 their terminals, and, in lesser degree, to their lines and street 
 intersections. Finally, the law of gravitation, which draws 
 bodies together in direct proportion to their mass and in in- 
 verse proportion to their distance, operates similarly in drawing 
 together two cities or in drawing together two sections within 
 the same city. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ground Plan of Cities. 
 
 First influence consists of topographical faults, i.e., water sur- 
 faces or sharp variations from levels. — Characteristics of 
 platted cities, straight streets at right angles, permitting 
 free movement throughout. — Characteristics of haphazard 
 growth, irregular tangle of crooked and narrow streets pre- 
 venting quick access to business center. — Some early plats 
 attempt to forestall later needs and some to determine cen- 
 ter of city.— Normal sizes of streets, alleys, blocks and lots: 
 percentage of public and private land. — Unit from which plat 
 built up. 
 
 rhe first step in studying the ground plan of cities is to note 
 the topographical faults which normally control the shape of 
 cities, by interfering with their free growth in all directions 
 from their points of origin. These are of two kinds; water sur- 
 faces, such as harbors, lakes, rivers, creeks and swamps, or 
 sharp variations from the normal city level, such as steep hills, 
 deep hollows and ravines. 
 
 Water surfaces may either leave islands on which a city orig- 
 inates, as with New York and Galveston; promontories at the 
 mouths of rivers, as with Boston and Portland, Me.; promon- 
 tories between two rivers, as with Philadelphia and Pittsburg, 
 or may consist of lakes scattered through the city's site, as with 
 Minneapolis, Seattle and Grand Rapids; of rivers, as at Fort 
 Wayne and Dayton; creeks, as at New Haven and Toledo; or 
 marshes, as at New Orleans and Savannah. The rivers may 
 have either a straight front, as at Albany, St. Paul and Port- 
 land, Ore., a curved front leaving a convex site, as at Cincin- 
 nati, Louisville and Memphis, or may be combined with small 
 rivers and creeks intersecting the city's site in various ways. 
 The deep harbors, lakes and rivers cannot be filled in, so that as 
 far as they extend they furnish an outline for the city. Increas- 
 ing demand for land, however, may project growth across the 
 deep water surfaces and form suburban settlements beyond 
 them. The power of rivers to hold growth on the side where 
 the city originates depends on their width, on the area and rela- 
 tive advantages of the sites on the two sides of the river, and .on 
 speculative enterprise. At St. Louis, New Orleans and Kansas 
 City, where the river is wide and the land across the river not 
 attractive, the river forms practically an absolute bar to growth. 
 At Toledo, Portland, Ore., Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Des 
 
34 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 FMRLmUNT 
 
 A MAP 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 A.D. 1682. 
 
 vBt-ig* 
 
 ifiBBBB 
 
 DDDDD 
 DDDD 
 
 DBDDiraDDnnCDBDnosgDDDUlJ 
 
 HBDDDDDDDDDD 
 
 TDnDDDnnnnnmnnn 
 "iBunnnannDDDisnDC 
 
 nnDDnmnnDDDDDD 
 
 nmnnrinnnmnnDDnD 
 
 Philadelphia, 10582. Old plat shows central square, now the mu- 
 nicipal center. 
 
 Pt«n o« City, thowlng Bulldin 
 
 New Orleans, about 1728. Old French city; canal on the west 
 later became Canal St., and American city built west of it. 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 85 
 
 Moines, many bridges connect the two sides and minimize the 
 deterring effect of the river. 
 
 Creeks are of chief importance when their erosion has worn a 
 deep and wide ravine, the difference in level constituting a bar 
 to a city's growth ratner than the creek itself. When the creek 
 is narrow it is frequently covered over and ceases to exert any 
 influence, as in New York, Richmond, and other cities. 
 
 Swamps limit growth, for example preventing Philadelphia 
 from growing south, and Savannah from growing east and 
 west. On the other hand. New Orleans is largely built on a 
 
 gS2:sDWQ0 "^^Ni^.-^QOODOODODdflDflOQaOQII aODDflOaaOBaa^np tq 
 
 nslViilaca-o^t,^-ff€WJ^^^^^^^^^^^^wi iafl 000000080000 dad 
 
 .■^jQ QflOflOiia aoo!iaQD{i!ioiH!flaflirDocQt]fl3DaaoiDnooofl^ 
 
 ...r, nnnnnnn « .,.„. 00 00 lIQ Qi QO [1 D D 
 
 □ aQQOBOBDQaQODO 
 DUGOj 10000000 
 
 oaaoL Iqoqodqq 
 
 oooQoattiaoQCPDD 
 
 mmraaQBiQDQffODC' 
 
 Qoccal \ '^DnoflQQQiiaaaiiaca 
 
 tfOJeo-DpanmaoD] / '"'aQoaaiaaoanca 
 
 DQDDODlflOaC<?4''/cf, 
 3DDO.0OQDr~lQt!L'<7^%^-; 
 [lODD,Q0(]O OflDD 
 
 3ocraat!ool ^od'^ 
 
 aopDaODDQDOODOaQGDb 
 
 coaDooaoaoDoooDQOD 
 
 aoaDQQaOQOOflOQOODOCIZA 
 
 noDopaDDaDi — Ir 
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 EoanoooooQoi! ^ 
 
 BQODQQQOaQOD 
 
 fcOODOQOOQMD 
 
 h DOIDODQG' 
 
 ^ DOQODDO 
 
 
 Example of platting parallel to irregular water fronts. Baltimore. 
 
 swamp, important parts of Washington and Syracuse were for- 
 merly swamps, and in the lower part of New York the Collect 
 Pond, Lispenard Meadows, Beekman Swamp, &c., have been 
 filled in and obliterated. 
 
 After a city has spread over the original levels and climbed 
 some moderate elevations, the demand for land may cause a fill- 
 ing in of the lower levels. In Boston the Back Ba^ district was 
 created by filling; in Chicago, after the great fire of 1871, the 
 city was raised from seven to ten feet; in San Francisco from 
 Montgomery Street east was formerly mud fiats; and the pro- 
 
36 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 cess of filling in land for business purposes continually goes on 
 in the majority of water front cities. 
 
 The influence of topography may be summarized by saying 
 that level land attracts business, moderate elevations attract 
 residences, land below the normal level attracts transportation 
 lines, and filled-in land is generally used for warehousing, man- 
 ufacuring and cheap tenements. 
 
 The main direction of city growth is usually controlled by to- 
 pography. For example, the cities at the west end of harbors or 
 on the west side of rivers grow west, as Boston, San Francisco, 
 St. Louis, Omaha, Minneapolis; cities on the east side of har- 
 
 
 }»innnno^n[zi[7DanDDSuDSanpDQai ii iQjDDDDciiDDDGkv 
 
 JOCZDDDOCIII 
 
 IpSq^BS 
 
 jpagpt^g 
 
 icilDDanDDnDaDi:^! 
 
 anDDDnnnDDDDEz:)' 
 
 
 DaDS°°^ocS^nDD Q^[70 DPSLlQS'aD0DDD^ZDP^QDDD 
 
 □nanaiiziDDDp;^Trdcz:3Czinnnaa 
 
 Q/]raaD^°°2]GDDDD^^^^^^g^l^ 
 
 
 □ fla floaat*. 
 
 DSDODDDDDDDKSt^^ 
 
 \ \,'ac=ici]Do >.nnnQq anno □DC'^Dc^'^izziC'j:' ' 
 
 Example of diagonal avenues superimposed on rectanglar plat- 
 ting. Washington. 
 
 bors or rivers grow east, as Columbus, St. Joseph, Memphis, 
 Grand Rapids, Seattle, and similarly New York, Philadelphia. 
 Detroit, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Indianapolis grow north; and 
 Louisville, Kansas City, Savannah, Houston grow south. The 
 impression that the points of a compass affect the direction of 
 city growth Is based on the statement that the majority of Eng- 
 lish and German cities are growing west, owing to the prevail- 
 ing west winds which drive away the dense smoke from soft 
 coal and render the west end of these cities the preferable resi- 
 dence sections. No such general tendency, however, exists in 
 this country. 
 As to their laying out. cities may be divided into two classes, 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 87 
 
 those which have grown up without any definite ground plan 
 and those whose ground plan has been laid out in advance of 
 growth. The cities which have grown up haphazard exhibit a 
 tangle of narrow and crooked streets of varying and irregular 
 size, evolved from cow paths or old trails, whose directions were 
 
 Irregular platting in old sections. Rectangular platting in new 
 sections, especially in Back Bay District, Boston. 
 
 originally influenced by trifling obstacles, such as hillocks, 
 rocks or clumps of trees. These flrst streets left large tracts be- 
 tween them, which were later pierced by irregular streets or 
 lanes laid out for the convenience of the owner of the tract, and 
 without consideration for the general interests of the city. 
 
 Where a plat has been laid out in advance, long, straight 
 streets of even width, at right angles to each other, are found. 
 
38 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 leaving rectangular blocks for building sites. The older cities 
 with marked modern growth, such as Rome and Athens, New 
 York, Boston and Baltimore, exhibit almost uniformly an old 
 
 SAVANNAH RIVER 
 
 Z] 
 
 3 
 
 g 
 
 3 
 
 ] 
 
 ZD 
 HI 
 Z] 
 
 
 nnnnnnnnnnnn 
 
 □□□□□nnnn 
 □□□□□nnnn 
 
 CZZ3CZ] wcD c: 
 
 CI] cm ^ tz: CZ3 1^ czj o^czicii ^cn 
 □ CD [ZH [ZD CZI CZDCZD CZD □ □□ □ 
 
 c=3^i=i(=)^i=i [=iM|c=3c=ia ^^^_ [=11=1 ^[=3 L-X^ 
 
 nnaanana 
 
 ggDnnnnnnn[ 
 
 □□DDnnnnnn[ 
 HH°Dnnnnnn[ 
 
 UUlls 
 
 ISSI 
 
 '°°t! 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^BgiDnnnnnnn 
 z 
 
 nnsDDD 
 
 DDDD 
 
 nnoDDQ 
 nnDDD 
 
 nDDDD 
 
 nnnDD 
 
 DDDD 
 DD 
 
 □□GB 
 
 DDnnnciziL 
 
 nnn[ 
 
 nnni 
 
 □ □D 
 
 n 
 
 z 
 zi 
 
 Z! 
 Z] 
 
 DDnnnnnnciDnn 
 
 nnnnnnnnn 
 nnnnnnnnn 
 
 — I r-|| — II — II — II — II II — 1 
 
 Savannah 
 
 Plat of Savannah showing unusual percentage of park and street 
 area. Plan said to have been derived from Bunyan's description 
 of the Heavenly City. 
 
 centre of crooked streets, surrounded by modern rectangular 
 plats, this change proving the general appreciation of the ad- 
 vantages of the rectangular method. Some cities, however, have 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 39 
 
 never changed to rectangular platting, among them being At- 
 lanta, Los Angeles, Salem and Lynn. 
 
 A number of the older cities originated with a small rectan- 
 gular plat, surrounded later by rectangular additions, as Phila- 
 delphia, New Orleans, Cleveland and Cincinnati, while the new- 
 est cities have generally started with widespread rectangular 
 
 / / 
 
 1 — 1 y y 1 — 1 / 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 M 
 
 i 
 
 First plat of Los Angeles. Lots around Plaza (marked P) given to 
 settlers; also tracts between irrigating ditch and river, for farming. 
 
 platting, as Birmingham, Sioux City, Tacoma and Topeka. An 
 exceptional instance would be Memphis, starting with a small 
 rectangular plat, extended later by irregular streets, a rever- 
 sion recalling the contrast between ancient Alexandria in Egypt 
 with its rectangular plat, and modern Alexandria with irregular 
 laying out. 
 
 % 
 
40 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 In waterfront cities with rectangular plats the waterfront is 
 normally used as a base, whether straight, curving or broken 
 and irregular, and in inland cities the turnpikes are used as a 
 base. These plats extend to a greater or less distance accord- 
 ing to the expectations of the early inhabitants, but finally 
 reach land held according to the section lines of the U. S. Grov- 
 ernment survey. This change in the direction of holdings com- 
 monly changes the direction of the new additions and streets 
 platted, as in Denver, Seattle and Montgomery. 
 
 Another variation in rectangular plats is due to the survival 
 of old turnpikes in parts of the city subsequently platted. Many 
 of these old roads are obliterated by platting, but others remain, 
 
 QREAT «*1.T tAKt CITT. (Flt.ni lllC Xpnll. 
 
 Salt Lake City, about 1860. Large blocks designed for a farming 
 community. 
 
 f 
 
 on account of their convenience for traffic, the important build- 
 ings upon them and the fact that land titles are often meas- 
 ured from them, as from Broadway in New York. Of surviving 
 turnpikes, the most common are those which exist in the sub- 
 urbs, but have been merged into the rectangular streets before 
 reaching the heart of the city, as in Chicago, Philadelphia and 
 Milwaukee. Diagonal turnpikes reaching to the heart of the 
 city still remain in Cleveland and Detroit, and one main turn- 
 pike remains in San Francisco, Macon and St. Joseph. 
 
 Historically distinct but practically similar to turnpikes are 
 the diagonal streets laid out on the original plat of some cities, 
 such as Washington, Buffalo and Indianapolis. Variations in 
 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 41 
 
 plats occur where a Ci.y is tke result of two or more settlements 
 which have grown together and merged, as in Toledo, Mont- 
 gomery, &c. 
 
 The general effect of irregular laying out is to strengthen 
 central growth as opposed to axial growth, quick access to or 
 
 Albany, 1G95. Intersection of Handlers and Jonkers Streets, now 
 Broadway and State Street, still the business center of the city. 
 
 from the business center being afforded only by turnpikes. A 
 disadvantage felt later is that as a city expands and quick com- 
 munication over great distances becomes imperative, vast ex- 
 pense is incurred in widening and straightening streets, this 
 expense being sheer waste due to lack of foresight, Paris un- 
 der Baron Haussmann spent $250,000,000 on a system of 
 
42 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 boulevards; London's new Strand improvements are to cost 
 $33,500,000 (of which $80,000,000 will be refunded from the sale 
 of frontage) and some older American cities, notable Boston, 
 have spent large sums on such work. 
 
 PLAN or the: TOWN (kFORT/nCA T/ONSo.rDBTROIT 
 
 JTs I net/ sloocl be/ore the year t7&C. 
 IrtoBh TtimiOts Map macfe May 3o"W6, m'fft txddltions Jrom JfoleS 
 """"^ t;-^ «^bMine(i jy-om the lYeir D^fi€trltnene,sk0tring it* 
 
 f^^^n~~Y\' -tt rtleUion to Ike fu-esent plan </ /fie Ce'fjf 
 ^ect/e 4^0/ eei ia///ie/$' 
 
 WwiiiiH/iTA. *"^' 
 
 Detroit, 179G. The small first plat near the river and parallel 
 to It has been wiped out by the larger modern platting. 
 
 The effect of rectangular platting is to permit free movement 
 throughout the city, this being further promoted by the addition 
 of long diagonal streets. The need for diagonal streets depends 
 largely on the shape of the city's site, there being but little use 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 43 
 
 for them in such narrow cities as New York and Boston, while 
 they are of great utility in any city which spreads in all direc- 
 tions over a level area, such as Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo, 
 Washington furnishes an extreme example of diagonal streets, 
 the large proportion of land taken up by streets and squares 
 being suitable to a political city, where it would not be econom- 
 ical for a business city. 
 
 While early platting is generally made to conform to the 
 needs of the period, in some cases attempts were made to fore- 
 see later needs, as in the plat of New York laid out in 1807 from 
 Houston, Eighth and Thirteenth Streets to the Harlem River. 
 
 arlem, 1670. An unusual plat in that the principal street ran at right angles to the river. 
 Old plat wiped out by the New York plat of 1807. 
 
 Since at that time all commerce was by water, it was reckoned 
 that the chief traffic in New York would necessarily be between 
 the Hudson and the East Rivers, for which reason east and west 
 streets were placed 200 feet apart, while north and south ave- 
 nues were placed from 600 to 900 feet apart, there being thus 
 fourteen avenues instead of fifty. As a result New York pre- 
 sents in the main the unusual condition of having its business 
 streets running in one direction and its residence streets at right 
 angles. If the Commission had had greater knowledge of cities 
 and could have foreseen the vast growth of New York, they 
 would have realized that the chief internal movement would 
 
Constantinople. Irregular roads both in city and in outlying dis- 
 trict Illustrate process by which city is laid out. Buildings are 
 crowded into the large irregular blocks, and small alleys (not shown 
 on map) furnish accesB. 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 45 
 
 IDDD 
 IDDD 
 
 ytDnDDanoDLj 
 
 LiLJUUUUUUUUUKfl^ 
 
 DoaDnnn 
 DDScnna 
 
 ODD 
 
 on 
 
 uDOD 
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 DDllCD 
 QDDnODD 
 LulDQQ 
 OnDDDDDDDDDDDQO 
 
 uuDDM 
 
 DDDDDQa 
 pa DC 
 
 i 
 
 mr■o^nn\\ 
 
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 BngB 
 
 ODDDODDDBO 
 DDDDD 
 
 J tlDDDOr eBDDD^i 
 DDUOnDDDLJUODBLln 
 
 IDOC 
 
 QD 
 
 «i^nnnn^nnnnnnnannN'nnnnnnnrinnFinnnnGnsir7^e3inc 
 
 A Lost Pike. Old Westport-Independence road recently platted 
 out, with growth of residence section. Kansas City. 
 
 Map of Chicago, Showing the Surviving Turnpikes. 
 
46 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 necessarily be on the line of the longest axis, and the check put 
 upon north and south travel, with the resulting economic loss, 
 would have been avoided. 
 
 The plats of some cities indicate an attempt on the part of the 
 early platters to locate in advance the centre of the city. In New 
 
 ^^\X 
 
 Y 
 
 DUCT 
 DOC 
 
 nor 
 
 uUDDULI! 
 
 , „ [joancntjfiij: 
 
 ,^A^&/>^ jDDaQQDnaGnc 
 --\ ^ ■ yO^PS^"^. iDuGDnanaoDL 
 
 \,sM§m. 
 
