Maps
I used a number of atlases while writing The Gilded Hour. Columbia University has excellent list of extant maps with information on availability and access.
For the years 1879-1890 these maps were of interest to me:
1876
Cornell. Property atlas of the City of Yonkers, N.Y.: including a portion of the twenty fourth ward of New York City.
Avery Classics AA735 Y8 C815
1879
Bromley. Atlas of the entire city of New York.
Avery Classics AA9127 N4 B78 1879 F
Dripps. Map of Kings County, New York: based on the recent official survey showing new arrangement of boulevards, streets, railroads, etc.
Avery Classics AA735 N4B7 D83
1880
Bromley. Atlas of the entire city of Brooklyn, complete in one volume
NYPL Digital Gallery
Hopkins. Detailed estate and old farm line atlas of the city of Brooklyn (6v.)
Contents: v.1 Wards 23, 24 & 25–v.2 Ward 18–v.4 Wards 8 &22–v.5 Wards 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,11 & 12–v.6 Wards 13,14,15,16, 17 & 19
NYPL Digital Gallery
1881
Speilmann & Brush. Certified copies of original maps of property in New York City.
Avery Classics AA735 N4 Sp4 FF
1883-1888
Robinson & Pidgeon. Atlas of the city of New York (6v.) (2nd.ed.)
Contents: v.5 23rd Ward (1887)
NYPL Digital Gallery
1885
Robinson. Robinson’s atlas of the City of New York.
Atlas Shelving (Avery Rm 222) AA9127 N4 R561 FF
Robinson & Pidgeon. Atlas of the city of New York
NYPL Digital Gallery
1886
Robinson. Robinson’s atlas of the City of Brooklyn, New York
Atlas Shelving (Avery Rm 222): Avery AA9127 N4 R56 FF
Robinson. Robinson’s atlas of the City of Brooklyn, New York
NYPL Digital Gallery
1888-1897
Robinson. Certified copies of important maps appearing to the 23rd and 24th wards, city of New York
NYPL Digital Gallery
1890
Robinson. Robinson’s atlas of King’s County, New York [Brooklyn] NYPL Digital Gallery
The two maps that were most useful and most easily accessible for me:
2. Robinson’s Atlas of the city of New York (1885) is also available online, for no cost, at the New York Public Library.
The library has a guide on early real estate atlases of the city which can be found here.
Map Usefulness
The maps you’ll find in this wiki are from a variety of sources mentioned above as well as historical studies. Insurance and real estate maps are often not pretty to look at, but they are full of information if you take the time to look closely.
Neighborhoods
In organizing my research I have divided the city into neighborhoods based on precincts and distribution of populations as I interpret them on the basis of my reading. Neighborhoods overlap in several places.
| Neighborhood | Parameters |
| South Street/Fulton Market | Extending south along the East River docks below the Brooklyn Bridge to Battery Park |
| Old West Side | From Battery Park north along the Hudson River docks to about Canal |
| Five Points/Chatham Square | From City Hall Park east to the river, extending north of the Brooklyn Bridge |
| Lower East Side | Radiating out from Hester Street, in the 1880s this became the heart of the Jewish community. |
| Kleindeutschland (Little Germany) | East of the Bowery from about Canal to 18th Street |
| East Village | 15th Street to Fifth Avenue to Clinton Place (Eighth Street) to Broadway to Houston Street to the East River (excepting Washington Square and the French Quarter) |
| Washington Square | Plus one block on all sides of the park; to the south-east of the park west of the Bowery and north of Clinton, what remained of the French Quarter |
| West Village | 14th Street to Fifth Avenue to Clinton Place to Broadway to Houston Street to the Hudson River (excepting Washington Square and the French Quarter) |
| Tenderloin | 25th to 45th Street west of Broadway |
| Lexington | 16th to 60th Street, east of Fifth Avenue; a number of distinct neighborhoods are covered here, including Stuyvesant Square and Gramercy Park, and if stretched a bit, the Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth. |
| Upper East Side | 60th to 110th Street, east of Central Park |
| Upper West Side | 60th to 110th Street, west of Central Park |
| Brooklyn | |
| Staten Island | |
| New Jersey |
Accuracy
Landmarks have been left where they were in 1883. I haven’t moved anything large in the service of the story; stores and businesses that are not fictional are right where I found them. However, there is sometimes ambiguity in sources, and other time I simply get something wrong. Please let me know if you come across an error in geography.
