A GUIDE TO RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF A NEW YORK CITY BUILDING
© Copyright 1995-2003 by Christopher Gray
(ADAPTED FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 2, 1995)
It's like the weather: Everybody talks about the history of their buildings,
but nobody does anything about it. And why should they? While historic
preservation has become a billion-dollar industry, actual historical research
on buildings is a near-orphan, and there is no manual, guidebook or even a
list of the commonest sources for local-history research in New York City.
The blind alleys and travel time between archives can discourage even the
most dedicated researchers; novices often give up, not knowing how close they
may be to their goal. And so New York's history usually remains a remote,
inaccessible idea. No wonder walking-tour guides get by with outlandish tales.
Marie DelValle of Manhattan has a common query: "How can I obtain more
information on the history of my building at 233 West 72d Street?" Even an
amateur can look at her building and accurately guess it is a rowhouse built
about 100 years ago for a private family, and since altered. If your house is
in a district designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission
(212-669-7700;
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/lpc/home.html), their designation
reports almost always contain original construction data plus, sometimes,
information on the original occupancy and later changes. (A full historic
district report can cost up to $100, but the Commission will usually Xerox
the page of your house for you.)
But although Mrs. DelValle's building, between Broadway and West End Avenue,
is not in an historic district she is fortunate in two ways. First, her
building was occupied by the propertied class, which does helpful things such
as putting up other buildings and having their obituaries appear in the
newspapers. Second, it's in Manhattan, where the records are much richer,
although more complicated, than in the other boroughs. To encourage
interested amateurs, including Mrs. DelValle, here is a speed dig for the
history of her house: Wear sneakers and depart at 8:20 A.M.
First stop (9 A.M.): The public-access terminals of the computer
building-application index at the Manhattan office of the Department of
Buildings, at 280 Broadway, at Chambers Street (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/home.html). Record-keeping started there in June
1866; it began as late as 1898 in the other boroughs. LOOK confused and one
of the regulars will either tell you to hurry up or walk you through the
keyboard protocols to find your address. The index lists two New Building
applications, NB 92 of 1888 and NB 1716 of 1895. Record any "Alt" -- for
Alteration -- numbers you see, and also the block and lot numbers. (Finish at
9:15 A.M.). For offsite access to the link, click here.
The hard copy folders holding the actual permits are in a long-term
microfilming project; instead, walk six blocks southeast to the Municipal
Archives at 31 Chambers Street, Room 103 (NYC 10007; 212-788-8580;
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doris/). There the director, Kenneth Cobb, has
had the Department of Buildings' docket books -- yearly summaries --
microfilmed. In other boroughs the Department of Buildings still controls the
docket books.
You will discover that the 1888 application is an indexing error, but that
the 1895 application covers the construction of five rowhouses completed in
1896, at 233-241 West 72d Street. These were designed by Henry F. Cook for
Charles Buek. (Finish at 10 A.M.) Sometimes, the entries are in "metes and
bounds" descriptions -- the application might describe a row on the south
side of the street beginning 200 feet west of an avenue, and your own house
(within that row) might be 240 feet west of the avenue. In such cases, you
are wise to have consulted a landmap, preferably of an early date, which
gives the original configuration of the lot.
On the 1912 Belcher-Hyde landmap of Manhattan, 233 West 72nd Street is shown
as Lot 19 on Block 1164, 180 feet west of Broadway. Landmaps are also useful
for intensive building research, especially where a building permit is not
apparent. There is no single source, but the Map Division of the New York
Public Library and the Library of the New-York Historical Society have good
collections. The collection at the Municipal Archives is not as good, but
adequate for initial research.
Deeds, in the Office of the City Register, used to be located at 31 Chambers
Street, but have since moved to 66 John Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY
10038, 212- 361-7550. (Other boroughs:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/email.html#register.) Don't bother to look
up the actual deeds; just scan the bound indices, by block and lot number,
for a brief title search. This indicates that Buek sold the house at 233 to
Theresa Rawitzer in 1898, and that the next sale was not for more than ten
years. At this point it is still not certain if Theresa Rawitzer occupied the
house; she might have held it for investment. (Finish at 10:20 A.M.)
You know the date of the house -- now check the census. Federal census
records for all boroughs are at the New York Public Library at 42d Street and
Fifth Avenue (http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/lhg/genea.html). Go to the
Local History Room (Room 121, New York, NY 10018-2788, 212- 930-0828) and ask
a librarian to orient you on how to use their records, which are on
microfilm. The 1900 census lists no one at that address. But the 1905 New
York State census, also on microfilm, hits the jackpot: 13 occupants,
including Herman Rawitzer, 45, born in Germany; his wife, "T. Rawitzer," 30,
American-born; two children, and Herman's brother and sister-in-law, Simon
and Harriet Rawitzer. Also listed are seven servants, all foreign-born, from
cook to governess. (Finish at 12:15 P.M.)