 ^<yMPM 
 
 
 WMM 
 
 wm 
 
 
 z 
 
 [IJOulJmiLILiLJu'JLlLnl^GnQnciDoccDCQaDGaaQODna 
 
 ^.^^-^^^^^^ IDOOnGGOOaDD^qDnODGGQui ' 
 
 jn'JnanfTuoQnDDDUDo 
 
 nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnrm 
 
 U0l]UiJBOCQ[]GnriQUDODaDDDDDDDDD0GnnDCGana 
 
 UDOODDDDDDDOGOnr^ninaLiQD 
 
 noDDnonDDDDGQ JHDGDn 
 
 .!5,0naQ0IIlDDDC[iDDDCDGI]P ^°°^°° 
 
 OaC^GOGUGDDDDGDQGDOOODi: 
 
 OGGnDnGOQiJuuanQcnGDnaoDDKDDC 
 
 QDGDOlJIiGOGaTtCQGDDDnQDaDDDIlDGCGQ 
 
 QDQijciJGDGanorffianQ-uGoi — dogcqgoqoqdge 
 oniJDGDoinnGDLfBrr 
 
 GGQQQDDDi. 
 ^nODGGDO 
 
 rscac 
 
 DQUGL 
 I 
 
 Original plat parallel to river. Black line marks change of plat- 
 ting to conform to U. S. section lines. Denver. 
 
 England and frequently in the south a public square was com- 
 monly laid out on which, or facing which, the State and County 
 buildings were erected, also the principal churches and business 
 buildings. Such a square by serving as a barrier to business 
 growth, tended to confine the business part of the city to that 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 47 
 
 side of the square on which it started, with the exception of 
 such business as spread along the turnpikes, which usually 
 bounded two sides of the square. Another method was to lay- 
 out two wide streets at right angles to each other, and strengthen 
 this by locating the County Court House at their intersection, 
 as in Philadelphia, with the Court House at the intersection of 
 
 Tokio, Japan. Example of star-shaped city, normal type of growth. 
 
 Broad and Market Streets; in Reading at Penn and Fifth 
 Streets; in Knoxville at Gay and Main Streets; in Terre Haute 
 at Third and Main Streets; in Bay City at Center and Madison 
 Streets, and in Canton at Tuscarora and Market Streets, It is 
 needless to say that such attempts were futile, the business cen- 
 tres of cities depending on more powerful factors than platting 
 
48 
 
 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 FIRST 5-r 
 
 V 
 
 
 V/3 
 
 1 
 
 'k 
 
 5 TEMPLE 3\ 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY 
 Fig. 1. Simplest form— block divided 
 into Quarters. 
 
 ^ 
 
 THIRD 
 
 s-^ 
 
 
 % 
 
 2: 
 
 
 
 so 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 5) 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 0' 
 
 
 
 
 SI 
 
 zee 
 
 NI 
 
 ) 5 
 
 T 
 
 PORTLAND 0« 
 
 Fig. 2. Quarters of block divided 
 In half. 
 
 :SECOND A^ 
 
 < 
 
 t 
 
 
 X 
 u 
 
 riRi>T A>^ 
 
 SEATTLE: 
 
 Fig. 3. Same as No. 2, except 
 for alley. 
 
 and Court Houses. In general, 
 in proportion as a plat is laid 
 out to further the natural lines 
 of a city's growth, it defines and 
 establishes values, and in pro- 
 portion to its variance with the 
 city's needs it tends to disperse 
 land values and render them 
 unstable. 
 
 Turning to a more detailed 
 consideration of plats, varia- 
 tions in the width of streets and 
 sizes of blocks involves the pro- 
 portion of public land used for 
 communication, and of private 
 land used for buildings. In rect- 
 angular plats streets usually 
 range in width from forty to 
 eighty feet, sixty feet being a 
 fair average in the newer cities, 
 though every city shows wide 
 variations. There is a common 
 impression that additional width 
 in the street always adds to its 
 value, since the. wider the street 
 the greater the volume of traffic 
 which can be accommodated. In 
 a business street width is prac- 
 tically disregarded, but few 
 streets in the world having 
 more traffic than they can carry, 
 additional transportation facili- 
 ties below ground and above re- 
 lieving the pressure. In a resi- 
 dence section, however, a wide 
 street is always desirable. A 
 somewhat narrow business street 
 has a slight advantage in facili- 
 tating intercourse between the 
 sides of the street, especially as 
 lack of width does not operate 
 to limit the height of buildings, 
 although prominent locations on 
 open squares are sought for 
 some forms of business. 
 
 Alleys are modern develop- 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 49 
 
 LOCUST 5-' 
 
 1327 
 
 
 
 
 •J) 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ \->1. 
 
 .=z - 
 
 WALNUT ^-^ 
 PJE5 MOINES. lA 
 
 Fig. 4. Same as No. 3, except for 
 double alley. 
 
 
 
 
 5-^ CLAIR 
 
 3-^ 
 
 
 
 i2o 
 
 d^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 V*' 
 
 4o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 4o 
 
 SU>t>IlT £>'^ 
 
 TOLEDO 
 
 Fig. 5. Variation on No. 3. The more 
 valuable frontage cut into smaller lots. 
 Corner lots face on Jefferson St. be- 
 cause more valuable than St. Clair St. 
 
 THI-RD ^■^"N" 
 
 I- 
 
 
 "/3 
 
 ^ 
 
 yj 
 
 (fl 
 
 '< 
 
 ' 
 
 z 
 
 : 
 
 ^ 
 
 ££!. 
 
 sz's 
 
 ra'/j 
 
 - 
 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 yoURTH ^I'N 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 Fig. 6. Variation on No. 3. Lots 
 face the most valuable frontage. 
 
 ments not found in older cities 
 and usually run parallel to the 
 principal business streets, or the 
 streets which are expected to be 
 the principal business streets 
 when the city was laid out. 
 While in cities of moderate size 
 alleys are useful in furnishing 
 access to the rear of buildings, 
 in the larger cities, where land 
 is closely utilized by means of 
 interior courts and light wells, 
 they are a detriment in interfer- 
 ing with such economic arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 Blocks range in size from 200 
 feet square to 660 feet square, 
 any depth over 200 to 250 feet 
 involving a waste of land at the 
 interior of the blocks owing to 
 non-accessibility. Salt Lake City 
 with blocks 660 feet square fur- 
 nishes an aggravated case of 
 loss of value in land by bad 
 platting. The attempts which 
 have been made to utilize the 
 interior waste land by cutting 
 streets through the large blocks, 
 exhibit a reversion to the prim- 
 itive methods of individual 
 rather than municipal laying 
 out of streets, these being nar- 
 row, irregularly laid out and 
 lacking the vital feature of con- 
 tinuity through the various 
 blocks, thus defeating their 
 avowed object of attracting 
 traffic into the interior of the 
 blocks. The shortsightedness of 
 these owners is due to a sup- 
 position that the value of retail 
 business land is based on area 
 instead of on frontage on traffic 
 streets. 
 
50 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 F1R5T 3"^ 
 
 
 9*3 
 
 198 
 
 0. 
 
 
 1 
 99 
 
 99 
 
 g 
 
 
 199 
 
 ■09 
 
 99 
 
 0^ 
 
 
 
 
 ? 
 
 99 
 
 2 
 
 8i 
 
 199 
 
 SECOND ^"^ 
 
 Fig. 
 
 DAYTON . O. 
 
 Lots face' Main St., the most valuable frontage, an exception to 
 the generafl'plat. 
 
 PRAIRIE A^ 
 
 5 '- 
 
 «. 
 
 ,00 ^ 
 
 
 .? 
 
 -<0o 
 
 ■SST 
 
 ""^ 
 
 ' 
 
 r 
 
 
 • 
 
 ' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 £^ 
 
 
 - 
 
 ' 
 
 . 
 
 ' 
 
 ««. 
 
 1,- ^ 
 
 .s 
 
 
 ,. ^ 
 
 TEXAS A^= 
 
 HOUSTON . TEXAS 
 
 Fig. 8. Lots face all four streets in proportion to 
 value. Land closely platted. 
 
 i (iWASHlNGTON fiC^*^ 3 
 
 ^<^ 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 ^6 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 u 
 
 k* 
 
 1 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 ^6 
 
 THIRD S-^ S 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 Fig. 0. Similar to No. 8, but a 
 larger block. 
 
 FIFTEENTK S"^ 
 
 S '" ■ 
 
 3S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 T 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 23 
 
 -* s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ai 
 
 
 
 
 £. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LL 
 
 i! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 N loo 
 
 
 FOURTEENTH S't 
 
 NEW YORK 
 Fig. 10. Typical long New Yorlc block; end lots facing on avenues. 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 TIRST SOUTM S-r 
 
 51 
 
 
 t6^ 
 
 114 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 VJ 
 
 
 
 
 h4 
 
 
 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 KV 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 3 
 
 
 145- 
 
 96« 
 
 65- i6s- 
 
 
 
 ^ ,6^ 
 
 5 
 
 1&5 
 
 SECOND SOUTH 6^ 
 
 ^ALT JLAKE CITY 
 Fig. 11. Irregular cutting through very large block. 
 
 SECOND 3-^ 
 
 V) 
 
 CO 
 
 T 
 
 T-*)* -^' 
 
 
 'A 
 
 
 = 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
 7^A 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 w 
 
 -■ 
 
 •-3 
 
 7V/,1 
 
 MAIN 51 
 1^ 
 
 COUPJT 
 .6« VJAT^E 
 
 151^ 
 
 W 
 
 6^ 
 
 n?I 
 
 
 It 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 S) 
 
 
 
 
 ,65^ 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 74-^ 
 
 f.y. 
 
 n;^ 
 
 .. 
 
 .. 
 
 m. 
 
 U 
 
 ^ 
 
 •. 
 
 - 
 
 3T-)( 
 
 T.y. 
 
 T.y. 
 
 
 
 »?T^>* 
 
 si 
 
 .- 
 
 ' 
 
 ^ 
 
 V} ^ 
 
 ftjM 
 
 ji^ 
 
 n^ 
 
 
 
 3V^ 
 
 THf 
 
 ^r 
 
 T^ 
 
 MEMPHI5 TENK 
 
 Fig. 12. Lots platted to face square, originally designed to be city 
 
 center. 
 
52 
 
 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 The proportion of city area used for streets and alleys ranges 
 from about 35 per cent, in Vienna and New York to 55 per cent 
 in Washington. The first theoretical aspect of the division of a 
 city's area into public and private land, is that the more land 
 given up to streets the greater the dispersion of business and 
 
 OHIO S^ 
 
 ^s IS 
 
 4'^' 
 
 T</. 
 
 
 
 
 
 V* 
 
 
 
 \ \ ^ 
 \ \ S 
 
 : 
 
 r 
 
 ""\/^^ 
 
 
 sr/y 
 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 T-A 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 MARKET 5-^ 
 
 MONUMEKT T^ 
 
 MARKET S^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 « 
 
 / / » 
 
 5 
 
 SX'A 
 
 c^ 
 
 ^" 
 
 
 
 4o 6e 
 
 T'^ 
 
 XA 
 
 < 
 p 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 T.;^ 
 
 
 
 6o (S* 
 
 < 
 
 WA5HlN<^T01Nr S-x 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS . IND 
 
 Fig. 13. Waste of land where circle lots deepest. Also monument 
 interferes with traffic in both directions and injures both streets. 
 
 area covered by the city. Limiting this tendency would be a 
 natural increase in the height of buildings, on account of wide 
 streets and greater light and air obtained on the smaller build- 
 ing plots remaining. Practically the proportion between public 
 and private land has but little influence on the density of city 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 53 
 
 population, although there is an economic mean in the pro- 
 portion between land for communication and land for buildings, 
 which varies according to the utilization of land and which 
 makes itself felt when disregarded in either direction by loss of 
 income. 
 
 The unit, both as to the depth and width of lots, from which a 
 plat should be built up, consists of the average shop in the busi_ 
 ness district and the average dwelling in the residence district. 
 Since the growth of cities leads normally to the ultimate con- 
 version of residence land into business land, a uniform system of 
 platting suitable for business purposes throughout the entire 
 
 I 
 
 EAST 
 
 47- 
 
 EAST 
 
 0-6' 
 
 WEST 
 
 S7' 
 
 West 
 
 S6- 
 
 Old utilization of high-class 
 residence block. (Shaded sur- 
 faces represent houses.) 
 New York, 
 
 Modern utilization of high-class 
 residence block. Note increased 
 area covered, (Shaded surfaces 
 represent houses.) 
 
 city is generally preferable. Such a system need not necessar- 
 ily lead to small holdings in the residence sections, although it 
 has a tendency in that direction. 
 
 The average depth utilized by shops varies from 30 or 40 feet 
 for cheap shops up to 70 or 80 feet for high class shops, with 
 some department stores 200 to 400 feet deep. The average 
 shop was formerly limited in depth by the necessity of obtain- 
 ing light from each end, but this limitation has been removed 
 by the use of artificial light in the day time. Allowing 30 or 40 
 feet in the rear for light and air, we have a normal depth of 100 
 to 120 feet for a lot, or a total depth, including an alley, of 200 
 to 250 feet to the block. Very long blocks are much less disad- 
 
54 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 vantageous than very deep ones, the unfavorable feature here 
 being that shops in the middle of the long fronts are difficult of 
 access, as with the side streets in New York from Fourteenth 
 Street up. 
 
 Office buildings can utilize a greater depth than shops, extend- 
 ing from 100 to 150 feet, and as to wholesale and warehouse 
 buildings, light and air being almost unnecessary, the only limi- 
 tation of depth is that of convenience in handling goods. 
 
 Residences erected in blocks are usually two or three rooms 
 
 
 '' tifll 
 
 
 i Jj^^H 
 
 
 ^i^^^^i 
 
 
 
 ^ ^^1 
 
 
 il 
 
 si 
 
 Planned as interior street, in effect an alley through the most 
 valuable block in Salt Lake City. Frontage practically worthless. 
 
 deep, covering 50 to 70 feet, so that with an allowance for light 
 and air. 100 to 120 feet is also a desirable depth for residence 
 lots. Where residence land is most valuable it is economized in 
 the same way as with office buildings, the entire area being 
 built on except for such light wells as are necessary or required 
 by the building laws. In some of the best residence sections 
 of smaller cities, lots of extra depth are found, permitting the 
 dwellings to be set far back from the street, as with Euclid Ave- 
 nue. Cleveland, where the lots on one side of the street are 900 
 feet deep, and Meridian Avenue in Indianapolis, where the lots 
 on one side of the street are 400 feet deep. In the outskirts of 
 small cities where land is cheap and but a small proportion of 
 
GROUND PLAN OF CITIES. 
 
 55 
 
 the land is built upon, great depth is customarily made use of for 
 gardens, the deep lots being cut by additional streets as further 
 demand for building land arises. 
 
 As to width of lots, these vary in the smaller cities from 20 to 
 25 feet for mechanics' homes, 40 to 60 feet for medium class resi- 
 dences or small shops, and lOO to 150 feet for high-class resi- 
 dences or the largest business buildings. In the largest cities 
 residence lots run from 12 to 25 feet and business lots from 25 
 to 50 feet, with larger plots of 100 feet frontage or more used 
 
 Example of too wide street. Street narrowed from 100 feet to 56 
 feet. Sidewalks moved to edges of driveway. Expense of maintain- 
 ing driveway reduced one-half and desirable parking effects ob- 
 tained. Macon, Ga. 
 
 for large oflace buildings, shops, hotels, theatres or costly re«i- 
 dences, the general rule being the larger the city the smaller 
 the average holding of land. 
 
 A marked effect of the subdivision of land into small lots 
 occurs in the largest cities, when large plots are needed, such 
 plots having greatly increased value, technically known as 
 "plottage" value. From one standpoint this represents the 
 "hold-up" cost of securing the last few lots of a plot, the plans 
 concerning which almost invariably leaking out and advantage 
 being taken of purchasers' necessities. 
 
CHAPTER V, 
 
 Directions of Growth, 
 
 External influences.— First lines of growth of water-front city 
 parallel to water front; of inland town, along intersecting 
 turnpikes and of railroad town, away from railroad station 
 along principal turnpike.— Contest between axial and central 
 growth.— Normal city star-shaped.— Framework of cities laid 
 down by water courses, turnpikes and railroads.— Influence of 
 public buildings and exchanges.— Continuity the vital feature. 
 
 The first feature of any settlement to be noted is its corre- 
 spondence with external influences, the first buildings of a com- 
 mercial city clustering around the point of origin, whether a 
 wharf, railroad station or turnpike intersection, in order to han- 
 dle the traflic from the outside world. 
 *jrjn a waterfront city the first line of growth is normally along 
 
 Geneva in 1687. First streets parallel to the water front. 
 
 the shore, both because additional docks and buildings opposite 
 them start an axis of travel parallel to the waterfront, and also 
 because the bank of a river or harbor furnishes a natural high- 
 way for the first settlers^^the Strand in London being the typical 
 first street of a waterfrint city. Thus the first business street 
 of New York was Pearl Street, originally on the shore line of the 
 East River; of Chicago, Water Street, on the edge of the Chi- 
 cago River; of Boston, Washington Street, then in part on the 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 57 
 
 shore line; of Savannah, Bay Street; of Bridgeport, Water 
 
 Street, &c., these streets being now in most cases a number of 
 
 blocks from the water, owing to the extension of land by filling. 
 
 A not uncommon variation in this normal development has oc- 
 
 Richmond in 1781. Showing the first buildings on Main Street. 
 
 curred where a creek emptying into the river or harbor made a 
 sheltered landing-place, whose traffic brought business buildings 
 on either side. When the size of ships was so increased that the 
 creek became useless it was filled up, the business street, how- 
 
 Utica in 1802. Typical start of a city at intersecting turnpikes. 
 
 ever, remaining, as with Broad Street in New York; Dock Street 
 in Philadelphia, and Canal Street in New Orleans. Where the 
 topography of the waterfront, either because of shallow water at 
 each end or of cliffs along the banks, is such that only one good 
 
 h 
 
58 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 approach to the water exists, the first business street will nor- 
 mally extend back from the waterfront up the hollow between 
 the hills, as at Evansville, Montgomery and Kansas OUy. 
 
 In the case of an inland town there may be four or more direc- 
 tions of growth along the lines of the intersecting turnpikes. 
 Where an inland city originates from a railroad, the railroad 
 station takes the place of the wharves of a waterfront city, and 
 the first direction of growth is along the turnpike leading 
 t J the largest body of productive farming land. Since this usu- 
 ally lies along the valley through which the railroad runs, the 
 first axis of growth is commonly parallel to the railroad. Wher- 
 ever a town is found, in which the railroad station is evidently 
 
 Cleveland, 170G. The first streets run up the hill from the 
 river docks. 
 
 apart from the organic structure of the town, it is clear that 
 the town existed before the railroad reached it. 
 
 The chief exceptions to these general principles would be 
 where inland villages arose before their turnpikes were of im- 
 portance, as with Lancaster growing up about a spring; Syra- 
 cuse near the salt wells; Indianapolis artificially laid out, but 
 with the settlers shifted over the city's site, first, by absence of 
 timber on part of the city plat, next by the terminus of the canal, 
 and next by the location of the National Pike. 
 
