1836 John Stoddard/ Miller and Co. Real Estate Map of Central Williamsburg, New York

The Heart of Williamsburg, Up For Auction!

An extremely rare example of this real estate broadsheet map, printed by Miller and Co. on behalf of real estate auctioneers Franklin and Jenkins, to promote a July 1836 auction of lots near the future intersection of Union Street and Grand Street: this map presents one of the densest clusters of fashionable food, wine and nightlife in Williamsburg, capturing it at the moment in which the rural lands of Williamsburgh were just beginning to be transformed into a planned village. (Note that the name of the village and town of Williamsburgh was spelled this way. When it became a city in 1852, they dispensed with the h). The map is among the earliest appearances of the streets as laid out by John S. Stoddard, which would form the framework of Williamsburg and Brooklyn even today. Although Stoddard's surveys would not be confirmed by the New York State Legislature until 1839, they were the surveys of record for the 1835 Acts expanding Williamsburgh's borders (inclusive of the area on this map). Moreover, the real estate market made immediate use of them in maps such as this. It is also the earliest known map to detail the lands, formerly belonging to Bushwick, that had been annexed by Williamsburgh in 1835.

A Closer Look

The map, oriented roughly to the southeast, is centered on an array of lots bisected by Grand Street, and mainly bounded by Tenth Street and Eleventh Streets (renamed Keap and Hooper, respectively, in 1885). The land available for sale extended from nearly South 3rd Street to just beyond Ainslie Street. The overall parcel of land, formerly belonging Abraham Remsen, had until 1835 been part of the town of Bushwick. That year, in order to accommodate Williamsburgh's rapid growth, the village limits were extended, annexing part of Bushwick; the present map thus falls within this newly added area. As recently as 1833, maps of the Village of Williamsburgh had extended only to the western limits of Remsen's estates, which corresponded closely to the Bushwick - Newtown boundary road (the 'Old Road' marked at the bottom of this map). This map thus forms a seamless continuation of the existing framework for the mapping of Williamsburgh.

Brooklyn Farm Lines

Like Manhattan during this same period, Brooklyn was undergoing a rapid transformation, where historic farms, some dating to the Dutch period, were being broken up into streets and lotted properties according to the Brooklyn Commissioners' Plan - equivalent to the more famous 1811 Manhattan Commissioners' Plan. While focusing primarily on the newly-imposed street grid and the lots for sale on it, the property's farming origin can be seen in the two houses and the barn drawn along the 'Old Road' at the bottom of the map.

A Speculator's Playground

From the very moment these lands were associated with Williamsburgh, they were caught up in the machinations of land speculators. According to J. M. Stearns in his 1884 A History of the Town of Bushwick:

A company purchased several farms and combined them in a map of 939 lots of land in W., the title being vested for convenience of sale and the execution of deeds in one William P. Powers, a handsome, amiable and honest young man, who was law-clerk in the office of John L. Graham, in New York. Powers also held title to one hundred and ninety-seven lots located between 9th street and Lorimer street, and South 3d street and North 2d street, and lying on both sides of Union avenue; (emphasis ours).

The course of 1836 was characterized by the sale and resale of these lots - Stearns again describes it:

At public and private sale large numbers of lots were disposed of, moneys were paid for margins and mortgages were taken back for part of the purchase money to twice the intrinsic value of the property. All went merrily, the land-jobbers were reputed to have become wealthy, and their customers saw fortunes in their investments. And the pasture-lands and fields which then made up nine-tenths of the territory of Williamsburgh were clothed in the hopeful imaginings of the holders of lots with all the incidents of a busy, bustling town... lithographed property-maps set forth in glowing colors the unrivalled opportunities and advantages for profitable investments, which were eagerly caught up by the uninitiated, until by this time (1836) real estate in Williamsburgh actually exceeded its present value.

This Is What You Get

One of the companies fronted by Powers (that of the 939 lots) had built model houses in the Federal, Greek-Revival style along Grand Street. One of these is pictured here: a stately colonnaded manor set about with trees, a dapper gentleman admiring it from the lawn: 'Plan of the 14 Houses in Grand St., now nearly compleated, and in the neighborhood of this Property.' (Stearns believed these to have been constructed between Union and Bushwick Avenues, just east of the area mapped here). Sadly, the Panic of 1837 dashed investors' hopes, and these lots appear to have remained largely undeveloped as late as 1852.

Now, of course, the area is entirely built up: the bucolic ideal espoused in the architectural view can be seen nowhere along this stretch of Grand Street. Street names changed over the course of the 19th century: Tenth Street became part of Keap Street, and Eleventh became Hooper. The most dramatic change to the neighborhood would take place in 1900 with the construction of the Grand Street Extension, stabbing westward from the crux of Grand and Eleventh, diagonally through the blocks of the lower - right corner of this map. The extension would be renamed Borinquen Plaza in 1970.

Publication History and Census

This map was engraved and printed by Miller and Co. Lithography, who shared premises with auctioneers Franklin and Jenkins and produced a number of broadsheet maps promoting their auctions. While there is no census of how many of these were produced, such separately-issued broadsheets survive extremely poorly. We see no other examples of this one either in OCLC, or in sales records. Extremely rare, possibly a sole surviving example.

Cartographers

John S. Stoddard (October 8, 1809 - June 3, 1862) was an American surveyor and civil engineer; during his tenure as surveyor, he was instrumental in laying out the city grid of Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Little is known of his youth. He entered West Point in 1825, graduated in 1830, and joined the Navy as a Midshipman. He didn't stay: resigning in 1832, he became a civil engineer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. By 1844, he had been promoted to City Surveyor. In 1860, he was made superintendent of the newly formed Nassau Water Works, tasked with providing the City of Brooklyn with a reliable water source during a period of explosive growth. He died of tuberculosis in 1862.   Further Details...

Miller and Company Lithographers (fl. 1830 - 1860) were an American commercial lithographer active in New York City in the mid 19th century. Their work focused mainly on the production short-run real estate maps, particularly in the 1830s, during which time they shared a 15 Broad Street, NY address with prominent real estate auctioneers Franklin and Jenkins. By 1845, 'Miller's Lithography' had its own address at 140 Pearl Street, and were producing maps to accompany governmental reports as well.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Lithograph; soiling at margins and folds; few mended holes with minimal loss. Neat pencil notation typical of this kind.