1866 Holmes Map of Gramercy, Rose Hill, and Kips Bay, Manhattan, New York City

This is a John Bute Holmes 1866 cadastral map of parts of the Gramercy, Rose Hill, and Kips Bay neighborhoods in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The map depicts the city from Fifth Avenue to the East River and from Thirty-First Street to Twentieth Street and Gramercy Park. New York's famous grid system acts as the basis for Holmes's map, with the familiar streets and avenues providing a basis upon which Holmes superimposed the neighborhood's now lost streets and residences. The modern city blocks created by the 1811 Commissioner's Plan are separated into neat lots, all of which are numbered. The older streets, however, and the property lines pay little heed to the organization imposed by the Commissioner's Plan. Allotments and leased plots of land branch out from Bloomingdale Road in the lower left quadrant, where Rose-Hill Street cuts through several of the Commissioner's blocks. Bellevue Hospital is situated on the banks of the East River, as it is today. Older streets, including Cornelius Street, Maria Street, and Eliza Street, are ghosted in over the grid.

Rose Hill Farm

Rose Hill Farm was originally acquired by the Honorable John Watts (1715 - 1789) from James DeLancey (November 27, 1703 - July 30, 1760) in November 1747. Containing over 130 acres, the farm occupied land that today stretches from 21st to 30th Street and from Fourth Avenue to the East River. Watts, a Loyalist, and his family left for Britain in 1775 and left the farm in the hand of his son John Watts Jr (1749 - 1836). The younger Watts eventually inherited the farm and his father's house on Broadway in 1789 after his father's death. The main house on the property burned in 1779 during the British occupation, but a deed records, 'houses, buildings, orchards, and gardens' on the property in the 1780s. Pieces of the farm began to be sold off in the 178s, and the rest of the property listed for sale in 1790. It was acquired by Revolutionary War General Horatio Gates who built a country estate with a mansion at the corner of today's Second Avenue and Twenty-Second Street. When Gates died in 1806, the mansion was turned into a boarding house. What was left of the estate had been divided into lots by the time of the 1811 Commissioner's Plan.

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 of them, possibly more.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by John Bute Holmes in 1866. Three examples are recorded in the OCLC as being part of the institutional collections at Princeton University, the New York State Library, and Harvard. Although uncatalogued, we believe that the New York Public Library also has an example.