 In their methods of growth cities conform always to biological 
 laws, all growth being either central or axial. In some cities 
 central growth occurs first and in others axial growth, but all 
 cities illustrate both forms of growth and in all cases central 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 59 
 
 growth includes some axial growth, and axial growth some cen- 
 tral growth. Central growth consists of the clustering of utili- 
 ties around any point of attraction and is based on proximity, 
 while axial growth is the result of transportation facilities and 
 is based on accessibility. A continual contest exists between 
 axial growth pushing out from the centre along transportation 
 lines and central growth, constantly following and obliterating 
 it, while new projections are being made further out the 
 various axes. The normal result of axial and central growth is a 
 star-shaped city, growth extending first along the main thor- 
 oughfares radiating from the centre, and later filling in the 
 parts lying between. The modifications of the shape of cities 
 
 '^^1^^^ 
 
 Portland, Ore. Showing first growth along river bank. 
 
 come chiefly from topography, the lesser influences being an 
 uneven development of some one factor of growth or individual 
 ownership of land. 
 
 \Turning first to axial growth, the frame-work of a city is laid 
 down by its water courses, turnpikes and railroads. Of these, 
 the turnpikes in the older cities are of chief importance. 
 Before the days of railroads these controlled so much outside 
 traflac that their city ends became the principal business streets, 
 and many still maintain their supremacy. For example, Broad- 
 way in New York was part of the old Albany turnpike which 
 runs on to Montreal; Washington Street in Boston was the turn- 
 pike to New York, which in passing through Providence was 
 known as Westminster Street; Main Street in Hartford was the 
 
 \^ 
 
60 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 New Haven *;urnpike, which continued north of Hartford as the 
 Albany and Windsor turnpikes; Montgomery Street in Jersey 
 City was the through road from New York to the south, which, 
 continuing out Newark Avenue, runs through Newark as Broad 
 Street, and so on to Philadelphia; the National Pike built from 
 Washington to the west one hundred years ago, runs through 
 Wheeling as Market Street, Columbus as Broad Street, Indian- 
 apolis as Washington Street, Terre Haute as Main Street, and 
 so on; and in Kansas City Main Street was the old Sante Pe 
 trail, running a thousand miles from the Missouri River to 
 Santa Fe. 
 
 Turnpikes are the natural outlets for residences forced away 
 
 Wheeling, W. Va., in 1845. Showing first growth parallel to river. 
 The road over the hill is the National Pike. 
 
 from the business centre and in small towns attract the inhabi- 
 tants by the human interest and protection of the passing travel. 
 Growth along turnpikes continues to a point where the incon- 
 venience of living so far out of town more than offsets the at- 
 tractions of the turnpike when back streets are laid out. 
 
 Steam railroads affect city land in three ways: First, by their 
 terminals; second, by their lines as barriers to growth or com- 
 munication; and, third, by their lines as influencing land imme- 
 diately adjacent. The central effect of a passenger depot in a 
 small city is to attract cheap hotels and shops, such abnormal 
 cases as the vacant lots opposite the Union depots in Toledo and 
 New Haven being due to railroad ownership of the land. In the 
 
DIRECTIONS OP GROWTH. 
 
 61 
 
 larger cities high class hotels gather near the principal depots, 
 as in New \ork and Boston, and in England, where they are fre- 
 quently built as a part of the railroad station itself. 
 The axial effect of railroad depots is of great importance in the 
 
 Cincinnati in 1810. First houses along the river bank. 
 
 smaller towns, where the depot constitutes one of the strongest 
 single forces attracting traffic within the city. The distribution 
 of this axial effect depends upon whether the travel to and from 
 
 
 Chicago in 1820. First houses at the mouth of the river. 
 
 the depot is concentrated on one principal street, or whether the 
 streams of travel pass through a large number of streets. Ordi- 
 narily the railroad terminal occupies so much area, and blocks 
 so many streets that it is most conveniently approached by one 
 
 ■ 
 
62 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Street. The axial effect of a depot is more easily noted when it 
 is located a few blocks from a through traffic street than if lo- 
 cated on such a street, the travel off the through street being 
 then directly due to the depot and not being mingled with the 
 general travel. In some cases a depot blocks the end or furnishes 
 the beginning of a street which would for other reasons have 
 been a good street, but which is greatly strengthened by the de- 
 pot, as with 17th Street in Denver. Freight depots are com- 
 monly a part of passenger terminals and attract warehouses, 
 heavy wholesalers and tenements. 
 
 The restraining effect of railroads, whether main or belt lines, 
 varies according to the territory traversed. Where a railroad 
 runs through a business section at grade, it limits communica- 
 tion between the divided sections and tends to concentrate busi- 
 ness on one side of the line. Where a railroad in a business sec- 
 
 Dawson City, Alaska, 1899. Sho^ 
 
 tion is carried below or above grade, its effect is minimized. In 
 a poor residence section a railroad has but little effect, but in a 
 high class residence section it forms a nuisance which good resi- 
 dences shun. Added to the noise and cinders of passing trains is 
 the fact that the railroad attracts factories and warehouses, 
 which are also nuisances in a residence district. In some in- 
 stances the railroad travels along the line of a small creek or 
 gully within the city, which has already kept land values down, 
 so that the railroad has but little added effect, as with the 
 greater part of the Belt Line in Kansas City. If the railroad is 
 in a deep cut, its limiting effect on good residences is diminished, 
 as in Chattanooga and St. Paul. In some cities demand for land 
 in the good residence district is so great that the residence dis- 
 trict is projected beyond the encircling railroad with little fall 
 in values, as in Louisville and Richmond, where handsome resi- 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 03 
 
 dences are built adjacent to the railroad. In New York, the N. 
 Y. Central R. R. on Park Avenue, between 42d and 56th 
 Streets, holds the high class residences on the west side of the 
 track, the east side of the track being ruined by absence of ap- 
 proach, the only communication being by the elevated foot 
 bridges. From 56th Street north the tracks enter the tunnel and 
 their effect is lessened-, the only objection being the vent holes 
 in Park Avenue. In all cities railroads detach great slices of 
 city area, in which they alter utilizations and values much as 
 important water courses do. 
 
 The effect of railroads on adjacent frontage is to prevent its 
 use for either shops or residences, the chief exception to this be- 
 ing in small towns where the street facing the railroad often 
 starts as the principal business street, this conditions still sur- 
 viving in Syracuse. 
 
 growth along river bank. 
 
 Water fronts, if navigable, invite commerce, resulting in docks 
 and warehouses, and away from the city centre, attract factories. 
 If not navigable and not bordered by railroads, and if the land is 
 not low, they attract residences, as in Chicago, north of the Chi- 
 cago River; in Charleston, and formerly in New York, when the 
 best residences faced the Battery Park. Where the land rises 
 sharply fifty or more feet above the river level, so that the rail- 
 roads and traffic along the water are not seen or heard on the 
 hill above, residences are attracted, as in the Riverside Drive 
 district in New York; the Summit Avenue district in St. Paul; 
 the Independence Avenue district in Kansas City, and the Wal- 
 nut Hill district in Cincinnati. 
 
 Turning to central growth, this has two aspects, first the main 
 general growth in all directions from the point of origin, second 
 the growth from various sub-centres within the city, such as 
 
t>4 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Washington about 1840, looking up Pennsylvania Ave. from the 
 White House to the Capitol. 
 
 transportation termini, public buildings, exchanges, factories, 
 hotels, &c. 
 
 The first and simplest form of central growth is that of aggre- 
 gation or adding of buildings one after another along the streets 
 leading from the centre of the city. The first dwellings in a vil- 
 
 Broad street canal of New York in 1R50. Location of early mercan- 
 tile houses and the first exchange. 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 65 
 
 lage are located near the business buildings, so that the mer- 
 chants can walk to and from their business, and so great is the 
 power of inertia that even in the smallest villages the few stores 
 find it advantageous to be close together. 
 
 The influence of public buildings on the structure of a com- 
 mercial city is small, unless such a commercial city is also a 
 national capital, as with London and Paris. Where a city is 
 wholly a political city, as is Washington, the public buildings 
 largely determine the structure of the city. The smaller public 
 buildings found in all cities, such as the Post Oflace and City 
 Hall, have considerable influence in determininig the line of 
 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
 about 1^0. Showing growth along river and up 
 gradual slope to the south. 
 
 early growth, but are of constantly diminishing importance as 
 the other factors of a city's life become stronger, so that not in- 
 frequently the public building which created a street in time be- 
 comes a detriment to it. It is easy to find public buildings badly 
 located which have no effect on the city's structure, as the Post 
 Oflice in Chattanooga, the County Court Houses in Salt Lake 
 City, Kansas City, Seattle and Tacoma, and the State Capital in 
 Salt Lake City. If the City Hall includes a public market for 
 the sale of vegetables, fruit, meat, &c., this being similar to a 
 large shop attracts much daily travel, a good example being in 
 Knoxville. In some cities, as i^ Columbus and Dayton, 0., 
 
G6 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Farnam St., Omaha, 1863. Old buildings replaced by modern ones, 
 leaving but few traces of first growth. 
 
 r^^ 
 
 St. Paul in l.Sd.s. «.;il> f,iarted at deep water and high bank, 
 making good steamboat landing. Climbed hill to "Seven Corners," 
 then grew east on lower level towards railroad station. 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 67 
 
 farmers sell their products from wagons on certain streets 
 of the city on market days. When this was first instituted the 
 shop-keepers on these streets feared injury to their trade and 
 secured the passage of a city ordinance prohibiting it. Finding 
 later that they had lost patronage by the removal of the farmers' 
 wagons, they petitioned for their return, this experience showing 
 the value to shop-keepers of massing people in front of their 
 stores, even though the new attracting force consists of com- 
 petitive sellers. The practice of surrounding public buildings 
 with large grounds is a common one, by which their influence is 
 nullified, the net effect being similar to that of a small park. 
 Such a small park, even though including a public building, 
 makes a bad break on a through business street, injuring espe- 
 cially the adjacent property on the same side of the street. It 
 
 Water front of Seattle, 1878. No commerce demanded docks, so 
 water front was bulkheaded. Two new streets have since been laid 
 out over the water, and continuous docks built. 
 
 a^ay sometimes slightly enhance the value of the business prop- 
 erty facing it by concentrating travel on that side of the street, 
 and in the largest cities furnishes a desirable outlook for high 
 office buildings. The most detrimental effect of such p. public 
 building in a small park is felt in the early stages of a city, 
 where the park checks the extension of the business centre. A 
 public building surrounded by a park, if located in a residence 
 section, tends to attract good residences, the outlook for the 
 park more than off-setting what travel comes to the public 
 building. 
 
 To summarize the effect of public buildings, if located at or 
 near the old business centre, they tend to maintain central 
 strength in their first location, as in Boston, New York, Phila- 
 delphia and Chicago. This is the normal case. The first excep- 
 tions would be where public buildings are located at a moderate 
 
68 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Macon, Ga. The point of origin, where bridge croocta irom East Macon, which was fli 
 settled. This frontage formerly the highest priced in the city, now worth about $10 
 front foot. 
 
 Paris. Central growth exhibited by successive encircling boulevards, formerly fortiflcatio: 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 69 
 
 Brooklyn. Illustrates growth along the axis of the Long Island R. R. 
 
 Boston. Illustrates central growth at points on railroad axis, issuing from the city. 
 
70 
 
 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 distance from the centre where the tendency is to draw business 
 in their direction, and the second where they have been so mia- 
 placed as to fail to have any influence. 
 
 Arising later in the life of a city, but in time acquiring more 
 central influence than any other factor, are the Exchanges, such 
 as the Stock Exchange, Produce Exchange, Cotton Exchange, 
 Coffee Exchange, Wool Exchange, &c. The New York Stock 
 Exchange is the strongest single influence maintaining the flnan- 
 cial section. The proposition considered some years ago of mov- 
 ing the Stock Exchange above Prince Street, and on another 
 
 Fine old Southern residence separated from its neighborhood by 
 railroad cutting. Value of land and building destroyed. Mont- 
 gomery, Ala. 
 
 occasion to 14th Street, if accomplished would have removed all 
 the Stock Exchange brokers and the majority of the Banks and 
 Trust Companies, private bankers. Safe Deposit Companies and 
 lawyers, with disastrous results on land values in the financial 
 section. The leading Exchange varies in different cities accord- 
 ing to the dominant form of business. The Board of Trade, 
 handling the grain business, is the leading Exchange of Chicago 
 and Minneapolis; the Cotton Exchange of New Orleans, Savan- 
 nah and Mobile; and the Mining Exchange of Denver and Colo- 
 rado Springs. 
 
 Factories create sub-centres, most distinct when on the out- 
 skirts of cities, by causing the erection of laborers' cottages near 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 71 
 
 b 
 
 Charleroux, France. Illustrates first lines of buildings along 
 roads, which form large irregular blocks, later subdivided. 
 
 I 
 
72 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 1 1 ill K'.. >^ 4^--/L. ■ '' 
 
 
 
 Vienna, 1873. Showing fortifications and surrounding ring (used 
 as a park), which made the old business center, in effect, an island. 
 
DIRECTIONS OF GROWTH. 
 
 73 
 
 Vienna, 1898. Showing ring outside the old fortifications, platted into regular blocks. 
 These now highly improved with municipal and public buildings, apartment houses, &c. 
 
74 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 the factory, which in turn attract small shops and public and 
 semi-public buildings. Where factories are erected within the 
 built-up section of the city, their central effect mingles with that 
 of other factors, but attracts tenements near at hand. 
 
 In all growth, central or axial, great or small, the vital feature 
 is continuity, the universal tendency being to add on buildings 
 one by one, of the same general character as those which pre- 
 ceded them. Lack of continuity from whatever cause explains 
 many of the greatest disappointments in anticipated real estate 
 movements, such as for example the failure of the west side In 
 New York, when first developed, to attract fine residences. While 
 growth in general is continuous, in detail it may hasten on, leav- 
 ing vacant places behind, especially where rapid transit draws 
 it, the stations of the elevated railroad on the west side at 72d, 
 81st, 93d, 104th and 116th Streets being starting points in new 
 territory from which growth took place in all directions. 
 
 Atlanta. Example of star-shaped city. 
 (See page 47.) 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Distribution of Utilities, 
 
 As city evolves, continual specialization in business and dif- 
 ferentiation in social grades.— Classification of utilities and lo- 
 cations sought.— Distribution of business utilities, economics* 
 of residence values, social, Movement of point of highest value. 
 Direction and rate. 
 
 The physical evolution of a large city from a small one results 
 not only from increased population and added industries, but 
 also from continual specialization in business and differentiation 
 in social grades. The first step is the separation between busi- 
 ness and dwellings, the original buildings used for business 
 below and dwelling above being replaced by separate business 
 and residence buildings. Later the social activities in educa- 
 tional, charitable and recreational lines, become organized and 
 evidence themselves in schools, hospitals, theatres and clubs, 
 increasing diversity of function resulting in increased diversity 
 of structure. Analyzing city land according to its utilization, 
 it may be divided into three main classes, that used for business, 
 that for residences and that for public or semi-public buildings. 
 
 Business land may be subdivided into that used for distribu- 
 tion — retail or wholesale stores and railroads — that used for ad- 
 ministration — banking and office property — and that used for 
 production — manufacturing property. 
 
 Residence land may be subdivided into that occupied by a sin- 
 gle tenant, ranging from the cottage to the palace, and that occu- 
 pied by more than one tenant, ranging from tenements to apart- 
 ments and hotels. 
 
 Land used for public or semi-public buildings includes that 
 used by the Post Office, City Hall, County Court House, &c., and 
 by all such institutions as asylums, hospitals, churches, libraries, 
 museums, clubs, &". 
 
 The locations sought by these utilities and the reasons therefor 
 seem to be as follows: Retail stores either cluster at the busi- 
 ness centre or follow out traffic streets. In retailing the buyer 
 necessarily seeks the seller, but since in all forms of trade it is / 
 the seller who is anxious to promote business, the retailer facil- 
 itates his possible customers by placing his shop where the larg- 
 est number of them would pass, even though his shop were not 
 there. Here he utilizes his shop windows and signs to draw cus- 
 
 • 
 
 * 
 
76 
 
 PRINCIPLiES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 tomers into his shop, the two elements of convenience of location 
 and advertising advantage working hand in hand. 
 
 Wholesaling may be divided into two main classes: First, 
 wholesaling of objects of great weight or bulk but relatively- 
 small value, which seeks locations near transportation lines or 
 termini for economy of handling, the selling being done by 
 traveling salesmen or by selling agencies located in the business 
 centre; and second wholesaling of articles of small bulk but high 
 value In the retail- whole sale way, that is, making up an order 
 including a variety of objects for the trade only — which seeks 
 locations near their chief customers, the retail stores. Here the 
 
 Second Street, Seattle, in 1876, looking south. Lots which sold in 
 1860 for $10 now bring $120,000. None of the original buildings 
 survive. 
 
 ability to quickly supply a small order of mixed goods is sufll- 
 ciently important to induce them to pay considerable rents. 
 
 Railroads in striving for passenger traflSc project their passen- 
 ger terminals as far as possible towards the business centre of a 
 city. Economy of handling freight locates the freight depots 
 either near the docks for interchange of freight or near the 
 heavy business houses. 
 
 In the largest cities a separate section evolves devoted to of- 
 fice buildings, whose ground floors are utilized by banks, trust 
 companies, insurance companies, &c., and whose offices are 
 rented to brokers, lawyers, architects, &c., the location of such 
 an administrative district being usually the result of slow 
 growth around old institutions. 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF UTILITIES. 77 
 
 Manufacturing follows similar lines to wholesaling, the pro- 
 duction of articles of great weight or bulk and small value seek- 
 ing the waterfronts or railroads away from the centre of the 
 city, both for economy in handling the product and because re- 
 quiring a large area for a low utilization they must have cheap 
 land. The manufacture of light articles of high value or that 
 which consists of the final combination or finishing of products 
 seeks the wholesale or retail stores which form their custom- 
 ers. In such manufacturing the seller seeks the buyer and sells 
 .by sample, so that a location with an advertising value is not 
 imperative, but the requirement of constant visits to customers 
 
 :li 
 
 Memphis levee, showing use of waterfront where marked changes 
 of river levels occur. Absence of docks prevents localizing of river 
 business, and resulting effects on city structure. 
 
 and the ability to supply small articles quickly, cause surh man- 
 ufacturers to pay considerable rents. 
 
