1868 Holmes Map of Soho West (Mercer, Thomson, Spring, Macdougal, Prince)

This is an 1866 John Bute Holmes cadastral maps of the western part of Soho, one of New York City's most interesting and vibrant neighborhoods. These lands were once part of the West Bayard Farm.

A Closer Look

The map covers from Howard Street to Amity Lane and from Broadway to 8th Street, including some of Manhattan's most iconic streets: Bleeker, MacDougal, Sullivan, Thompson, Green, Mercer, Spring Street, Prince Street, Broome Street, and Grand Street, among others. It employs color coding, overprinting, and an alpha-numeric system to identify both old property lines dating to the earliest days of Manhattan's development and the street grid compliant with the 1811 Commissioner's Plan.

Bayard Farm

The map shows the 100-acre farm of Nicholas and Stephen Bayard, which was in their family in the 17th century. As noted on the map, in 1789, the land passed to trustees Daniel Ludlow and Brockholst Livingston. They then conveyed the land to several others, including Aaron Burr. The present map covers the west section of the farm; Holmes made an accompanying map of the east section, which we have also handled.

Holmes' 'Farm Maps'

In the early 19th century, most of Manhattan was undeveloped farmland, the property of wealthy landowners with claims dating to the Dutch period. The northern 2/3rd of Manhattan was dotted with farms and gentlemanly estates, many with grand 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 collection of New York cadastral maps associated with the lawyer 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 Fiorello H. La Guardia. The maps remained with Trotta's heirs until our acquisition of the collection.

Publication History and Census

Holmes based this map on the survey work of Casimir T. Goerk, the famed city surveyor behind the Commissioners Plan. It was engraved by Thomas Bonar, Nassau Street. The map exists in only one edition, as here, published in 1868. It is of considerable rarity. The OCLC identifies only 2 examples: at Princeton and the New York State Library. Although uncatalogued, we believe the New York Public Library may have an example. There is at least one other example in private hands.