Some of the Properties Owned by the New York Real Estate Security Co.
- Title:
- Some of the Properties Owned by the New York Real Estate Security Co.
- Alternate Title:
- Some of the Properties Owned by the New York Real Estate Security Co.
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- The New York Real Estate Security Company
- Other Creators:
- C. S. Hammond & Co., underlying map
- Date:
- 1812
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2438.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2438_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1900 - 1919
- Subject:
- Advertising & Promotion
Money & Finance
New York City
Pictorial - Measurement:
- 83 x 40 on sheet 110 x 67 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This very large map, "Some of the Properties Owned by the New York Real Estate Security Company," was issued to promote the sale of the company's bonds to investors. Beginning with an existing map, Hammond's New Guide Map of Manhattan and the Bronx, 1912, the company added at the left and right margins photo reproductions of 12 properties it owned. At the bottom it advertised as "A Safe Investment," its "6% Gold Mortgage Bonds," offered in denominations as small as $100 and "secured by a general trust mortgage . . . covering all the assets of the company and its future investments in mortgages & properties." Printed in bright red at the center of the map is the statement "The Security for the 6% Mortgage Bonds Issued by the New York Real Estate Security Company - Improved, Income-producing Real Estate on Manhattan Island - Is Time-tried and Panic-tested."
New York Real Estate Security Company was organized in 1908 with a well-credentialed list of officers and directors from the financial and real estate world. New York Times, January 4, 1911, p.17; ibid., November 30, 1913, p.132. In January 1911, the company bought an important downtown building at 42 Broadway for $7.5 million and made it clear that "the concern intends to take a prominent part in the real estate world of the city." Ibid., January 4, 1911, p.17; January 1, 1911, p.63.
The company thereafter began to sell its mortgage bonds with aggressive promotion: "There is no better security. The principal is thoroughly safe and interest is assured at the rate of 6% per annum." New York Sun, October 6, 1911, p.12. "The 6% Mortgage Bonds of The New York Real Estate Security Company . . . are as safe as human experience and prudence can make them." Pearson's Magazine, May 1912, p. 532. "The New York Real Estate Security Company is better equipped perhaps than any other investment company in the city to invest the savings or surplus capital of others, and to give assurance to investors of absolute safety of principal and interest." American Medicine, April 1912, p. Advertising 22. Alas, not so "safe."
As the company's 6% mortgage bonds were being offered, the press reported a number of its acquisitions of rental properties, many on the upper west side of Manhattan and in Harlem. In April 1912, the Times reported the "eleventh big parcel purchased by the company in the six months." New York Times, April 20, 1912, p.18. More purchases followed. Ibid., October 21, 1912, p.14; November 5, 1912, p.21; January 22, 1913, p.18.
But late in 1913, following "rumors for some time that the company . . . was in financial trouble," it was forced into bankruptcy. New York Times, November 29, 1913, p.3. The company called the bankruptcy "a friendly suit to prevent wholesale foreclosures" and "a temporary embarrassment," but admitted "great difficulty . . . in getting mortgages renewed" and the inability to pay interest due on its 6% bonds. It also made clear that "no ready market could be found" for its holdings "in the present dull state of the market." Ibid. The President of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company opined: "The company in question borrowed most of the money on which it operated by the sale of so-called real estate bonds at a high rate of interest. It takes a very skillful operator in these days to manage property in a way that will earn 6 per cent. If there are heavy expenses and commissions paid to agents on the sale of securities it is not to be wondered that New York Real Estate could not stand the strain." Ibid.
In the end, it appears that all or most of the company's properties were sold to creditors at auction. Financial World, March 13, 1915, p.20. As one measure of the extent of losses, the seven-story apartment house Halcyon Hall on West 150th Street, purchased by the company in 1912 for $180,000 (New York Times, April 30, 1912, p.18), brought only $105,000 at auction two years later (ibid., August 12, 1914, p.13).
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.