 In general the basis of the distribution of all business utilities 
 is purely economic, land going to the highest bidder and the 
 highest bidder being the one who can make the land earn the 
 largest amount. We may note that the better the location the 
 more uses to which it can be put, hence the more bidders for it. 
 
 On the other hand, the basis of residence values is social 
 and not economic — even though the land goes to the highest 
 bidder— the rich selecting the locations which please them, 
 those of moderate means living as near by as possible, and 
 
78 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 SO on down the scale of wealth, the poorest workmen taking 
 the final leavings, either adjacent to such nuisances as 
 factories, railroads, docks, &c., or far out of the city. 
 Certain features appear to attract the wealthy in selecting their 
 residence districts, among these being nearness to parks, 
 a good approach from the business centre, not too near nor 
 yet too far, a moderate elevation if obtainable, favorable trans- 
 portation facilities, despite the fact that the rich ride in their 
 own carriages and automobiles, and above all absence of nui- 
 sances. Having selected a district the wealthy make it their own 
 by erecting handsome residences, making good street improve- 
 ments, restricting against nuisances, and finally and of chief 
 importance living there themselves, the value of residence land 
 varying directly according to the social standing of its occu- 
 pants. The main consideration in the individual selection of a 
 residence location is the desire to live among one's friends or 
 among those whom one desires to have for friends; for which 
 reason there will be as many residence neighborhoods in a city 
 as there are social strata. In securing a home in a good residence 
 section a man secures safe, healthy and attractive conditions for 
 his family to live under, and in the smaller cities, desirable so- 
 cial life, these social considerations explaining the strong press- 
 ure in all cities towards the best residence sections. The contrast 
 should be noted that business property is selected by the man 
 from an economic standpoint, and residence property by the 
 woman from a social standpoint. Social growth and pressure is 
 upwards from class to class, all ranks being continually recruited 
 from below — as well as dropping members from time to time — 
 and the ultimate aim in residence location is to be as close as 
 possible to those of the highest social position. 
 
 Where residences contain more than one tenant, whether tene- 
 ments, flats, apartments or hotels, the basis of value is economic 
 and conforms closely to the principles governing business prop- 
 erty. The hotels of various classes seek locations similar to the 
 retail stores of the same classes on convenient traffic streets 
 which advertise them. The highest class apartment hotels seek 
 locations on or near such traffic streets as run through or near 
 the fashionable districts, the rents being dependent both upon 
 fashion and on the character and service of the building. Below 
 this grade the various classes of flats seek locations for the con- 
 venience of their tenants, tending to draw nearer and nearer to 
 their tenant's places of business, until finally we reach tene- 
 ments crowded among the factories where their occupants work. 
 
 Turning to the main central growth of cities, a successful busi- 
 ness at or near the city centre which requires more space can 
 
DISTRIBUTION OP UTILITIES. 
 
 79 
 
 secure it either by acquiring adjoining ground, by building 
 higher in the air, or by moving away from the centre. To build 
 higher in the air solves the problem in a banking and office dis- 
 trict, but not in a retail shopping district, where ground floor 
 frontage on traffic streets is required. Whether an adjoining lot 
 is acquired or the shopkeeper himself moves, the result is the 
 same, which is the starting of the movement away from the cen- 
 
 nv-j"i! 'a" ^ -^' ■ 
 
 ■ft ^-.t ^fii^fc-^"^^ ■; ^ . ■ 
 
 ■ ^ ■ ■■ '^^■- " i' 
 
 •3; 
 
 Utilization of shallow harbor for warehouses and railroads. Duluth. 
 
 tre, a slow but endless procession. The fact that land is cheaper 
 away from the centre has a slight tendency to further promote 
 the outward movement, which continually evidences the Unsta- 
 ble equilibrium between the centripetal force of economy'- in the 
 transaction of business and the centrifugal force of cheap land. 
 The uniform tendency as a city grows is toward greater concen- 
 tration in the business centre and greater dispersion in the resi- 
 dence sections, and as long as there is an outward movement, so 
 
80 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 long is there certain to be a continual readjustment at the busi- 
 ness centre to conform to it. 
 
 The various embryonic sections gathered closely together in 
 the first small area of the city, in expanding largely influenct 
 the location of utilities. Whatever the new building to be 
 erected, whether retail or wholesale, shop or residence, it can 
 
 Union Railroad Depot, Toledo. An exceptional case of non-utiliza- 
 tion of frontage opposite an important depot due to railroad owner- 
 ship of land. Many thousands of dollars of income thrown away 
 by not making short-time ground leases. 
 
 either be placed next to similar buildings or apart from them. 
 With this choice, buildings are usually placed adjacent to 
 others of a similar kind, so that the general tendency for all 
 sections is to extend continuously, expanding in breadth as the 
 centre is left. One expensive residence, if not overcome by un- 
 favorable factors, may be suflacient to attract similar buildings 
 and create the most fashionable residence street in a city, as in 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF UTILITIES. 
 
 81 
 
 a more marked way the royal palaces in Paris and London have 
 created the most fashionable residence districts in those cities. 
 This, however, does not mean that individual enterprise or whim 
 can run counter to the orderly evolution of a city. 
 
 When the best residence district is determined, the main 
 growth of the city is quite certain to follow it, as note the move- 
 ment of retail stores after the best residences on Fifth Avenue 
 in New York; on Boylston Street in Boston; on Michigan Ave- 
 nue in Chicago; on Olive and Locust Streets in St. Louis; on 
 Madison, Monroe and Jefferson Streets in Toledo; on Morrison 
 and Washington Streets in Portland, Ore.; on St. Charles, Ca- 
 rondelet and Baronne Streets in New Orleans, &c. The reason 
 the best residence district rather than the largest residence dis- 
 
 Clark Street, Chicago, in 1857. Showing raised buildings and 
 sidewalks, as city level was altered. 
 
 trict draws the city, is doubtless that the far higher percentage 
 of purchasing power of the wealthy more than offsets the supe- 
 rior numbers of the poorer classes, and to the further fact that 
 the shops patronized by the wealthy become fashionable, and 
 hence sought by all classes as far as their means permit. 
 
 Exceptions to this progression are due chiefly to topography, 
 business remaining on a level if possible and climbing hills only 
 under great pressure. A further exception to the normal would 
 be where two or more good residence districts are located on 
 opposite sides of the main business section so as to balance each 
 other, as in Fort Wayne and Knoxville. 
 
 Probably the most important movement within a city as it 
 grows is the gathering together of those carrying on the same 
 kind of business into special districts. This tendency was com- 
 
82 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 mon in Rome and Constantinople thousands of years ago, and 
 is in harmony with the law of evolution, that increasing differ- 
 entiation is accompanied by increased integration. Retail stores 
 cluster together at convenient points for their customers and not 
 because they do business with each other. The chief attracting 
 power of such a retail section seems to be the insurance to cus- 
 tomers against failure to find within the section what they seek. 
 Undoubtedly the selection within this special district is normally 
 better than that in all the rest of the city combined, and shop- 
 
 Example of absence of Influence of public building. Post oflice in 
 Chattanooga, erected twelve years ago, away from business center, 
 has attracted no business. 
 
 pers are saved the time, trouble and uncertainty of seeking 
 through scattered shops. While one shop may attract a cus- 
 tomer and another make the sale, such an interchange of cus- 
 tomers is probably in the long run closely balanced. The per- 
 sonal factor, or the business ability of managers to advertise 
 and develop a business, is most influential in causing gradations 
 of values in adjacent business locations. A successful shop con- 
 tinually enlarges the area from which it draws custom and di- 
 verts special currents of travel towards it. This attracts the no- 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF UTILITIES. 
 
 8a 
 
 tice of other shops in the same line of business, who, reasoning 
 either that the location has helped their successful rival or that 
 by moving near them they can secure some of their customers, 
 move close to the successful store. Formerly it was held that 
 the further a retail store was removed from a competitor the 
 better, but this has been found to hold true only of those small 
 
 n 
 d 
 
 Perry Street, Montgomery, Ala. A curious example of the most 
 fashionable residence street ending abruptly in a meadow, only 
 thi-ee blocks from fine houses. Of course axial strength is not 
 necessary for residence streets. 
 
 stores which depend for business on the immediate neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 In many forms of business the clustering together of those 
 transacting it finally crystalizes into an Exchange, which forms 
 the centre of the district. Since the Exchanges are the result 
 and not the cause of the special districts in which they are lo- 
 cated, we must look back of them to find the causes for the loca- 
 tion of various utilities. For example, the leather district in 
 
84 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 New York, was located in Beekman Swamp, on account of the 
 wet ground suitable for tanning pits, and similarly in Philadel- 
 phia, the leather district was located on both sides of Dock 
 Creek. There were banks on Wall Street long before the Stock 
 Exchange was established, the location of the banks and of the 
 United States Sub-Treasury and Assay Office attracting the 
 Stock Exchange, which in turn drew further Banks, Trust Com- 
 panies and Brokers. The location of the Cotton Exchange apart 
 from the dry-goods district would seem strange except for the 
 
 Cost of excavating high bank has made a break in business build- 
 ings on traffic street. First floor of new building shown excavated 
 60 feet back, which upper stories run 120 feet back. First Avenue, 
 Seattle. 
 
 fact that thirty or forty years ago Hanover Square was the cen- 
 tre of the dry-goods trade. 
 
 The reasons for the clustering together of wholesale houses 
 are not so clear as in the case of retail shops, except that the 
 features which are favorable for one wholesale house are equally 
 so for another, such as proximity to transportation facilities to 
 save trucking, and the fact that by locating together they attract 
 more out-of-town buyers than if scattered. 
 
 The outward pressure of one zone upon another involves the 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF UTILITIES. 
 
 85 
 
 slow advance of the banking and oflace section into the older re- 
 tail or wholesale districts, the continual following along of the 
 lighter wholesale houses into the buildings vacated by the re- 
 tail shops, the close pursuit of the best residence sections by the 
 best retail shops, with normally a mixed zone of institutions, 
 &c., acting as a buffer between them, and the steady march of 
 residences into the outlying country, first utilized for gardens or 
 cottages. Whatever the size or shape of a city, the order of de- 
 pendence of one district upon another remains the same, al- 
 
 Frontage on traffic street used for advertising purposes. Seattle. 
 
 though many districts are not clearly defined but overlap others 
 of different character. 
 
 In connection with the progression of districts in a city, W3 
 may note the movement of the point of highest value, which 
 means the most desirable location for a retail shop in all cities, 
 except in the few financial capitals where the banking and ofiice 
 district produces higher values than retail shops. 
 
 In a waterfront city the highest values start at the point of 
 ongin and spread normally along the first street on the water- 
 
PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Berlin. The clustering of railroad stations towards the city 
 center Illustrates the efforts of railroads, for strategic reasons, to 
 reach the business heart of the city. This map shows only a small 
 part of the city. 
 
DISTRIBUTION OF UTILITIES. 87 
 
 front, moving later to the next street parallel to "it, and so on 
 back. 
 
 The rate of this backward growth from street to street varies 
 according to the prosperity of a city, a rapid increase of popula- 
 tion being reflected in an expansion of the city's area, and often 
 a rapid shifting of the business centre. In slow growing cities it 
 may take from twenty to forty years to move the principal re- 
 tail business from one street to another, as note the movement 
 from Water Street to Main Street in Bridgeport; from Bay 
 Street to Congress Street and later Broughton Street in Sav- 
 annah, &c. 
 
 If the principal street runs at right angles to the water front, 
 the shifting of the highest point of value takes place much 
 more rapidly than if the street is parallel to the water front, 
 where it has to be moved laterally. The rate instead of averag- 
 ing from twenty to forty years might vary from eight to twelve 
 years per block, the length of the blocks affecting the movement. 
 One factor delaying such movement would be a strong traffic 
 street at right angles to the principal street, which might hold 
 the highest values at its intersection for many years. Such 
 strong cross streets often produce jumps in the onward move- 
 ment of the highest values, as with 14th, 23d, 34th and 42d streets 
 in New York. 
 
 The rate of movement of cities is sometimes affected by the 
 destruction of whole districts by fire, which brings up the ques- 
 tion to owners whether or not to rebuild the same, type of build- 
 ings on the same locations. In many cases a conflagration causes 
 the erection of handsome new buildings in place of the oM ones, 
 so that a new period of higher utility arises. On the other hand, 
 the destruction of individual buildings by fire will have an un- 
 favorable effect if tenants move elsewhere and owners do not 
 rebuild. 
 
 The unfolding of a city, with its change in land utilization 
 shows normally in the case of any lot a slow increase in value 
 up to a high point, after which a gradual decline takes place, 
 with occasional fluctuations varying the main movement. Thus 
 where good residences take the place of small suburban homes, 
 a higher utility supplants the lower, and when these good resi- 
 dences become old-fashioned and are converted into boarding 
 houses, a drop in value will ordinarily occur. This is sometimes 
 offset by the more intense utilization of the land, a larger rent 
 being earned from more people even at lower rates. Moreover, 
 property of this class having the prospect of being overtaken by 
 business buildings has an anticipated value in advance of its 
 yield. When retail stores arrive and become firmly established 
 
S« PRINCIPLES OF CITY LANB VALUES. 
 
 the high level of value is usually reached, this period lasting 
 possibly thirty to sixty years. As the retail stores move on a 
 lower utility succeeds — and usually a lower value unless the 
 city's increase in population, more than offsets the drop in util- 
 ity — wholesale houses being followed by storage warehouses, 
 cheap tenements, dilapidations, &c., until sometimes land for- 
 merly the best in the city becomes so remote from the active 
 business centre as to have little or no value. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Currents of TravcL 
 
 Regularity of daily travel the basis of its effect on city struc- 
 ture.— Chief daily movements between resicence c.ni business. 
 —Shopping habits of various classes.— Retail stores chiefly 
 located by currents of travel.— Change of axis of city traffic. 
 —Fluidity of daily travel.— Street railroads, elevated, under- 
 ground, bridges, ferries, etc. 
 
 The life of a city involves continual travel, day and night, 
 throughout its entire area, the most notable feature of which, 
 and the basis of its effect on the city's structure, is its regular- 
 ity. The inhabitants of a city do not intermingle at random, 
 but go from one place to another by the quickest, shortest, or 
 most agreeable route. For example, in New York many thou- 
 sands of the upper classes have never been west of Sixth Ave- 
 nue or east of Third Avenue, except to the ferries, and many 
 thousands on the lower east side have never seen Fifth Avenue, 
 while in New Orleans, many Creoles have never crossed Canal 
 Street into the American quarter. 
 
 The chief daily movements consist of the journeys of business 
 men between their residences and their places of business, the 
 complex interweaving of these men within the business centre 
 and the shorter trips of workmen between their homes and their 
 workshops. 
 
 In modern cities the main currents of business men's travel 
 are carried by street railroads, so that the travel consists of 
 short trips on foot converging to the street railroads, a long 
 trip in the cars to the business centre and there short trips on 
 foot again. In some cities where there are hills between the 
 business and residence sections, the currents of foot travel follow 
 a zigzag course up and down the hill, it being easier to turn cor- 
 ners than encounter grades. A variation may occur in the re- 
 turn trip where men stop at clubs, cafes or hotel lobbies, the lo- 
 cation of these favorite haunts causing a different route to be 
 taken, with some resulting influence on values. 
 
 Within the business districts occur the continual interchange 
 of visits, by means of which the business of the city is accom- 
 plished. Here, although the trips are short, the necessity for 
 saving time leads to the gathering together of the various forms 
 of business in special districts. In large cities the daily trips of 
 
90 PRIN-CIPLBS OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 workmen are made chiefly on foot and are widely diffused 
 throughout the tenement districts, with small effect except that 
 certain more convenient streets attract cheap shops. 
 
 The daily trips of women are made either for shopping, call- 
 ing or driving. Here, as in men's trips, the travel consists of 
 short trips on foot to the street car lines, which carry the con- 
 centrated travel to the largest shops, where the cars are left and 
 the women walk to the other shops. For the same reason of 
 convenience women's shops are crowded together in order to 
 save time in going among them. 
 
 The display of goods is vital for shops, and in order to display 
 goods shade is necessary; hence the side of the street which is 
 shady during the part of the day in which women shop is nor- 
 mally worth from 20 per cent, to 40 per cent, and occasionally 
 100 per cent, more than the sunny side of the street. The west 
 side of streets running north and south, and the south side of 
 streets running east and west, are shady the greater part of the 
 year from about 12 or 1 o'clock on, permitting a display of goods 
 without fear of fading, and rendering the sidewalk agreeable. 
 The greater part of the purchasing in the large shops is done by 
 women of the middle classes, whose household duties prevent 
 them from reaching the shops until after 11 o'clock. The busiest 
 shopping hours are from 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock, many women 
 taking lunch either in the department stores or in restaurants 
 nearby. The women of wealth shop usually in the morning be- 
 itween 11 and 2 o'clock, so that even in their case the west 
 or south side of the street has some advantage of 
 shade. In southern cities where shade is even more im- 
 portant, the relative value of the four corners of two 
 intersecting business streets is well defined, the southwest cor- 
 ner being the most valuable, the southeast next, the 
 northwest next, and finally the northeast corner. This refers 
 only to retail shopping fronts, the corners having a different or- 
 der of preference if desired for other purposes, such as hotels or 
 office buildings. It is said that in such northern latitudes as those 
 of St. Petersburg and Montreal the sunny side of the street is 
 more valuable than the shady side, since it attracts the travel In 
 the long winters. In New York some difference can be noted in 
 the tides of foot travel according to the time of year, but since 
 for eight or nine months of the year the climate is mild, the 
 shops become established on the shady side of the street and 
 whatever travel in winter changes to the sunny side is not suf- 
 ficient to draw them over. 
 
 Other factors are sometimes strong enough to overcome the 
 advantage of shade, such as proximity to a section of customers, 
 
CURRENTS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 91 
 
 as in New York on Sixth Avenue, between 34tli and 59th Streets, 
 where the east side of the street is more valuable than che west 
 side. 
 
 In the larger cities the general use of private carriages by 
 wealthy women influences values, in that the high grade 
 women's shops seek locations away from car lines and easily ac- 
 cessible to the "carriage trade." Such locations are usually on or 
 near the most fashionable axial streets, such as Fifth Avenue in 
 
 Map of Baltimore, showing street railroad lines, which illustrate 
 the gathering of traffic to the business center and its interchange 
 on intersecting lines. 
 
 New York, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, and Boylston Street 
 in Boston, all of which were fashionable driving streets long be- 
 fore the residences facing them were driven out by shops. 
 
 The daily shopping of women clerks, shop girls, &c., is done 
 either at small stores in the neighborhood where they live or at 
 the large department stores, to which they make a special trip, 
 lower prices being more important to them than the time con- 
 sumed. 
 
