1879 Viele First Map of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City

This is the first separately published map of the Upper West Side of Manhattan (New York City) and arguably the first printed map of the Upper West Side. Published in 1879 by Herman Knickerbocker Vielé, son of the prominent New York mapmaker and politician Egbert Ludovicus Vielé, this map was issued to promote real estate investment in the high ground of the Upper West Side. The map covers Manhattan from roughly Columbus Circle (58th Street) to 130th Street, between the Hudson River and Central Park. It includes all of Riverside Park, the Western side of Central Park, Morningside Park, the future site of Columbia University (Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum), and Manhattan Square (American Museum of Natural History). Along 9th Avenue (Columbus Ave), the map illustrates the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway Company, service along which opened in June of 1879 as far as 104th Street, and by December of the same year, to 155th Street.

An Exploding American Metropolis

When this map was issued, New York was a fast-growing city, but the Upper West Side, the streets for which were planned as early as 1811, was largely uninhabited. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, Central Park was under construction and the city was involved with the complex project of acquiring the lands north of 14th street from the various estates and heirs, many dating to the Dutch period, who claimed ownership. The Commissioners Law granted the city right to the land under eminent domain, but owners and heirs were often recalcitrant and unwilling to accept the compensation the city was required to provide for land seizures.

As Remote as the Dakota Territory

The Upper West Side or West End Plateau, as the title of this map suggests, was initially a hilly high ground called by some the 'spine of Manhattan.' Initially the rocky terrain focused urban development on the more level East Side of the city, where Park Avenue, planned by Vaux and Olmsted, became a nexus of elite social life. While the Upper East side of Manhattan was being developed, the city leveraged massive resources to uniformly grade the hills Upper West Side. This work was largely completed by the late 1870s, and real estate development began in earnest in the 1880s. The first major luxury apartment building on the Upper West Side, the Dakota, began being constructed in 1880s and opened its doors in 1884. It was called the Dakota because it was considered as distant from New York society as the 'Dakota Territory.' Photos from this period show the Dakota as a lone monolith lording over Central Park.

Upper West Side Real Estate Development

Nonetheless, city planners correctly anticipated explosive growth in upper Manhattan and the Vielé family was uniquely positioned to profit on the development. Herman Vielé father, Egbert, is best known today as the author of the Vielé Map, a massive map of Manhattan illustrating the over and underground waterways throughout the city. Egbert Vielé, initially a sanitary commissioner, was responsible for the construction of Central Park and, by the 1870s, had become a prominent and wealthy politician with far reaching interests that included not only Manhattan real estate, but mining companies in Colorado and more.

The Vielé family, seemingly through Herman, was heavily invested in the Upper West Side and correctly surmised that leveled high ground would soon become one of Manhattan's most desirable residential areas. From the beginning Vielé promoted with Upper West Side as a haven for the merchant aristocracy. In the 25-page promotional pamphlet accompanying this map, the elder Vielé, Egbert, describes the 'West End Plateau,'

The conclusion is inevitable, therefore, that the section of the city that has been held in reserve until the time when the progress of wealth and refinement shall have attained that period of its development when our citizens can appreciate and are ready to take advantage of the situation, is the section that is to be the most favored and the most sought after. At an expense unparalleled except in the lavish period if imperial opulence the great west end plateau … has been laid out and ornamented with a series of magnificent avenues not excelled by any other in the world. Moreover, this entire region combines in its general aspect all that is magnificent in the leading capitals of Europe. In our Central Park we have the fine Prater of Vienna, in our grand boulevard the rival of the finest avenues in the gay capital of France, in our Riverside Avenue, the equivalent of the Chiaja of Napes and the Corso of Rome, while the beautiful 'Unter den Linen' of Berlin, and the finest portions of the West End of London are reproduced gain and again…

Vielé further anticipated that the West End Plateau (Upper West Side) would become home to 'a higher order of domestic architecture that it has been the good fortune of New York heretofore to possess.'

Publication History and Census

This map was printed by Johnson and Pratt of New York for Herman K. Vielé. There appears to be only one edition and all examples are scarce. The map is accompanied by a 25-page booklet penned by Egbert L. Vielé describing the virtues of the West End Plateau in exceptionally bounteous terms.

The OCLC identifies institutional holdings at the New York Public Library, the New York Historical Society, Columbia University, Stanford University (Rumsey), and at the New York State Library. All of these holdings, with the exception of Stanford, can be traded to the map's original publication. We are aware of only 6 examples that have changed hands privately between 1910 and present.