The annual report of the Roland Park Co., of Baltimore, makes a showing that, considering the extreme business depression of the last year and a half, is quite remarkable. The Roland Park Co. is engaged in developing a fine suburban residence park north of Baltimore, three or four miles from the centre of the city. The first building operations were begun in October, 1892. The first house was completed early in the spring of 1893. On the 30th of December, 1893, the date to which the annual report is brought down, the residences built and under construction represented a total cost of more than $300,000. In the space of a year a locality that was in effect nothing more than farm property has been transformed during a period of unprecedented financial and business stagnation into a beautiful and rapidly growing residence suburb, with all the comforts and conveniences and appurtenances of life in the thickly built up part of the city. Between thirty and forty families have moved out to the park for permanent residence, and are living in houses that cost from $4000 to $15,000 each. At the initiation of this enterprise there was not a man in Baltimore who would have looked for such development as this, even with favorable business conditions.

Baltimore is an anomaly in this matter of suburban residence. Up to two or three years ago the city had no rapid transit, and consequently no suburban development. Its half million people lived in compactly built rows of brick houses, having neither front nor side yards. The enterprise of the Roland Park Co. was the first suburban development undertaking of a high class and on a large scale. Messrs. Jarvis and Conklin, of Kansas City and New York, who have invested in this country something over $30,000,000 of English money, bought 500 or 600 acres of land immediately north of Baltimore, and proceeded to develop it as a first-class residence suburb. An avenue 120 feet wide was constructed through the property, and a double track electric road was built through the property to a resort at Lake Roland, and coming down to the centre of the city at the City Hall and postoffice. A system of water works, a complete scientific sewerage system, paved roadways, asphalt sidewalks, along which shade trees were set out, and electric lights and other conveniences and accessories to comfort were provided. Under the management of Mr. Edward H. Bouton, the vice-president and general manager of the company, the progress that has been made in the actual building up of the locality has been much beyond what was expected, and there are many reasons for the assurance that this will seem small in comparison with the progress that will be made during the coming spring and summer.

The present high rate of taxation in the city proper, and the recent large expenditures for public improvements that will necessitate an early increase in the tax rate are tending to send people into the suburbs. This and many other potent causes point to a rapid building up of Baltimore’s suburban territory.

Substantial Improvement at Atlanta.

Real estate is getting active at Atlanta. One firm alone, since January 1st, has sold $128,000 worth of property in the city and vicinity. Samuel Goode, a realty expert, gives the following opinion of the outlook in Atlanta:

“The practical certainty that the United States prison will be located in Atlanta, the direct probability that the Grand Army of the Republic will hold its next convention here, and the settled fact that the greatest exposition ever seen in the South will be opened here in 1895—these things combined have given our people hope and confidence in the continued rapid growth of Atlanta, and the timid have begun to find courage enough to turn their money loose for loans and direct investments in real estate. Indeed, the change for the better has been very perceptible to dealers in the last sixty days. It is not any particular advance in prices which is so marked, because, in this respect there has never been any falling off, but it is the fact that people are beginning to buy at the normal prices. The best prices realized for property at all have been obtained within the past six months.

“Another evidence of returning confidence and activity is found in the desire and willingness of owners to sell their property at auction. We already have a variety of property to be thus sold early this spring. There has been a spirit of fairness and liberality manifested by our citizens, one towards another, in the past year, which is truly commendable; and the result is that creditors basing their security upon real estate have not forced property for sale and broken prices and distressed if not ruined their debtors; but they have exercised a wise forbearance, and will soon be rewarded by full payment of all that is due them, and values have been sustained in Atlanta as in no other city within my knowledge. All signs point to an active spring market, and to the investing here of much outside capital.”

Suburban Development at New Orleans.

A syndicate of St. Louis people is constructing a suburban residence park at New Orleans. A body of land recently bought for that purpose measures about 700 feet frontage on St. Charles street by 8000 feet deep. The plans call for an ornamental entrance in the middle of the front, and a graveled driveway through the middle of the plat. As projected the entrance will be defended by handsome gates, the carriage opening being about 100 feet wide, and two gates for foot passengers on either side. Electric lights, prettily arranged, will stud the edge of the arch leading to the apex, where an ornamental structure of iron work will support additional bulbs. About 1500 feet of roadway have been built, leading from the gateway back into the grounds, while equal distances of Schillinger pavement have been laid on either side. A plat has been reserved in the middle for shade trees and shrubbery.