92 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 The travel of mechanics and laborers in the morning is hurried 
 bv their having to report at the workshops at a certain hour, but 
 ii the evening they have a chance to shop in the small stores on 
 the way from the factory to their homes. Ordinarily, the time of 
 workmen and their wives is so much occupied during the week 
 that the bulk of their shopping is done on Saturday nights from 
 6 to 10 o'clock, on the traffic streets which pierce the tenement 
 districts. 
 
 In the smaller cities there are so few strangers that their in- 
 fluence may be disregarded. In the large cities there is an im- 
 portant and continuous visiting population, which varies daily 
 as to individuals. The average number of strangers in New 
 York is estimated at 100,000 people, who support many of the 
 theatres, shops, and hotels, the latter being important as the 
 starting points from which the visitors trips originate. 
 
 In the smaller cities suburbanites are few in number, and 
 reaching the business centre chiefly in electric cars merge with 
 the general population and may be disregarded. In the large 
 cities suburbanites arrive by ferry or train and usually make 
 hurried trips to their offices in the morning and back in the 
 evening. This effort to reduce the time between their homes and 
 iheir business militates against their purchases en route, with the 
 exception of small articles which can be carried, such as fruit, 
 books, flowers, furnishing goods, &c., shops for which locate 
 around some of the ferries and railroad depots. An extreme 
 example of a large current of daily foot travel of the highest eco- 
 nomic quality is furnished by the summer travel on Rector 
 Street, New York, where thousands of wealthy men walk daily 
 from the Wall Street section to and from the Sandy Hook boat 
 Here every factor is favorable to promoting an increase of 
 values, except the speed with which the walking is done and the 
 fact that the traffic lasts only five months of the year, which 
 causes it to have no influence on values. 
 
 Added to the daily travel in a city is the evening travel to the 
 theatres, opera, music halls, &c. The theatres, usually en street 
 car lines and near the most important hotels, chiefly attract the 
 evening travel, which in turn draws restaurants, saloons, cigar 
 shops, candy shops, soda water fountains, florist shops, &c. The 
 variations between summer and winter business become more 
 marked the higher the social class, the little shops on the lower 
 east side of New York probably selling an equal amount of goods 
 throughout the year, the shops supplying the wants of the mid- 
 dle classes falling off during the hot summer months, and the 
 season for fashionable shops lasting about flve months. The 
 competitors of the fashionable New York shops are the shops 
 
CURRENTS OP TRAVEL. 93 
 
 at Newport, Lenox, Bar Harbor, and those of Paris and London, 
 and the competitors of the next grade of shops are those of the 
 summer resorts of New Jersey, Long Island, or near New York. 
 Tradesmen in many cases meet this condition by having winter 
 stces in New Yorli and summer stores where their patrons go. 
 In so far as retail purchases are made outside of New York, the 
 earning power and value of retail property in New York is low- 
 ered, this varying in proportion to the length of the summer 
 absence. 
 
 The main effect of daily currents of travel is on the location 
 of retail stores, increasing traffic being certain ultimately to 
 change any street into a shopping street. As a corollary to this 
 is the important fact that the relocation of the best residence 
 districts is certain to change the axis of the principal travel 
 within the city, which will draw the shops and values to new 
 streets. Such changes of axis have taken place in New York 
 from Pearl Street to Broadway, and from streets parallel to the 
 river front to streets at right angles to it in St. Louis, St. Joseph, 
 Minneapolis, and are now taking place in Toledo, Portland, Ore., 
 and Cincinnati. As shops follow the shifting currents of travel, 
 rentals move with them, the value of retail land depending on 
 the number of people passing, qualified by their purchasing 
 power, the causes which bring them past the property and their 
 method of locomotion. This dependence of retail business on 
 daily trafiic is due to the operation of the laws of chance, by 
 which of a given number of passers-by a certain proportion will 
 become customers. 
 
 The mention of traffic within a city suggests the double* func- 
 tion of a city street as contrasted with the single function of a 
 country road. A country road is a means of communication 
 only, while a city street also furnishes frontage for buildings. 
 Ordinarily, city streets are first a means of communication and' 
 later furnish frontage for buildings, but in waterfront cities this 
 may be reversed. The principal business streets usually have 
 some definite point of origin, such as a ferry or a railroad sta- 
 tion within a city, or a country town or district outside of it, and 
 long distance or through traffic is a prime essential for business 
 streets, those which are cut off at one or both ends being almost 
 useless for retail business, even though immediately contiguous 
 to main arteries of traffic. Currents of traffic are not always 
 straight, but may follow a street which has turns or angles, or a 
 short street cut through a block between two main business 
 streets, as with New Bond Street in London, and Union Street 
 in Nashville. A serious detriment to values is caused by a break 
 in the continuity of shops, whether due to a vacant lot, a church, 
 
94 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 a private residence, or an institution of any kind. A row of 
 stores resembles a chain, the insertion of a vacancy or of any 
 different utilization breaking its cohesion. 
 
 Besides the main currents of travel, the little feeding streams 
 are closely watched, such shops as hatters, tailors, lunch 
 rooms, men's furnishing goods, etc., locating in the men's dis- 
 trict near the oflSce buildings. The grade of shops on the streets 
 leading from the office sections conforms to the character of the 
 passers-by, high-class shops being where employers pass, and 
 cheaper shops where clerks go, while push-carts and hawkers 
 catch the office boy trade. 
 
 A noteworthy qualification in the location of retail shops is 
 that the larger and more expensive the articles to be purchased 
 the further people will go in search of them. Large and well 
 managed shops will attract purchasers wherever located, but 
 even such shops are extremely sensitive to the merits of differ- 
 ent locations and pay high rents to be exactly where they can 
 obtain the largest number of customers. In all cities there are 
 constant changes in the population, and all shops to be most 
 successful must keep themselves before the public by means of 
 prominent locations. 
 
 The most striking feature of the daily travel within a city 
 is its fluidity, or the closeness within which it seeks its own 
 level. Obstructions check it and turn it aside as they would a 
 stream of water. In flowing down a street it backs up each 
 cross street, carrying stores to a distance proportionate to the 
 strength of the current; and where two currents meet the pres- 
 sure at the intersection intensifies the back currents. The 
 stronger the current the further it spreads back or the greater 
 the depth of shops, in some cases running through the block, as 
 on 23d Street, New York, where the shops extend to 22d Street 
 on one side and 24th Street on the other. Similarly, the stronger 
 the current of traffic the higher it is heaped up, or the taller the 
 buildings to accommodate it. The current of travel blocked by 
 Washington Square, New York, flowed up Broadway and 6th 
 Avenue and meeting at 23d Street, a back current of business 
 building has flowed down 5th Avenue, in the same way that a 
 stream meeting a rock divides, the pressure of water causing a 
 current to flow back to the rock. 
 
 Street railroads have wrought a revolution in the structure of 
 cities, scattering population over a wide area, adding value to 
 the circumference by rendering it accessible for residences, and 
 to the center by concentrating traflEic within it, a part of this 
 added value being removed from the intermediate zone. By 
 rendering new districts acessible, thus increasing the area of 
 
CURRENTS OF TRAVEL. 95 
 
 supply of land, the value of all competititve land is reduced, so 
 tliat the effect of street railroads on residence land is 
 to lower its average value. The speed of an electric car is so 
 great that the tendency is not to add on gradually to existing 
 residence sections, but to project beyond them into the cheap 
 country land. Ordinarily, capitalistic handling takes hold of a 
 new outlying district and by laying out fine streets and side- 
 walks, sewers, water, gas, electric light, etc., and erecting high- 
 class houses, establishes a residence section of higher values 
 than much of the residence land nearer the business center. Op- 
 posed to this condition are the two factors of long settlement, 
 which makes old residents reluctant to move, and the cost of 
 car fares amounting to between $5 and $10 per month according 
 to the size of the family, which operate in favor of the old fash- 
 ioned residence sections near the business center. 
 
 It may happen that the best business street in a city has no 
 car line on it, as for example Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis; 
 6th Street in St. Paul, and Felix Street in St. Joseph, these being 
 for this reason better adapted to the "carriage trade." An ex- 
 ample of the effect of street railroads on carriage trade oc- 
 curred in New York when the construction of the electric roads 
 on Broadway and 23d Street produced such a dangerous inter- 
 section that ladies were timid about driving across it. This 
 hastened the northward movement of high-class shops from 
 Broadway below 23d Street to 5th Avenue above 25th Street. 
 
 Transfer points, owing to concentration of daily streams of 
 people and consequent opportunity for shops, are strategic points 
 in a city's area, creating business sub-centers, whose prospects 
 of increasing values are limited only hy the number and quality 
 of the people likely to utilize them. As examples, note the 
 marked effect of transfers in New York at Broadway and 34th 
 Street, Madison Avenue and 59th Street, Lexington Avenue and 
 59th Street; also in New Haven at Chapel and Church Streets; 
 in Denver at 15th and Lawrence Streets, and the many transfer 
 points in the outlying districts of Chicago. 
 
 The success of street railroads in running cars to the top of 
 fairly high hills has added millions of dollars of value to the 
 higher lands in all hilly cities, as in San Francisco, Seattle, 
 Peoria, etc. Similarly, every improvement in the construction, 
 operation or service of street railroads strengthens their in- 
 fluence on the structure of cities. In general, if a city has less 
 than the normal street railroad mileage the result is a number 
 of small business sub-centers in outlying districts, and a con- 
 sequent irregular diffusion of values, while a well developed 
 
/ 
 
 96 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 street railroad system renders stable the normal distribution of 
 values. 
 
 In the largest cities the elevated railroads have the same gen- 
 eral effects as the electric street railroads, with the additional 
 influence of removing value from between the stations and in- 
 creasing it at the stations. Despite the heavy damages paid by 
 the elevated roads in New York, it is doubtful if they have in- 
 jured many properties. It is certainly noteworthy that over 
 50 per cent, of the property owners affected did not claim 
 damages from the elevated roads, also that the regular scale of 
 damages paid out of court is only $10 per front foot. One bene- 
 ficial result of the elevated road between stations is in affording 
 shopkeepers along the route an opportunity to display advertis- 
 ing signs and goods on the upper floors. Where the elevated sta- 
 tions are only five blocks apart, as on the 6th Avenue line in the 
 shopping district from 14th to 23d Streets, no building being 
 more than 600 feet from an elevated station, the crowds from the 
 different stations intermingle, so that all stores on the short 
 stretches between the stations are benefited by the travel. 
 
 Where stations are ten blocks apart there is no such overlap- 
 ping of streams of travel, but if there were sufficient travel to 
 demand it there would be additional stations, in which case the 
 beneficial effects of the elevated would be intensified and the 
 detrimental effects diminished, so that it might be said to be the 
 fault of the property that it has not sufficient business strength 
 to make an elevated road a source of additional value rather 
 than the reverse. While an elevated road is always detrimental 
 in a residence section, and partly detrimental and partly helpful 
 in a small business section, in the most patronized retail shop- 
 ping sections it is a strong advantage. 
 
 The infiuence of an underground road is similar to that of the 
 elevated, except that the feature of advertising is absent. The 
 longer haul of an underground road creates residence values at 
 still greater distances, and also still further intensifies values at 
 the center of the city and at all stations, especially express 
 stations. 
 
 Bridges, ferries and tunnels, which serve as additional outlets 
 to a city, co-operate with long distance transportation facilities, 
 and any change in their location or any competition of new 
 bridges or tunnels by changing traffic routes cause marked 
 shifting of values. Thus the construction of the Brooklyn 
 Bridge by diverting traffic from the old Fulton Street ferry, and 
 throwing it half a mile back from the river on either side, re- 
 moved millions of dollars of value from the streets leading to 
 the ferries, especially in Brooklyn. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Types of Buildings. 
 
 Suitability to location.— Proportion of cost of building to 
 value of land.— Effects of skyscrapers.— Table of business 
 buildings suitable for various locations.— Table of residences 
 suitable for various locations.— Depreciation and life of build- 
 ings. — General effects of buildings. — Nuisances and restrictions. 
 
 Let us consider next the types of buildings erected for differ- 
 ent utilities and their reflex effects on values. The most im- 
 portant consideration governing suitability to location is that 
 of proportion of cost of building to value of land, the safe gen- 
 eral rule being that the cost of the building should approxi- 
 mately equal the value of the land. In other words, the typical 
 successful property, land and building, appears to earn 
 double interest on the cost of the building, one-half of 
 which capitalized as economic rent gives a value to the land 
 equal to the cost of the building. While there are excep- 
 tions to this proportion it forms a median line of de- 
 parture, applying most closely to business property, whether 
 the building is a $5,000 one-story brick on a cheap 
 lot or a $3,000,000 office building in the highest priced loca- 
 tion. The chief destruction of capital comes from the 
 erection of expensive buildings on cheap lots, while the erection 
 of cheap buildings, known as tax payers, even on expensive land, 
 should not lead to loss, although it may not lead to great profit. 
 On a street whose traffic is increasing rapidly a business 
 building costing several times the value of the land may 
 profitably be erected, since within ten years the value of the land 
 may overtake the cost of the building. If, however, the building 
 runs at a low return for ten years, the investment may prove 
 a poor one, and the compromise of erecting one or two-stories 
 of sufficient strength to carry later five or six, is sometimes the 
 best solution. 
 
 In the largest cities increasing demand for space in favored 
 localities has steadily increased the height of buildings, the 
 practical checks arising from time to time having been suc- 
 cessively overcome by new inventions. While fifty years ago 
 the average height of business buildings in New York was three 
 or four stories, and in the best locations five or six stories, the 
 general use of elevators after 1870 ran the height up to eight 
 
 8 
 
98 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 The economic error here consists of placing ornamental columns 
 In front of the oflaces on either side of the entrance — especially the 
 column on each end — causing vacancies and low rents, representing 
 an average loss of probably 4% on $200,000. The entrance to a 
 large and important building should be duly emphasized, but such 
 sacrifice of income is unnecessary. Broadway and Leonard Street, 
 New York. 
 
 or nine stories, where it was checked by the expense of the 
 heavy walls and by the waste of the most valuable space on the 
 ground floor taken up by the walls. Skeleton steel construction, 
 developed since 1890, has saved the space on the ground floor, 
 modified the cost of the highest buildings and run them up to 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 99 
 
 twelve or sixteen stories, which express elevators have lifted to 
 twenty-five and thirty stories. 
 When skyscrapers were first erected it was the common 
 
 Chamber of Commerce, Duluth. Badly planned front; over 60% 
 of frontage wasted on stone masonry and entrances, leaving less 
 than 40% to earn ground floor rentals. Building has been financially 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 opinion that buildings of this character in the midst of low build- 
 ings bycuttingoff their light and air robbed them of their rights, 
 so that justice demanded a legal limit to the height of build- 
 ings. It was soon found out, however, that where a skyscraper 
 
100 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 was SO built as to require light and air from the adjoining lot, 
 it was the owner of the small lot who had the skyscraper at his 
 mercy. The threat of replacing the low building with a high 
 one, destroying the value of possibly a quarter to a third of the 
 skyscraper, has quite uniformly compelled the owner of the sky- 
 scraper to buy or lease for a long term of years the adjoining 
 property, as with the American Surety Building, Washington 
 
 Chamber of Commerce, Cincinnati; designed by H. H. Richardson. 
 A magnificent building, but with Income from ground floor subor- 
 dinated to the architectural design. 
 
 Life building, etc. Skyscrapers being naturally located on cor- 
 ners, the typical development of a small block would consist of 
 four high buildings on the four corners and four low ones be- 
 tween them controlled by the high ones. With long narrow 
 blocks, as in New York, the development would be more irregu- 
 lar, the tendency being to alternate high and low buildings. 
 Further variations occur where a skyscraper owns one or two 
 lots in an adjoining tract in ordor to block the erection of an- 
 
TYPES OF BUlLDlN&S'.' ' ' '>''''''' >*101 
 
 Other high building, as with the Park Row Realty Building, and 
 the Broad Exchange Building, or the purchase of low buildings 
 across narrow streets to insure light and air, as with some of 
 the life insurance company buildings. 
 
 The height of buildings has been limited by statute in Boston 
 and Chicago, and attempts have been made to do so in New 
 York, but the general sentiment seems to be that the economic 
 check is sufficient. 
 
 When skyscrapers were new, rents diminished from the 
 ground floor up, as in older buildings, but the upper stories 
 being more desirable on account of better light and air and 
 freedom from noise and dust, the rents were soon equalized. 
 The demand for the upper stories has continued, so that in some 
 
 y 
 
 Planned for a bank building. The solid wall of stone and brick 
 ten feet high throws away the ground floor frontage, from which the 
 chief income should be obtained. Berlin Building, Tacoma. 
 
 buildings higher rents are charged for them, the least desirable 
 floors being from the third to the sixth, this less productive 
 stratum furnishing an economic check to the height of buildings. 
 Wherever modern office buildings have been erected, the ad- 
 vantages they offer have drawn tenants from the dark and old- 
 fashioned buildings surrounding them. The offset to owners 
 from this destruction of capital in old buildings by modern im- 
 provements, is the increase in the value of the land due to the 
 possibility of similarly improving their land. Old property two 
 or three blocks away, however, may lose its tenants without any 
 -dorresponding gain in values, since the increase in space sup- 
 t)lied by the skyscraper is so great that its district is more 
 limited. As illustrating the increase of floor space from high 
 buildings, the Bowling Green Building increased the floor space 
 
io^ 
 
 ' PilIN^C!lf>L^ b^ CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 on the same area from 80,000 to 567,000 square feet, and the Grer- 
 man-American Building from 26,000 to 126,000 square feet. An 
 example of a shrinking office district was offered by lower Wall 
 Street, where of late years buildings have been vacant owing 
 to the completion of the new buildings around the banking 
 center at the intersection of Wall and Nassau Streets. As the 
 office district spreads the old locations regain value, and lower 
 Wall Street is now building up with skyscrapers. Similarly the 
 old three and four-story buildings on lower Broadway became 
 unremunerative and some were closed up, until the Bowling 
 Green Building with its modern facilities attracted tenants. The 
 concentration of the office district caused by skyscrapers results 
 in a great saving of time in the interchange of business, and 
 hence an economic gain to the community. 
 
 Subject to limitations from changing conditions and local cir- 
 cumstances in different cities, the following table is an estimate 
 of the character of business buildings, as to cost, height and 
 material, which may suitably be erected on land of varying 
 values: 
 
 On land 
 
 valued 
 
 per front foot. 
 
