1872 Holmes Map of Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City

This is an 1872 John Bute Holmes cadastral map of the modern-day neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The map depicts the neighborhood from the Hudson River to Broadway (labeled as Bloomingdale Road) and from 48th Street to 39th Street. Highly detailed, Holmes's map provides the viewer with a look at the neighborhood as it was in 1872 and also projects an image of how it developed. Streets are labeled, and individual lots are identified by their addresses. Some elements are ghosted in using dashed lines, including Twelfth Avenue and several wharves.

Hermitage Farm and Norton Estate

John George Leake (1752 - 1827), a wealthy New York lawyer, counted the Hermitage Farm among his many assets. Leake, who had no children or siblings, left the farm in his will to his niece Martha Norton, with reversion to her son John Leake Norton. The rest of his fortune, in sum over $300,000, was used to found a home for orphaned children operated by Trinity Church.

Holmes' 'Farm Maps'

In the early 19th century most of Manhattan was undeveloped farm lands, the property of wealthy landowners with claims dating to the Dutch period of New York's history. The northern 2/3rd Manhattan was dotted with farm lands and sprawling gentlemanly estates, many with great manor houses overlooking the Hudson River. The Commissioner's Plan of 1811 and the 1807 Commission Law, laid the street grid through many of these properties and gave the city the right to claim these lands under eminent domain, providing due compensation to the landowners. While this work occurred early in lower Manhattan, central and upper Manhattan were not formally acquired by the city until the mid-19th century.

Holmes became fascinated by the early history of Manhattan real estate ownership, recognizing the wealth to be accrued by accurately understanding the history of city land ownership, division, and inheritance. Moreover, Holmes allied himself with the corrupt Tweed administration, assuring himself and his allies even greater wealth and political power from the eminent domain seizure of old Manhattan estates. Holmes created a series of maps, reminiscent of John Randall's 'Farm Maps', overlaid with property data, showing the borders of old estates, and notating the breakup of the lands among various heirs. The complex work of compiling the maps earned Holmes a fortune, with one newspaper suggesting on his death in 1887 that some of his individual maps were worth more than 30,000 USD. There is no complete carto-bibliography of Holmes' maps, but we believe there to be at least 50 maps, possibly more.

Provenance

This map was acquired as a part of a large collection of New York cadastral maps associated with the layer Ronald K. Brown, a Deed Commissioner operating in the late 19th and early 20th century with an office at 76 Nassau Street, New York - not far from Holmes' own office. Most of the maps in the collection, including the present map, bear Brown's stamp on the verso. The maps were passed to Dominic Anthony Trotta, a real estate agent working under Brown. Brown seems to have ceased business around 1919, but Trotta continued as a real estate agent, becoming a New York Tax Commissioner in 1934 under the Fiorello H. La Guardia administration. The maps remained with Trotta's heirs until our acquisition of the collection.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by John Bute Holmes in 1872. Three examples are recorded in the OCLC as being part of the collection at Princeton University, the New York State Library, and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. The Museum of the City of New York also has an example in their collection as does, we believe, the New York Public Library, although their example is uncatalogued.