The Capital City Real Estate and Investment Company, with a capital stock of $30,000, has been organized at Austin, Texas. H. P. N. Gammel is president.

Daytona, Fla., is rejoicing in much real estate activity.

Two of the most noted stock farms in Kentucky, both near Lexington, have recently been sold. Mr. Jno. T. Hughes, the well-known horseman, has purchased the Prince George place for a reported sum of $60,000. J. R. Keene, the Eastern horseman, has bought the Castleton farm, the property of Colonel Ford, of Virginia. The price is given as $70,000.

The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has recently sold some farms to Northern people, and advertises in this issue of the Southern States a number of very fine properties that can be had at very low prices. The Southern Farm Agency, by the way, is one of the most enterprising and progressive real estate concerns in the South.

The president of the Commercial and Industrial Association of Montgomery, Ala., in his last monthly report, says: “The real-estate market of Montgomery shows some evidences of improvement. From returns compiled of this city for the month of January it is shown that the increase of sales is more than 20 per cent. over the corresponding month of last year. The values of desirable business and residence property and also of well situated and improved agricultural lands have remained steady and are firmly held. It is also believed the spring and summer will show still greater activity, with perhaps an increase in values. There are comparatively few vacant houses for a city of Montgomery’s size, but the prospects and building operations will show some falling off the coming year.”

A tract of 1575 acres near Velasco, Texas, has been sold to J. B. Wagoner and J. T. Gould, of Eureka, Ill., for $19,687.

The late S. S. Houghton, a millionaire, and head of the noted Boston dry-goods house of Houghton & Dutton, built a few years ago a magnificent winter residence at Homosassa on the gulf coast of Florida. Mr. Houghton died last spring, and his widow has sold the Homosassa estate to Mr. J. A. Rowell, vice-president of the Merchants’ National Bank, Ocala. The building and grounds are said to have cost $100,000.

The building occupied for nearly thirty years by the People’s Bank in Louisville, Ky., has been sold to the Bank of Commerce, and will in a few weeks be occupied by the last-named institution. The price paid was $27,000.

A delegation of Northern lumbermen, under the charge of E. C. Randall, a real estate operator of Chicago, recently spent some time inspecting timber lands in South Arkansas.

The Little Rock (Ark.) Gazette publishes lists of recent land transfers in that city and in the county, from which it appears that the real-estate business of that locality is not suffering much from the hard times.

The governor of Arkansas and the State Commissioner of mines, manufactures and agriculture have invited the real-estate dealers of the State to file with them descriptions of properties for sale in order that they may have definite information to furnish people who are seeking homes in Arkansas and write to them for information about prices and location of lands.

It is said at Fort Worth, Texas, that there has not been for years such demand and inquiry for property as there is now. The influx of immigration has been unprecedented, especially in North and West Texas, many of the newcomers having located in Tarrant county, in which Fort Worth is situated. Renting agents report that the demand for houses largely exceeds the supply.

The Texas land office has leased 375,000 acres of land to J. S. Daugherty, of Dallas, Texas, for a term of five years. This is said to be the largest amount of land ever leased to any one person by the State. The lease will bring a revenue to the public free school fund of $15,000 annually.

The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has just sold to Mr. A. E. Miltimore, of Catskill, N. Y., 2000 acres of land in Appomattox county, on the Norfolk & Western Railroad. Mr. Miltimore has already taken down several carloads of sheep and horses, and intends making it a fine stock farm, for which, in many respects, it is said to be most admirably adapted.

Mr. George H. Zerr, of Reading, Pa., has purchased a fine estate near Morrisville, Fauquier county, Va., and will reside there.

Pittsburg capitalists have bought thirty-two acres of land near Wheeling, W. Va.

Florence, S. C., is having considerable real estate activity.

Mr. W. P. Clyde, of the Clyde Steamship Co., has bought 2000 acres of land on Hilton Head Island, near Beaufort, S. C., at $3.00 an acre. Mr. Clyde was already the owner of a farm on the island.

The annual statement of the Roanoke Development Co. for 1893, recently issued, shows a satisfactory state of affairs. Shareholders have purchased nearly $282,000 worth of the company’s lots, paying for them partly in stock. In addition to this the company sold $14,258 worth of lots to outsiders. Thus far the sales have amounted to $340,428, which is an average price of $2535 per acre. The company still has 1153 acres unsold. The officers of the company are P. L. Terry, president; Malcolm W. Bryan, vice-president; S. W. Jamison, treasurer; L. R. Sollenberger, secretary.