 $200 
 
 300 
 
 500 
 
 800 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,500 
 
 ^ 2,000 
 
 3.000 
 
 6,000 
 
 15.000 
 
 18,000-35.000 
 
 Buildings may 
 
 cost per cubic 
 
 foot about: 
 
 8 to 10 cents 
 
 8 to 10 cents 
 
 8 to 10 cents 
 
 12 to 20 cents 
 
 12 to 20 cents 
 
 12 to 20 cents 
 
 18 to 25 cents 
 
 18 to 25 cents 
 
 30 to 50 cents 
 
 30 to 50 cents 
 
 30 to 50 cents 
 
 Construction 
 
 of build- 
 ings may be: 
 Ordinary brick 
 Ordinary brick 
 Ordinary brick 
 Ordinary brick 
 SlowbAirning 
 Slowburning 
 Tending to fireproof 
 Tending to fireproof 
 Skeleton steel, fireproof 
 Skeleton steel, fireproof 
 Skeleton steel, fireproof 
 
 Height 
 of build- 
 ings may be: 
 
 2 story 
 
 3 story 
 
 4 story 
 
 5 story 
 
 6 story 
 6 story 
 
 9 story 
 . vw 9 story 
 10 to 12 Btory 
 12 to 20 story 
 20 to 30 story 
 
 3 to 
 
 4 to 
 
 5 to 
 5 to 
 
 7 to 
 7 to 
 
 Turning to residences, the proportion of cost of building may 
 vary from one and a half to three times the value of the land, 
 except as to workmen's cottages, where it may vary from three 
 to five times the value of the land. The highest grade houses 
 are ordinarily built for homes and cost more than they will sell 
 for or than their rentals will pay interest on, this lack of com- 
 mercial value increasing with the cost of the house. In expen- 
 sive houses in smaller cities there is a tendency towards restor- 
 ing the equilibrium between the value of the land and buildings 
 by placing them on plots of 100 to 150 feet front by 200 to 400 
 feet deep. This equilibrium is more apparent than real, since 
 not over 75 feet of frontage is necessary for the house, the bal- 
 ance of the land being a luxury on which taxes are paid and in- 
 terest lost. In all cases the cost of the house should be closely 
 proportioned to the cost of the surrounding houses — a |50,000 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 103 
 
 house in the midst of $5,000 houses, or a $5,000 house in the midst 
 of $1,000 houses, having a commercial value but little in excess 
 of the cheaper neighboring houses. Instances could be cited of 
 houses costing five times as much as the surrounding houses 
 which have not sold for as much as th© cheaper ones, because 
 rich people will not live among cheap houses, and poor people 
 
 The error consists in placing entrance to three-story building on 
 principal street instead of side street. These 16 feet would have 
 yielded from $1,500 to $2,500 per annum for the past ten years, or 
 6% on $25,000 to $40,000. The error has been partly remedied by 
 blocking the entrance with a cigar stand, yielding $720 per annum. 
 Second and Cherry Streets, Seattle. 
 
 i/ 
 
 cannot afford to keep up large houses. Such houses usually sell 
 for boarding-houses or sanitoriums. On the other hand, a small 
 h'ouse in the midst of expensive ones will usually sell and rent 
 well, there being strong competition to obtain a residence 
 location of social importance at small outlay. There is, how- 
 ever, a limit to the erection of cheap residences in good locations. 
 
104 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Front of corner store in Duluth. About as badly planned as possible. 
 
 a large number of them spoiling the value of locations otherwise 
 suitable for handsome residences, and some houses in fashion- 
 able sections being too small to sell well. 
 Turning to the larger cities, houses built in blocks represent 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 lOo 
 
 a pressure of population on land, which does not permit the use 
 of land for light and air around detached houses. In this class of 
 residences the cost of the house should not greatly exceed the 
 value of the land, with a general tendency, where the land is 
 cheap, of the cost of the houses exceeding the land value, and 
 where the land is expensive, the cost of the houses being less than 
 the land value. A still more intense pressure of population on land 
 
 Income from corner about 50% of what it should be, due to error 
 of architect, who aimed at a massive appearance. Morrison and 
 Sixth Streets, Portland, Ore. 
 
 results in apartment houses, which may properly vary in cost 
 from two to four times the value of the land. Where apartment 
 hpuses are built in smaller cities, especially if they are large and 
 expensive, they anticipate a pressure on land which has not 
 yet arrived, and are apt to be unsuccessful. Such apartment 
 houses sometimes cost ten to fifteen times the value of the land, 
 the danger of such a top-heavy investment being the abundance 
 
106 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 of competing land which can be cheaply obtained, and the fact 
 that almost the entire investment is in the building, which is 
 certain to depreciate physically. For example, where a $50,000 
 apartment house has been erected on $5,000 of land, assuming in 
 10 years a 30% depreciation of the building, or $15,000, and a 30% 
 appreciation of the land, or $1,500, the net capital loss would be 
 $13,500. The mistake of all owners who erect expensive build- 
 ings on cheap land is in not realizing that buildings erected to 
 
 Equally massive, but steps omitted. Rents sacrificed. The dealer 
 in sewing machines and bicycles can only exhibit six bottles of oil 
 in each window to attract customers. Morrison and Seventh 
 Streets, Portland, Ore. 
 
 rent do not dominate their environment. The advantage of an 
 even division of investment between land and building 3« clear, 
 in that as against the certain physical depreciation of the build- 
 ing there may be an appreciation of the land to offset it. Where 
 tall apartment houses are erected on the corners of the traffic 
 streets they injure the value of the adjacent lots on the side 
 streets, despite their acting as buffers to the noise and dust of 
 the traffic streets. 
 With limitations, the following is an estimate of the charae- 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 107 
 
 ter of residences as to cost, size and construction, which may 
 suitably be erected on land of varying values: 
 
 On land Av'ge Residences may cost. 
 
 valued front- , » » 
 
 per age of Construction may be. Per 
 
 front ft. lot. cu. ft. < Total » 
 
 $5 in smaller cities 25 Frame detached $5 to $7 $400 to $800 
 
 10" " " 25 " " 5" 7 800" 1,000 
 
 20" " " 30 " " 5" 8 1,500" 2,000 
 
 30" " " 40 " or brick 6" 9 2,500" 3,000 
 
 40' 40 " " 7 " 10 3,000" 4,000 
 
 50 " " " 50 Brick, detached 8 " 12 4,500 " 6,000 
 
 75 " " " 60 " or stone " 10 " 15 6,000 " 10,000 
 
 100'" " " 60—100 " " " " U " 18 10,000" 20,000 
 
 150 " " " 60—100 " " " " 15 " 20 12,000 " 30,000 
 
 250 " " " 75—150 " ' 15 " 25 15,000 " 50,000 
 
 500 " largest " 12—16 Brick or stone block 10 " 15 6,000 " 15,000 
 
 750 16-20 " " " " 12 " 18 10,000 " 20,000 
 
 1,000 " " " 20-25 • • 15 " 20 20,000 " 50,000 
 
 2,000 " " " 20—80 " " " •* 18 " 25 40,000 " 60,000 
 
 3.000" " " 25—40 Fireproof 30 up. 100,000 " 150,000 
 
 5,000" " " 30—50 " 40" 200,000 " 400,000 
 
 7,500-9,000" " 40-100 " 50 " 500.000 up. 
 
 One feature affecting the suitability of buildings to land is 
 that of the life of buildings. The useful life of a building may 
 be ended from any one of four causes: Physical decay, destruc- 
 tion by fire, change of utility, or competition of new buildings.. 
 
 The physical decay of ordinary buildings depends more on re- 
 pairs than on the character of the original materials used. Steel 
 frame buildings are of such recent invention that their life has 
 not yet been tested, but engineers estimate that they will last 
 several hundred years. 
 
 An estimate of the physical depreciation of buildings if kept in 
 repair would be as follows: 
 
 Life in Annual 
 
 Class of building. years. depreciation. 
 
 Cheap frame tenements 10 to 15 5 to 10% 
 
 Ordinary frame residences 25 to 30 2 to 3% 
 
 Cheap brick tenements and office buildings . 25 to 30 2 to 3% 
 
 Cheap brick or stone residences 35 to 50 1 to 2 % 
 
 Better class frame residences 35 to 50 1 to 2% 
 
 " " brick and stone residences 50 to 75 1 to V/2% 
 
 Good brick and stone office buildings 75 to 100 1% 
 
 Steel skeleton buildings Unknown. .... 
 
 The loss from a change of utility is modified by the greater or 
 less convertibility of business buildings, many office buildings 
 being convertible into hotels or lodgings. Thus the old Astor 
 House was changed into an office building twenty or thirty years 
 ago, but was reconverted into a hotel, and there are many in- 
 stances in western cities of buildings used interconvertlbly for 
 lodgings or offices. The destruction of buildings from change of 
 utility constitutes an offset to increased value in land, in that 
 the more rapid the increase in land value, the more rapid the 
 
108 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 destruction of value in the building. In locations of rapidly 
 changing utility, old buildings are generally considered to be of 
 no value. The correct basis of their value, however, would be 
 the amount of gross rents they will earn before being removed, 
 less such expenses as are due to their still standing, such as 
 insurance, repairs, taxes on the building only, etc. From this 
 standpoint the great number of old buildings are generally 
 
 Type of blocked entrance with more than 50% of frontage taken 
 up by obstructions. Royal Street, Mobile. 
 
 undervalued, since the process of replacing them is certain to be 
 a gradual one. 
 
 Competition of new buildings operates more strongly in the 
 case of residences and office buildings than of retail shopping 
 buildings. As to residences, for example, when the public has 
 been educated to prefer light stone or brick renaissance houses 
 to the old-fashioned brownstone front, and modern interior 
 arrangements, decoration and plumbing to former styles 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 103 
 
 A repelling approach to a store. Liberty Street, near William 
 Street, New York. 
 
 and equipment, the value of the old house has about departed, 
 even though it is in good physical condition. As to shops, the 
 location is paramount, and tenants pay high rents for the ground 
 floor with little regard to the architectural appearance of the 
 building above. 
 
 The natural tendency to erect continually better and hand- 
 somer buildings is an added force drawing retail shops onward 
 
110 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 How to carry on business behind a granite quarry is the problem 
 confronting the prospective tenant. A common error of architects 
 is to sacrifice income from store frontage to "solidity" of construc- 
 tion. Jersey Central Building. Liberty and Washington Streets, 
 New York. 
 
 into new locations. Thus, while the best business street in an 
 old city has usually been built up with brick houses two or three 
 stories high and converted into shops on the ground floor, the 
 buildings on the next business street are larger and better built, 
 and so on until the best section is reached. Sometimes the best 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 buildings when new are rented for less than the old ones, but 
 as tenants are attracted the pressure of demand causes rents to 
 advance in the new buildings, while removals cause rents to 
 drop in the old ones. When the rents in the new buildings are 
 the highest in the city the shifting of the shop centre and point 
 of highest value has been accomplished. Efforts are sometimes 
 made to bring back tenants to the old buildings by improving 
 them, but rarely succeed, because the onward movement is too 
 strong to be overcome, and because the efforts are usually made 
 
 Corner store on Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis. Removing brick 
 work to permit more show windows. A not uncommon recon- 
 struction. 
 
 too late and without co-operation among the owners of the de- 
 clining street. The owners of property yielding the highest 
 rents in the city usually anticipate nothing but continued in- 
 crease of rents and seldom realize that the business centre of a 
 ci_^ can shift, until declining rents bring this fact forcibly to 
 their attention. Even then many of them have not the courage 
 or enterprise to tear down their old buildings and erect hand- 
 some new ones, and others are financially unable to do so, it be- 
 ing more difficult to obtain building loans on a declining street 
 than on an improving street. 
 
112 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 To take up the general effects of the erection of buildings, these 
 may either increase, diminish or have no effect upon the value of 
 the land covered and the surrounding land. The hypothesis of 
 absence of effect may be eliminated, since while the selling price 
 of a lot may not be affected, some effect on the surroundings will 
 surely result. The first principle is that if the building is suited 
 to the needs of the location and is equal to or superior in con- 
 struction, arrangement and appearance to existing buildings, it 
 
 Good and bad store fronts. The store on street level with good 
 windows yields about 25% more rent than the adjoining one. Madi- 
 son Street, Toledo. 
 
 tends to increase values, while if inferior and cheaper than ex- 
 isting buildings it tends to depress them. Such an effect of in- 
 ferior buildings is by no means uniform, as there are locations 
 in which the erection of any building, however poor, increases 
 values. 
 
 The effects of buildings differ chiefly according to whether they 
 are erected in a built up section within a city, or in new terri- 
 tory on its outskirts. If erected in a built-up section, old build- 
 ings are removed to make place for the new ones, public atten- 
 
TYI'ES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 113 
 
 The five-frot fTId on th° comer, yipldin'^ a l-^r^e income for a 
 saloon and advertising, illustrates the high value of a good location, 
 even though the area is small. Broadway, New York. 
 
 tion is attracted to the locality and the prices of surrounding 
 land stiffen. The new buildings are quite certain to draw some 
 tenants from the older surrounding buildings, so that their rents 
 and value will diminish, while the land being suitable for better 
 buildings will increase in value. 
 
 The building of new residences in long-established residence 
 sections tends to increase values, public opinion being apt to con- 
 
114 
 
 PRINCIPLiES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 cede a new lease of life for i>ossibly thirty or forty years to the 
 old residence district. 
 
 When buildings are erected on the outskirts of a city where 
 the conversion from agricultural land to building land is taking 
 place, the character of the buildings will at first determine the 
 value of the land. Such districts afford highly competitive sites, 
 where the only difference between lots, barring topography, is in 
 transportation facilities, so that building operators can control 
 values in the new territory by their scale of development, as in 
 South Brooklyn. This is always assuming that the speculative 
 buildings shall be utilized at a normal return on the capital in- 
 
 Good planning of light well used for stores. Augusta, ua. 
 
 vested, which is begging the whole question. It is the business 
 of building operators to know what class of people can be at- 
 tracted to the new areas, and their success or failure in moving 
 population to occupy the new houses, and in attracting various 
 classes of people, determines the scale of values. From the stand- 
 point that land has no value until there is demand for its utili- 
 zation, there is a theoretical gain in transforming speculative or 
 anticipated value into actual value, but the future of all outlying 
 land is discounted many years ahead, so that prices may drop after 
 development. The worst that can happen to a suburban tract is 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 115 
 
 that it should be forced on the market before there is a demand 
 for it, the result being that poor people attracted by low prices, 
 will build cheap houses there and create a shabby and repulsive 
 district, which, if large enough, may act as a bar to the city's 
 growth in that direction. There are many cases, of course, 
 where such occupancy is but temporary, as with the shanty set- 
 
 
 IL. *''*' 
 
 1; ^ IF 
 
 
 fc^^^^^ " 
 
 Good store front. Wide and low windows. Piers covered by show- 
 cases. Summit Street, Toledo. 
 
 tlements on the upper west side in New York, and the negro 
 ownership on residence streets in Washington. 
 
 Whether within or without a city, much can be done to force 
 value into land by the erection of handsome buildings, if done on 
 a large scale. It is true that tenants seeking accommodations 
 are compelled to take them where they exist, except that if good 
 tenants want buildings erected on new sites they can always 
 secure them, capital being easily found where income is assured. 
 This vital limitation to a hypothetical monopoly of existing 
 
116 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 buildings demonstrates again the fact that it is effective 'lemand 
 and not buildings which creates values. 
 
 The building which is most suitable to its location may be 
 defined as that one which will for the longest term of years yield 
 the largest and most certain net return. The time element in 
 this definition eliminates such buildings as a factory in a resi- 
 dence district, or a saloon in a business location, which while 
 
 Good store front. Great width between piers. Low show windows 
 with prism glass above. Summit Street, Toledo. 
 
 yielding a large rent injures the surrounding property. There 
 are cases in rapidly changing sections where the most suitable 
 building is one some years in advance of the time, since the util- 
 ity of the building yielding the highest present rent will in a few 
 years disappear, necessitating its destruction or reconstruction. 
 Many such cases of discounting the future, though carefully rea- 
 soned, have resulted unsuccessfully, owing either, to the direc- 
 tion of growth or, equally important, the rate of growth, being 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 117 
 
 misjudged. The community feels its way along a few buildings 
 at a time in one direction or another, watching carefully where 
 anticipated demand Is not realized and unsuccessful buildings 
 point a warning. The main principle seems to be that the best 
 neighbors any building can have are buildings similar to itself, 
 business buildings and residences being most keenly responsive 
 
 Recessed front with piers utilized for show cases. A good plan for 
 so narrow a street as Nassau Street, New York. 
 
 to environment, and public buildings, factories, churches, hos- 
 pitals, transportation terminals, etc., being more independent. 
 
 Before outlining the normal yield and resulting land values of 
 the various utilities, we may note that the chief variation in 
 them is in the form of deductions due to nuisances, under which 
 name w« may class anything tending to depreciate the value of 
 land. The character of nuisances varies according to the section 
 
118 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 in which they are located, the cheaper the property the more im- 
 pregnable to attack, and the more expensive the property the 
 more sensitive to the levelling power of proximity, the ten- 
 dency of all adjoining buildings being to strike a mean. 
 
 To classify nuisances, those affecting retail business property 
 are adjoining vacancies, whether caused by rebuilding, fire, 
 removals or failures, low class neighbors such as saloons, dilapi- 
 dations, whether of buildings, sidewalks or surroundings, and 
 topographical faults, such as sharp variations of grade, under- 
 ground streams or quicksands. One of the most serious draw- 
 
 Example of converted building. Old style residence altered Into 
 stores. Denver. 
 
 backs which could happen to business buildings would be the 
 construction of a viaduct carrying all the traffic past them at an 
 elevation, as with the 8th Street viaduct in Kansas City and the 
 High Holborn Viaduct in London, the latter being constructed to 
 avoid the blocking of traffic at the intersection of Oxford and 
 Farringdon's Streets. In office sections the chief nuisance to tall 
 buildings consists of their being crowded so close together as to 
 cut off light and air from each other. Apart from this, sky- 
 scrapers remote from the earth's surface have but little to fear, 
 unless it be the chimney of adjoining lower buildings, which can 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 119 
 
 be compelled to run up higher if the smoke is objectionable. 
 Temporary nuisances, however, may arise at the ground level, 
 such as streets torn up for repairs, the laying of pipes, etc., or 
 sidewalks blocked while an adjacent building is being erected. 
 