George Logan, of Salem, Va., has just bought a farm of 318 acres adjacent to that town for $9000.

E. F. Porter, one of the leading lumbermen of Kansas City, has been down to inspect with a view to purchasing a tract of 25,000 acres of pine and oak timber land in South Arkansas owned by the land department of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway.

A large tract of land, known as Cliffbourne, at Rock Creek Park, near Washington, D. C., was sold recently to Francis G. Newlands for $185,000.

A farm of 265 acres near Staunton, Va., has been sold by J. B. Smith and H. G. Eichelberger, of Staunton, to a gentleman from Maine, who will move down with his family.

Mr. O. Van Buskirk, of Mt. Sterling, Ohio, has bought 330 acres of land near Florence, Ala., and will move there. Several families besides his own will accompany him.

Mr. R. S. Oglesby, of Lynchburg, Va., recently sold a farm in Bedford county to James W. Dawson, of the John Shillito Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

The real estate agents in the South who are known in the North and West are receiving constant inquiries about farm lands. The majority of inquiries seem to come from Dakota.

E. Mallen, of Ironwood, Mich., has purchased a farm near Cloverdale, Ala., and is interesting some of his fellow countrymen in Lauderdale county. Mr. Mallen is a Finlander, and has been farming a number of years in the Northwest. A number of his friends expect to buy farms and locate in the same county.

There has been lately a decided improvement in the demand for stores and business places in Richmond, Va. Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co. report a number of large leases.

The town of Springfield, Fla., is enjoying a building boom. About thirty dwellings are being erected, and a number of residences and stores are being planned. Real estate business is brisk.

A ranch, in Calhoun Co., Texas, two miles from Port Lavacca, containing 22,000 acres owned by Mr. W. H. Thomas, has been bought by a Northern syndicate for $132,000. It will be cut up into small tracts and colonized. The plans for its development also provide for the building of factories, hotel, &c.

The Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co. has sold to Otto Plock, of Paris, France, 7,554 acres of land situated in Ouachita Parish, La. The consideration was $26,440.68 cash. It is said to be the purpose of the purchaser to establish a large colony of Swedes on these lands, selling the lands to them in small lots on easy payments.

Real estate continues active at Fort Worth, Texas. There is a great demand for small houses. “If I had twenty-five such houses today I could rent them all before night,” said Mr. W. R. Sanner, a real estate agent. “I do not know a better investment,” he continued, “than to build such residences, with modern improvements, to cost from $1,000 to $2,500.” Messrs. Huffman & Co. have in hand a trade in adjacent counties, for Ohio parties, which represent the sum of $20,000. California parties are negotiating for pasture land held at $16,000.

Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co., Richmond, Va., received recently a letter from Callao, Peru, from a gentleman who wishes to purchase real estate at Richmond. The same firm reports that every mail brings them from two to five letters from parties in the West and Northwest, who write they have decided to settle in Virginia, and want information as to real estate, etc. In the past ten days they have been in negotiation with one or more parties in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Minnesota, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Colorado, St. Paul, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, and other points who wish to purchase farms, manufacturing or building sites. From one of the locations named they are trying to locate a colony of fifty families on a tract of 5000 acres.

A dispatch from Rocky Mount, N. C., states that parties from the North are negotiating to purchase 20,000 acres of land in Nash and Halifax counties for development and investment.

The Island City Abstract Co. has been organized at Galveston, Texas, with H. M. Truehart, president; I. A. Harrington, secretary, and Joseph Lobit, treasurer, and $20,000 capital.

“The Real Estate, Title and Guarantee Co.,” has been organized at Newport News, Va., with the following named officers: Carter M. Braxton, president; L. P. Stearns, vice-president; Charles Sheppard, secretary; Arthur Lee, treasurer. The capital is $100,000.

A New York capitalist has just invested $62,500 in real estate in New Orleans. The transaction was made through Messrs. Robinson & Underwood, real estate agents, New Orleans, who state that other purchases will follow this.

Messrs. G. M. Reynolds & Co., of Norfolk, Va., sold recently a number of lots adjacent to Portsmouth, improved and unimproved, for an aggregate of $13,000.