 Residences are more easily affected than business property, al- 
 though values are lower, in that the erection of almost any build- 
 ing other than a residence, constitutes a nuisance. For example, 
 all kinds of factories, even those which emit neither smell nor 
 
 Change of utilization of building. Church converted to stores and 
 offices on desirable retail street. Madison Street, Toledo, O. 
 
 noise; power-houses of street railroads; hospitals, largely for 
 fear of infection; public schools, on account of the noise made 
 by the scholars; business buildings, hotels or apartment houses, 
 on account of their taking away light, air and quiet from the ad- 
 joining property; low lands, owing to fear of malaria — ^and all 
 cheap, old and dilapidated buildings constitute nuisances. All 
 rough and rocky land, or a steep grade with bluffs, hollows, 
 standing pools or ponds, is undesirable, unless the unsightliness 
 
120 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 has been taken away by conversion into small parks. Stables 
 constitute the most common nuisance to residences in New York, 
 a "stable street" having a greatly diminished value, as for exam- 
 ple, lots on 55th Street, west of 5th Avenue, sold for about half 
 the price of those on 54th Street, and lots on 52d Street, east of 
 5th Avenue, about two-thirds the price of those on 51st Street. 
 Street railroads, which in the smaller cities may raise residence 
 values, in the larger cities are always nuisances on residence 
 streets, one certain result being that they attract shops, and 
 
 First Presbyterian Church located back from street. With growth 
 of retail business on Fourth Street the space in front was built In 
 with stores and offices. Entrance to church through building shown 
 by sign. Cincinnati. 
 
 when this process begins the desirability of the street for resi- 
 dence ends. 
 
 An elevated railroad renders any street through which it runs 
 Impossible for residences, while steam railroads ordinarily drive 
 residences a block or two away. Where a railroad runs in part 
 or in whole through a tunnel, as with the New York Central 
 above 56th Street, the injurious effect is modified. 
 
 Even residences are a nuisance to their neighbors if they oc- 
 cupy an abnormal proportion of their lot area, as where the en- 
 tire lot is covered except for a side light well. 
 
TYPES OF BUILDINGS. 
 
 121 
 
 So many and so severe are the nuisances to residence property 
 that many residence neighborhoods are controlled by restric- 
 tions, usually running with the land, but sometimes limited in 
 time. In the smaller cities the ordinary restrictions in new resi- 
 dence sections provide that the premises shall be occupied for 
 residence purposes exclusively, that no residence shall be erected 
 costing less than a given amount, and that no residence shall be 
 placed within a certain distance of the front line of the lots. 
 Such restrictions greatly enhance values, in guaranteeing pro- 
 
 Change of utilization of building. Church converted into a stable. 
 Cheap location, not suitable for retail business. Minneapolis. 
 
 tection against cheap buildings, stores, saloons, etc. In New 
 York the Murray Hill restriction to residences is well known, 
 this having, undoubtedly helped to keep stores and apartments 
 iway from some locations on Murray Hill. As instancing the 
 value of a restriction, recently on 53d Street, west of Fifth Ave- 
 nue, the owner of the only two lots not restricted to private resi- 
 dences, having planned an apartment house, was paid |25,000 to 
 restrict them to private residences. The chief disadvantage in re- 
 stricting land to certain uses is that the utility of American city 
 land changes rapidly, and when residence property should be 
 converted to stores but cannot owing to restrictions, a serious 
 detriment to values occurs. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Rentals and Capitalization Rates* 
 
 Basis of gross business rents, what the property earns for the 
 tenant; of gross residence rents, what the tenant can afford 
 to pay.— Deductions from gross rents in properties of different 
 character, and table of percentages. — Effects on net rents of 
 fluctuations in gross rents. — Capitalization rates. 
 
 While gross rents are fixed by competition, the question arises 
 how do bidders determine what they can pay? The basis differs 
 radically between business property which earns income for the 
 
 Example of misplaced building. Expensive building on cheap land. 
 Foreclosed and sold at heavy loss. East Portland, Ore. 
 
 occupant as well as the owner, and residence property, which 
 for the occupant consumes income only. 
 
 The gross rents of business property are gauged from the eco- 
 nomic standpoint, these being in the long run the normal propor- 
 tion of what the property can earn for the tenant. The pro- 
 portion of gross receipts which a shopkeeper pays as rent varies 
 
RENTALS AND CAPITALIZATION RATES. 
 
 123 
 
 according to his ability as a tradesman, the character and class 
 of his business, and the location, a fair average being from 
 20% to 40%. The better the location for retail trade the higher 
 the proportion of receipts paid for rent. For retail trade the 
 location and the consequent advertising perform the vital func- 
 tion of selling the goods, and the shopkeeper can largely devote 
 
 No. 1. Contrast of income between extravagant and cheap build- 
 ings. This building, which cost $396,000, has always yielded, in 
 good times and bad, less net income than the building across the 
 street, which cost under $20,000. This due both to bad planning 
 of expensive building and to high ratio of expenses, 50% to 60% 
 versus 15% for the cheap buildings. Second and Cherry Streets, 
 Seattle. (See following picture.) 
 
 his energies to selecting what the people want. Similarly, though 
 in a less marked way, prominent office buildings help to adver- 
 tise the business of their tenants. On the other hand, mercan- 
 tile property not on traffic streets, wholesalers, etc., pay but a 
 small proportion of their receipts as rent, the saving, however, 
 going to the hire of drummers to sell goods. 
 
124 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 The gross rents of residences represent the proportion of in- 
 come which various classes can afford to pay for house rent. 
 While the return for such expenditure is chiefly the satisfaction 
 of suitable surroundings, social ambition influences all classes to 
 live in the best neighborhoods within their reach. The propor- 
 tion of rent to income varies from 15% or 20% among the 
 wealthy, up to 25% or 35% among tenement dwellers. Taking as 
 
 No. 2. Contrast of income between extravagant and cheap build- 
 ings. These cheap buildings opposite expensive building shown in 
 previous picture: 
 
 Cheap Expensive 
 
 buildings. buildings. 
 
 Gross rents $19,600 $34,000 
 
 Expenses 2,900 18,200 
 
 Net rents $16,700 $15,800 
 
 Or 6% on 278,000 263.000 
 
 Deduct building 20,000 396,000 
 
 Property earns 6% net on ..$258,000 minus $133,000 
 In other words, the expensive building is capital wasted. 
 
RENTALS AND CAPITALIZATION RATES. 
 
 125 
 
 gross rents the amounts actually received and not the full rental 
 value, from which an allowanace for vacancies must be made, we 
 may note first the great difference in the proportion of operating 
 expenses according to the class of property, this varying from 
 10% for one or two story brick store buildings, up to 50% for 
 office buildings or apartment houses. 
 
 Example of misplaced building. In the despression of 1893- 
 1898 this building did not quite pay expenses, leaving no return for 
 the land, which cost $100,000, or for the building, which cost $240,- 
 000, while adjoining one and three-story buildings on less valuable 
 land, covering same area, paid 6% net on value of building, and $600 
 per front foot for the land. The error consisted in placing bank and 
 office building in small retail section. Tester Way, Seattle. 
 
 Explaining this difference is the fact that in office buildings 
 and apartment houses, from 20% to 25% of the rent represents 
 the payment for services, such as light, heat, elevator, janitors, 
 cleaning, &c. If from gross rentals all service charges are de- 
 ducted, the other charges, taxes, insurance, repairs and rent col- 
 lecting, approximate in percentage quite closely in all classes 
 of property. 
 
126 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Example of misplaced building. Expensive eleven-story fireproof 
 office building placed about 150 feet off the principal street. Has 
 earned from 2% to 3% net per annum as against a probable 5% if 
 on the best street. Land 60 feet by 62 feet, appraised $25,500. or 
 $425 per front foot for half depth. Building, $160,000. Building 
 costs 6% times the land, a "top-heavy" investment. Columbus, Ohio. 
 
 Average taxes vary somewhat in different cities. Taxes on 
 individual properties in the same city \ary more sharply owing 
 to irregular assessing by tax officials. Figuring the aver- 
 age of a large number of American cities, taxes range from 1^4% 
 to 15^% of actual value, the chief exceptions being in Washing- 
 
RENTALS AND CAPITALIZATION RATES. 
 
 127 
 
 ton, where taxes amount to 6-10% (the U. S. government paying 
 half the taxes), and in San Francesco, where taxes amount to 
 8-10% (the city having no honded debt). The chief errors of 
 assessors come from their over-estimate of external appearances 
 and from the habit of following former assessment rolls, so that 
 quite uniformly property which has been valuable but which is 
 deteriorating is assessed higher than property in the line ot 
 growth and yielding larger rents. 
 
 The cost of insurance is usually so slight that it can be disre- 
 garded in making up the budget of annual expenses. Rates 
 range from .15c. to .30c. per $100 per annum for first-class risks 
 
 '2.0 
 
 10 
 
 0.0 
 
 Side street on lower level. 
 
 fTeT7t*?<7 per Tnotttf^ 
 
 20. 
 
 »> ' Zl7 n 
 
 10. 
 
 \*4-00. \*1Z5. \*5ZS. I 
 pc-r -{i'\o-riX\ti 
 
 Rentals on traffic street $11,400 versus $600 on side street, or 
 nearly 20 to 1. This illustrates the severe drop in rentals and 
 values off from a traffic street. (In the present instance partly due 
 to grade on side street.) Corner Second and Marion Streets, Seattle. 
 
 in the larger cities, .50c. to .75c. per $100 on nrsi-ciass risks in 
 the smaller cities, $1.00 per $100 on stores and office buildings in 
 the smaller cities, and so on up. 
 
 Leases vary in their provisions as to payment for repairs by 
 landlord and tenant, but if paid by the tenant the rent is pro- 
 portionately reduced. Average repairs vary from one-half of 1% 
 of the value of the building per annum in the case of the high- 
 est type of fireproof buildings, 1% for ordinary mercantile build- 
 ings, 2% for older property or that of cheaper construction, 3% 
 
128 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 to 4% for old tenements, and so on up in proportion to the age, 
 character of construction, and lack of care of the. buildings. 
 
 The cost of rent collecting averages from 2%% to 3% of the 
 rent receipts in the larger cities, according to the class of prop- 
 erty, and about 5% in the smaller cities, according to the class 
 of property. Owners who are competent to manage real estate 
 may save agents commissions by so doing, but instances are not 
 uncommon, especially as to large business property, where own- 
 ers managing their own property lose their time and from 20% 
 
 Example of expensive residence wrongly located in suburbs of 
 Indianapolis. Later surrounded by cheap cottages. Land and build- 
 ing appraised at $48,000. Mortgaged for $20,000. Foreclosed and 
 sold ten years later for $1,900. 
 
 to 30% of the income which an expert rental agent could have 
 obtained. 
 
 An estimated scale of proportion of total operating expenses 
 and net rents would be as follows, the cost of services where 
 rendered, as in office buildings, apartments and some tene- 
 ments, being included in expenses: 
 
 Expenses. Net rents. 
 
 Low retail or wholesale buildings 10-25% 90-75% 
 
 Residences 20-30% 80-70% 
 
 Non-elevator office buildings 25-35% '^^-^^'^ 
 
 Tenements, non-elevator and elevator 25-45% 75-55% 
 
 Elevator apartments ' -10-55% 60-45% 
 
 Fireproof office buildings 40-65% 60-45% 
 
RENTALS AND CAPITALIZATION RATES. 129 
 
 It is clear that the lower the cost of the building in proportion 
 to the value of the land, the nearer the income approaches to 
 pure ground rent, against which the sole charge is taxes. On 
 the other hand, the more expensive the building the higher the 
 maintenance cost, owing both to the greater number of services 
 rendered and to the higher standard of accommodation. Since 
 the operating expenses of a building, whether fully or only 
 partly occupied, vary but slightly, the larger the proportion of 
 expenses to gross rentals the more marked will be the rise or 
 fall of net rentals as gross rentals fluctuate. Ordinarily, expen- 
 sive office buildings are properly located, the chief errors being 
 In the erection of expensive buildings in small cities, or in poor 
 locations in larger cities. When hard times cause a sharp drop 
 in rents in the smaller cities, instances have been known of the 
 upper floors of such buildings not earning sufficient rent to pay 
 for the mere services rendered, so that it would pay for ownei^ 
 to close the buildings above the groun4 floor, even though the 
 ground floor stores are in active demand. The danger to owners 
 of heavy fixed charges is shown in the following table: 
 
 With 
 percent- 
 age of ex- If gross Then net If gross Then net If gross Then net 
 penses to rents rise rents rise rents rise rents rise rents rise rents rise 
 gross inc. : or fall or fall. or fall or fall. or fall or fall. 
 
 40% 
 
 10% 
 20% 
 30% 
 40% 
 50% 
 60% 
 
 20% 22% 
 
 20% 25% 
 
 20% 29% 
 
 20% 33% 
 
 20% 40% 
 
 20% 50% 
 
 40% 
 
 40% 
 40% 
 40% 
 
 or fall. 
 
 or fall 
 
 44% 1 
 
 60% 
 
 50% 
 
 56% 
 
 60% 
 
 60% 
 
 66% 
 
 80% 
 100% 
 
 60% 
 60% 
 60% 
 
 ^7o 
 75% 
 85% 
 100% 
 120% 
 150% 
 
 The next charge against gross rents is for interest on capital 
 invested in the building, this being figured at the same rate as 
 the capitalization of the ground rent, after an allowance for de- 
 preciation has been made. 
 
 The final residuum constitutes the economic or ground rent, 
 which represents the competitive premium paid for location. 
 Where there is no residuum of ground rent in city land it does 
 not follow that the land has no value, but usually that the im- 
 provements are not suitable, so that the value must be esti- 
 mated under a different utilization. If the improvement is a 
 suitable one, absence of ground rent may be due to temporary 
 drop in rentals or bad management, all city land normally yield- 
 ing some ground rent. 
 
 With an established economic rent, the sole i emaining factor 
 to transform this into intrinsic value is the rate of capitaliza- 
 
 10 
 
130 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 toion. As capitalization rates vary with securities, Government 
 bonds selling below a 2% basis, railroad bonds and stocks on a 
 31/^% to 5% basis, and industrials on a 7% to 10% basis, so the 
 rates of capitalization of urban rents vary from 4% lor the high- 
 est class property in the largest cities, to 5% and 6% for second- 
 class property in the same cities, or for first-class property in 
 smaller cities, 7%, 8% and 10% for tenements in the largest 
 cities, and 12% to 15% for temporary utilizations or disreputable 
 purposes in the smaller cities. The great power of capitalization 
 
 Substantiai buildings from which rentals and value iiave departed. 
 Land and building would sell for less than half the cost of the build- 
 ing. Front Street, Portland, Ore. 
 
 rates on values is due to the fact that for every change of 1% 
 in the rate of capitalization, values may change from twelve to 
 twenty-five times the difference in interest. For example, a 
 property with a net income of $10,000 would sell on an 8% basis 
 at $125,000, on a 6% basis at $166,000, and on a 4% basis at $250,- 
 000. The lower the capitalization rate the greater the effect of 
 any change of values: For example, a fall from 8% to 7% adds 
 but 14% to the value of the property, while a fall from 5% to 4% 
 adds 25% to the value of the property. Moreover, as large in- 
 terest rates apply to the largest properties all further fractional 
 
RENTALS AND CAPITALIZATION RATES. 
 
 131 
 
 Example of financial history of real estate. Land 89 feet by 99 
 feet on south corner of 16th and Laurence Streets, Denver, bought 
 on tax title many years ago for $500. Leased 1890 for $14,000 
 ground rent net per annum for 99 years, or 5% on $280,000 = $3,150 
 per front foot. Nine-story and basement slow-burning building 
 erected 1890, costing $325,000. Gross rents 189i, $35,200; net 
 rents about $17,500, less ground rent $14,000, leaves $3,500, or 1% 
 net on cost of building. Leasehold mortgaged for about $75,000; 
 rents dropped, building surrendered to mortgagee and then to 
 groundowner, who acquired thus a property now renting well and 
 worth— land and building— about $300,000 (not $600,000, as at one 
 time estimated), for an original outlay of $500. 
 
132 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 lowering of low interest rates results in an enormous mass of 
 values. The marked difference between capitalization rates of 
 high class and low class property in the same city indicates the 
 large number of people who desire to own high class property, 
 and the few who desire to own low class property. The reason 
 foi' such preference is that with high class property, rents are 
 more stable and easily collected, the property is more quickly 
 and certainly convertible, it can be mortgaged at a lower rate of 
 interest and for a larger percentage of value, the buildings de- 
 preciate much less rapidly and the prospects of increase in value 
 are better. 
 
 That land, even of the highest type and in the largest cities, is 
 a slow asset, is due to a number of causes, among them being 
 the fact that land is not easily passed from hand to hand as are 
 stocks and bonds, land involves personal or directly deputed 
 management, where stocks and bonds do not, there is no Ex- 
 change with daily quotations giving the values of land, as with 
 stocks and bonds; and finally the value of land is Influenced by 
 many complex changing factors, whose effects are differently 
 estimated by different people. Because -land is a slow asset, con- 
 vertibility, or certainty and speed in selling it, produces a high 
 premium for the best property by lowering its capitalization rate. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Scale of Average Values. 
 
 starting with no value in city site, average values of acreage 
 on outskirts, mechanics' residence lots, better grades of 
 residence lots and business lots. — Tables of average values 
 for best business and best residence land in cities of different 
 sizes and in certain selected cities. 
 
 Starting from the condition of no value in land when a city 
 originates, let us consider the scale of average values of resi- 
 dence and business land in cities of various sizes, land used for 
 other purposes being omitted as being more of an individual 
 problem. 
 
 At the outer circumference of cities land is held as acreage, the 
 prices per acre advancing from the normal value of farm land 
 near cities, $50 to $150 per acre, up to market garden land, which 
 may earn interest on $300 to $1,000 per acre, and, finally, to spec- 
 ulative tracts held at $500 to $5,000 per acre, whose prices are 
 based on the estimated earnings of the land when it secures the 
 anticipated utilization. Since the proportion of land occupied 
 by streets averages about 35% , the conversion of acreage into lots 
 means a loss in building area of that percentage, so that with 
 the expenses of platting, opening streets, taxes, loss of interest, 
 &c., it is generally estimated that property bought by the acre 
 must sell by the lot for double the acre price in order to avoid 
 loss in handling. 
 
 The cheapest lots in any city are those utilized for workmen's 
 houses, varying in smaller cities from $150 to $300. The larger 
 the city the larger the number of well paid mechanics and the 
 greater the effective demand for lots. A mechanic's lot on the 
 outskirts of a small city differs from one on the outskirts of New 
 York not only in price but in size, those in small towns having 
 50 to 60 feet frontage, and those in New York 15 to 20 feet front- 
 age with usually two-family houses on them. Thus an average 
 price of $150 for 50x100 foot lots in small cities would be 
 equivalent to $1,300 per net acre after platting, or $850 per 
 acre as acreage, and a price of $300 for 15x100 foot lots 
 in large cities would be equivalent to $7,700 per net acre after 
 platting, or $5,000 per acre as acreage. In the outskirts of the 
 smaller cities platted land runs as low as $2 to $4 per front foot, 
 and there are built up mechanics' sections with street car ac- 
 
134 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 ■WtSHlNSTOW Af 
 
 A_J"LJftl_. 
 
 mHSJcnA^i 25 ) ( 2S ] 1 25 1 1 25 
 
 Council Bluffs. Business section. Figures represent value of 
 corners, for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
SCALE OF AVERAGE VALUES. 
 
 135 
 
 Salt Lake City. Business section. Figures represent value of cor- 
 ners, for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
 ih=&=^ 
 
 RAIi.KO/(0 TWACK3 
 
 ©ULUTM.. 
 
 Duluth. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, for 
 lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
136 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Seattle, Wash. Business section. Figures represent value of 
 corners, for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
SCALE OF AVERAGE VALUES. 
 
 137 
 
 Atlanta, Ga. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
138 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Sorf*ioi> fCLAim 
 
 Toledo. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, for 
 lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
SCALE OF AVERAGE VALUES. 
 
 139 
 
 Columbus. Business section. Figures represent value of corners 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
SCALE OF AVERAGE VALUES. 
 
 141 
 
 commodation less tlian a mile from tlie centre of cities of 30,000 
 population, where land sells at but $5 per front foot, equival- 
 ent to 5 cents per square foot. 
 
 From this figure, land for detached residences grades upwards 
 more in proportion to the class of people utilizing it than the 
 
 WALNUT GffflNO 
 
 Kansas City. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
 Size of the city, to land worth $20 to $30 per front foot for the 
 residences of small shopkeepeers and clerks, and $40 to $75 for 
 the more fashionable residences in cities of 75,000 population and 
 under. Such residence property would have good street car 
 service, graded streets, sidewalks, sewer, gas, water, electric 
 
142 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 light, etc., the cost of which may vary from $5 to $15 per front 
 foot. 
 
 The best residence land in cities of 100,000 to 200,000 popula- 
 tion runs from $75 to $150 per front foot, in cities of 200,000 
 population to 400,000 population from $300 to $500 per front foot, 
 and in New York from $2,000 to $5,000 per front foot on the side 
 streets and $6,000 to $9,000 per front foot on Fifth avenue. 
 1 The poorest locations utilized for shops in the small cities are 
 ordinarily worth from $50 to $75 per front foot, from which point 
 values rise to an average of $600 to $800 per front foot for the 
 best business property in cities of 50,000 population, about $2,000 
 per front foot in cities of 200,000 population, $10,000 in cities of 
 2,000,000 population, and $15,000 to $18,000 in New York. Above 
 these levels, land in the financial district of New York averages 
 from $15,000 to $25,000 per front foot, this financial district hav- 
 ing no counterpart in any other American city and being due to 
 the supremacy of New York as a financial centre. The highest 
 values in London are similarly in the financial district, while in 
 Chicago and most of the smaller cities, shopping land, owing to 
 the large amount of retail business and small amount of bank- 
 ing, is worth about twice as much as financial land. The aver- 
 age figures given represent corner lots having not less than 
 2,500 square feet, $350 per square foot (equal to $35,000 per front 
 foot) having been paid thirty years ago for two small comers at 
 Wall and Broad Streets, and recently for a small corner at Broad- 
 way and 34th Street. An approximate scale of normal values 
 based on the consideration that each thousand of population 
 adds from $10 to $12 to the front foot value of the best business 
 locations and from $1 to $2 to the front foot value of the best 
 residence locations would be as follows, It being understood that 
 the application of any such scale Is limited in practice by differ- 
 ences in wealth, character of industries and inhabitants, topog- 
 raphy, transportation, platting, climate, etc. 
 
 
 TABLE I. 
 
 
 
 Best business, 
 
 Best residences. 
 
 City population. 
 
 per front ft. 
 
 per front ft. 
 
 26.000 
 
 $300 to $400 
 
 $25 to $40 
 
 50.000 
 
 fiOOto 1.000 
 
 40 to 75 
 
 100,000 
 
 1.200 to 2.000 
 
 75 to 150 
 
 1.50.000 
 
 1.500 to 2.500 
 
 100 to 200 
 
 200,000 
 
 1.800 to 3,000 
 
 100 to 300 
 
 300.000 
 
 2.500 to 4.500 
 
 200 to 500 
 
 600.000 
 
 4.000 to 7.000 
 
 500 to 1.000 
 
 1.000.000 
 
 7.000 to 10.000 
 
 700 to 1.500 
 
 2.000.000 
 
 fl.OOO to 1 6.000 
 
 1.000 to 2.000 
 
 3.500.000 
 
 18.000 to 35.000 
 
 4.000 to 9.000 1 
 
SCALE OF AVERAGE VALUES. 
 
 143 
 
 The proportion between land values due to different utilities 
 varies widely indifferent cities, evidencing the response of special 
 sections to special forces. Thus the best business and the best 
 residence land in the same city shows in New York, with $35,000 
 per front foot for business and $9,000 per front foot for residence 
 
 Minneapolis. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
 land, a proportion of about 4 to 1; In Buffalo with $4,500 for 
 business land and $500 for residence land a proportion of 9 to 1; 
 In Minneapolis with $2,500 for business and $100 for residence 
 land a proportion of 25 to 1; and in Seattle with $2,000 for busi- 
 
144 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 ness and $100 for residence, a proportion of 20 to 1. When we 
 turn to southern cities, Richmond with $1,600 for business and 
 $300 for residence shows a proportion of 5 to 1, and Atlanta 
 with $2,000 for the best business and $200 for the best residence, 
 a proportion of 10 to 1. 
 
 As explaining this difference between western and southern 
 cities, business is active and progressive in western cities, pro- 
 ducing high business values,while residences are scattered by the 
 trolley and are not held together by the old-establshed residence 
 sections, whereas in southern cities the scale of business opera- 
 tions is less, partly owing to the diminished purchasing power 
 of the negroes, resulting in low business values, while residence 
 values are raised by the greater importance attached to social 
 considerations and the greater age of the cities. The abnormally 
 high values of residence property in New York testifies to its 
 limited quantity and to the keen demand for it on the part of 
 the many millionaires who make New York their home. 
 
 Heavy wholesale property responds but feebly to increased 
 population, varying from $100 to $400 in value in cities of 300,- 
 000 people or under. Where values run above these figures the 
 property would include some retail feature. The proportion of 
 value between the best retail land and the best wholesale is, 
 therefore, one which increases with the size of the city, ranging 
 from 4 to 1 in the smaller cities, up to 10 to 1 in the largest. 
 Ae examples of the value of the best retail, best wholesale and 
 best residence land in various cities, the following list of front 
 foot values is submitted. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 Best Best Best 
 
 Population. retail. wholesale, residence. 
 
 New York 3.437,202 $18,000 $3,000 $9,000 
 
 Financial land 35,000 
 
 Chicago 1.698,575 15,000 2.000 2,000 
 
 Financial land 8,000 
 
 Philadelphia .. ..1.293,697 11,000 2,000 
 
 Washington 278.718 5.000 500 
 
 Louisville 204.731 1.700 400 150 
 
 Minneapolis 202.718 2,500 400 100 
 
 Indianapolis 169,104 2,500 400 150 
 
 Kansas City 163,752 2.500 450 150 
 
 St. Paul 163,065 1,800 400 150 
 
 Denver 133,859 1,800 250 100 
 
 Toledo 131.822 2,000 300 ' 150 
 
 Memphis 102,320 2.000 400 60 
 
 Portland, Ore 90.426 1.600 300 70 
 
 Atlanta 89.872 2,000 400 200 
 
 Richmond 85,050 1,800 150 200 
 
 Seattle 80.671 2.000 400 80 
 
 Des Moines 62.139 1,500 200 75 
 
 Salt Lake City 53,531 1,400 200 75 
 
 Duluth 52,969 1.000 300 65 
 
 Spokane 36.848 800 200 60 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Summary^ 
 
 Review of evolution of value in city land, economic rent 
 factors of attraction and repulsion. — Value by proximity and 
 by accessibility. — Reactions of utilities. — Scope of individual 
 inquiry.— Problem always complex, change a law of life.— 
 While conditions change, values will change.— The study of 
 principles should reduce errors in judgment to a minimum. 
 
 In reviewing the evolution of value in urban land, the first step 
 is to conceive of the naked site apart from the buildings, having 
 only the qualities of location and extension and without value 
 until there is come ^tition for land. Intrinsic value is the capital- 
 ization of the economic or ground rent, provided the buildings 
 are suitable to the location. Bxchan :e value consists of intrinsic 
 value modified by future prospects. Ground rent is the residuum 
 after deducting from gross rents all operating charges, taxes, 
 insurance, repairs, rent collecting, and interest on the capital 
 invested in the building. Ground rent is a premium paid solely 
 for location and all rents are based on utility. Utilities in cities 
 tend constantly toward specialization and complexity, business 
 being broadly divided into distribution, administration and pro- 
 duction, and then indefinitely subdivided; and residences being 
 divided into as many classes as there are social grades. 
 
 Insofar as land is suitable for a single purpose only, its value 
 is proportionate to the degree to which it serves that purpose 
 and the amount which such utility can afford to pay for it 
 When land is suitable for a number of purposes, one utility com- 
 petes against another and the land goes to the highest utiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 The total value of a city's site is broadly based on population 
 and wealth, the physical city being the reflex of the total social 
 activities of its inhabitants. Whatever the type of city, growth 
 consists of movement away from the point of origin and is of 
 two kinds: central, or in all directions, and axial, or along the 
 watercourses, railroads and turnpikes which form the framework 
 of cities. Modern rapid transit stimulates axial growth, produc- 
 ing star-shaped cities, whose modification in shape comes 
 chiefly from topographical faults. 
 
 The factors distributing values over the city's area by attrac- 
 ting or repulsing various utilities, are, in the case of residences, 
 
 11 
 
146 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LANB VALUES. 
 
 absence of nuisances, good approach, favorable transportation 
 facilities, moderate elevation and parks; in the case of retail 
 shops, passing streettraffic, with a tendency towards proximity to 
 their customers' residences; in the case of retail wholesalers and 
 light manufacturing, proximity to the retail stores which are 
 their customers; in the case of heavy wholesaling or manufac- 
 turing, proximity to transportation; and in the case of public 
 
 \ PJEW ORILEAKIS.iA.| 
 
 New Orleans. Business section. Figures represent value of corners, 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
 or semi-public buildings, for historical reasons, proximity to the 
 old business centre; the land that is finally left being filled in 
 with mingled cheap utilities, parasites of the stronger utilities, 
 which give a low earning power to land otherwise valueless. 
 
 Value by proximity responds to central growth, diminishing 
 in proportion to distance from various centres, while value from 
 accessibility responds to axial growth, diminishing in propor- 
 tion to absence of transportation facilities. Change occurs not 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 147 
 
 COG 
 
 nan 
 
 
 snnnnnnnnn[ 
 
 I L_l LJ LJ L.J I I [saTt lake city 
 
 nnnnBDL- 
 
 _ ^t'^^t 
 
 Salt Lake City. Residence section. Figures represent value of cor- 
 ners, for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
148 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 only at the circumference but throughout the whole area, of a 
 city, outward growth being due both to pressure from the centre 
 and to aggregation at the edges. All buildings within a city 
 react upon each other, superior and inferior utilities displacing 
 each other in turn. Whatever the size or shape of a city and 
 however great the complexity of its utilities, the order of de- 
 pendence of one upon another is based on simple principles, 
 
 Seattle. Residence section. Figures represent value of corners, 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars, per front foot. 
 
 all residences seeking attractive surroundings and all business 
 seeking its customers. 
 
 While the outward glacial movement of a city continues, the 
 daily currents of travel within alter its internal structure. The 
 fluidity of daily traffic shifts utilities, creates plastic conditions 
 in cities and keeps values in a state of unstable equilibrium. 
 
 To look at the problem from the individual standpoint, in at- 
 tempting to state the value of any single property, the inquiry 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 149 
 
 would seek first, upon what forces does the city itself depend, 
 how permanent are they, how diversified, are they strengthening 
 and what is the resulting index figure, to wit, the rate of increase 
 of the city's population; next, what are the characteristics of the 
 section of the city in which the property is located, its past his- 
 tory, its present stability, its future prospects; what is the cen- 
 tral strength of the property, how near the main centre of the 
 city or the various su^centers of attraction; what is its axial 
 
 ICHMOND VA. 
 
 K.e.Slp>g"NCe. 3E.CT10N 
 
 Riclnnond, Va. Residence section. Figures represent value of 
 corners, /for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front 
 foot. 
 
 Strength, the quantity, quality and regularity of the passing 
 travel, what is the character of building on the property as to 
 suitability, planning, physical condition, prospect of changing 
 utility, management, convertibility, gross and net income; at 
 what prices have surrounding property been selling, are they ris- 
 ing or falling, and do they suggest any factors not yet taken 
 into account; is the property liable to be injured or benefited 
 by changes in the building laws; is there any special enterprise 
 or strength on the part of the owner or of surrounding owners 
 likely to affect the property, what would be the probable effect 
 
Columbus, O. Residence section. Figures represent value of corners, for lot of average width 
 
 and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
Atlanta. Residence section. Figures represent value of corners, for 
 lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
Toledo. Residence section. Figures represent value of corners, for lot of average width and 
 
 depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
.^-,1, 
 
 a^ssi 
 
 Al 
 
 ■TunnonnGooQDDr 
 
 Y 
 
 r 
 
 DODQnOOOOi 
 
 
 fKansas City, Mo. Residence section. Figures represent value of corners, for lot of average 
 width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
3Hr 
 
 ™g^^l™ 
 
 Minneapolis. Residence sections. Figures represent value of corners, for lot of averkge width 
 
 depth, in dollars per front f«ot. 
 
NEW 0RLEAN5.LA 
 
 feet 
 
 New Orleans. 
 
 Residence section in American quarter. Figures represent value of corners 
 for lot of average width and depth, in dollars per front foot. 
 
156 PRINCIPLES OP CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 of any inventions or improvements in transportation or the con- 
 struction of buildings, and, finally, what are the general com- 
 mercial conditions as affecting the earning power of tenants, 
 actual or prospective, and financial conditions as affecting the 
 capitalization rate. 
 
 The problem is never a simple one, being as complex as city 
 life itself, but it is not insoluble, since the forces creating 
 cities are governed by uniform laws, like causes producing like 
 results, apparent exceptions being due to the influence of factors 
 \ not reckoned on. The popular impression that the ability to 
 j forecast future movements of city growth points a quick way to 
 I fortune is an over estimate, since real estate movements are 
 slow, large capital is required to handle it, carrying charges are 
 heavy, and even though the forecast may be ultimately correct, 
 the rate of movement is uncertain, depending on the operation 
 of vast economic forces impossible of exact prediction. 
 I If business expands and population increases in a city, the sum 
 total of land values is certain to increase. All the land, however, 
 will by no means increase in value, the great mass of medium 
 business and residence property advancing but slowly since it 
 supplies the wants of a large number of people of moderate 
 earning power who cannot pay beyond a certain price. Coin- 
 cident with the gradual lifting of values as population becomes 
 more dense, decaying sections, left behind in the onward march, 
 drop down the scale of inferior utilities and values, sometimes 
 to the point of extinction. Such worn-out property exhibits in 
 its dilapidations both absence of utility and public confession 
 of that fact. If population and business become stationary the 
 sum total of land values will decrease in proportion to the pre- 
 vious discounting of future growth, subsequent movements con- 
 sisting of redistribution of value, as one part of the city or an- 
 other, or one individual or another, flourishes or declines. 
 
 The principal causes of the redistribution of value in all cities 
 are, increase in population and wealth, especially in causing re- 
 location or extension of the best residence district, changes in 
 transportation, such as new surface, elevated, or underground 
 lines, new bridges, tunnels, ferries and railroads, and the read- 
 justments of new utilities in new areas harmonizing the complex 
 contending factors. 
 
 Present tendencies point towards greatly increased values at 
 strategic points, with relative and frequently absolute drops in 
 value in locations formerly competitive. The quiet side streets, 
 the back alleys and deserted nooks and corners where land has 
 almost no value, despite its proximity to valuable land, will doubt- 
 less continue at their present low planes, unless they are either 
 
Map Showing Value per Square Foot in Dollars of New York Real 
 
 Estate. 
 
158 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CITY LAND VALUES. 
 
 Map Showing Value per Square Foot in Dollars of New York Real Estate. 
 
SUMMARY. 159 
 
 reached by the spreading growth from some centre or are inter- 
 sected by some new traffic street. 
 
 The point of highest value, responding in scale and location 
 to the growth of the city, moves from the first business centre 
 towards the best residence district, the crest of the wave being 
 usually the middle of the retail shopping district, frequently 
 strengthened by exceptionally large and handsome buildings, 
 and occasionally checked by cross traffic streets. Apart from 
 any factors which may deflect the line of growth, the land lying 
 in its path is certain to increase in value, the time of such in- 
 crease, however, being difficult to gauge, while the land left be- 
 hind will usually sink in value, although in the largest cities, 
 while decreasing relatively in value and utility, it sometimes 
 increases slightly in absolute value. New York, the one financial 
 centre of the country, is an exception in that its financial land 
 is more valuable than its shopping land. 
 
 New inventions and new habits and' customs will probably 
 cause the most marked future changes other than those due to 
 growth or transportation. All cheapening of the cost of build- 
 ings, all improvements in construction, all inventions, tend con- 
 stantly to destroy the value of existing buildings. ^11 improve- 
 ments in transportation, such as the trolley, the elevated, the 
 underground, the bicycle, the automobile — and in future possibly 
 the flying machine — tend to destroy the value of these locations 
 which depend on existing transportation!] All changes in social 
 customs, such as longer summer absences from the city, shift 
 values, as in this instance from the city to the summer resorts. 
 The great interchange of travel throughout the year from one 
 city to another strengthens the radiating influence of the hotels, 
 while the movement from residences to flats and apartments, 
 concentrates population and augments the power of capital ta 
 attract. 
 
 Change is a law of life, and as long as human activity con- 
 tinues to alter the conditions of city life, and human tastes, 
 prejudices, fashions, habits and customs continue to vary, city 
 structure and values will shift and change, but the study of the 
 basic principles of city growth should reduce errors in fore- 
 casting to a minimum, permitting well equipped intelligence, 
 whether in buying, selling, renting, loaning on, or in any way 
 dealing with city real estate, to largely eliminate the power of 
 chance. 
 
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