Then there are city directories and newspaper indices, for which the research
landscape is rapidly changing. You could use them at the New York Public
Library, but the lines are often long. It's worth the trip to the New-York
Historical Society's excellent library (170 Central Park West, at 77th
Street, New York, NY 10024, 212- 873-3400, Reading Room: ext. 225, ext. 226,
Manuscript Department: ext. 265, fax: (212) 875-1591;
http://www.nyhistory.org/libinfo.html). Scan the Manhattan city directories
-- actual books, not microfilm -- and notice that Herman Rawitzer, "rags,"
first appears at 233 West 72d Street in 1899. Other directories describe him
as a wool merchant and mention that in 1898 he, or someone in his family,
built the Rawitzer Building, which still stands at 285 West Broadway, at
Canal Street. Other boroughs have scattered sources for early city
directories. When you run into trouble, directories can be particularly
useful. The NYHS has a pretty full set, running from 1786 to the 1920's, when
telephone books come in.
"Address directories" - listings of householders arranged by street address -
are less reliable, but also useful. The 19th century has a single one in
1812, another in 1851, and a run of Phillip's Elite Directories beginning in
1874, and continuing on with Dau's New York Blue Book until 1937 - these list
only upper middle class householders. More democratic are the address
directories for telephone subscribers, beginning in 1928 - the early ones
list even unlisted subscribers! This group is on film at NYPL.
Digitized directories are beginning to show up - and vanish. For subscribers,
Ancestry.com offers digitized versions of the 1786, 1869 and 1890 directories
for New York - you can word-search for "stable", or "44 Lexington" or
"Rawitzer" (they also have some vital records, plus census returns for 1830
and before). The company PSIMedia had various directories from 1840-1920,
although more crudely developed than Ancestry.com
-- but they deleted this valuable resource in December 2001, reverting to
sales of the same material on microfilm - sic transit digitalia!
For standard biographical information, you can just search the web, or check
Ancestry.com. For local obituaries - the only time most people make the daily
papers - the traditional approach has been to skip the rather limited New
York Times Obituary Index and pick up Byron and Valerie Falk's comprehensive
New York Times Personal Name Index. That leads you to the 1897 marriage of
Herman Rawitzer to Theresa Rosenthal at Delmonico's and, in 1924, the notice
of his death at Aix-les-Bains. The "P.N.I." also cites a 1922 article about a
$40,000 theft at the Rawitzers' house by a band of burglars who lived in the
building while the family was traveling in France. You are lucky to have such
a juicy tidbit, but unfortunately other newspapers of the same date did not
provide additional coverage (or pictures) of the story. But now we are on the
crest of a tsunami of digitized newspapers -- the Brooklyn Public Library is
digitizing the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the firm ProQuest has brought out a
digitized version of The New York Times back to its first issue. There are
many unironed wrinkles in this new resource, but it demonstrably captures all
sorts of trivia, including classified ads, shipping news and even weather
reports. Most libraries have a subscription to this astonishing resource.
THAT should take you to 1:30 P.M. In half a day you have learned more about
your building than most people -- even architectural historians -- know about
theirs. But any answer usually leads to another question. For instance, when
Mr. Rawitzer died the family was living at 270 Park Avenue, one of the big
new apartment houses that siphoned off private-house tenants, especially from
newly commercial streets like 72d. So how long did 233 West 72d Street remain
a private house? The next entry on the Department of Buildings computer is
for Alt 2359 of 1926.
The original application, in the block and lot folder at the plan desk of the
Department of Buildings recorded the building as having a "public dining
room" on the first floor, offices on the second and third floors, and
dwellings on the fourth and fifth floors. But since those records are not
available, try the microfilm versions of the docket books, and also the
address telephone directories.
A picture of the Rawitzers? Best bet is to contact a real Rawitzer. Try
following Herman and his relations in city directories for several years,
especially in census years, and even at other addresses. Next, check the
census records again to get a wide selection of family members. Then check
ProQuest or The Times Personal Name Index for obituary and other articles; in
the case of obituaries, always examine the "paid notice" column around the
time of the obituary, which may have biographical data that a published
account lacks.
The paid notice for Herman Rawitzer lists a daughter, Theresa Kann. A Times
story in 1932 said that she was a painter, that she suffered from
"melancholy," and that she committed suicide with poison that year. Another
technique is to check directory assistance for Manhattan and the nearby area
codes 718, 516 and 914, but they have nothing; directory assistance in the
201 and 203 area codes does not do area-wide searches.
There are now also now national telephone directories on the web and on
CD-ROM (at the New York Public Library), although these often have
disconnected numbers and other errors. One lists about 15 Rawitzers, but
preliminary inquiries suggest that most are descended from a different
Rawitzer who arrived in the Midwest in the 19th century. Another way to find
a Rawitzer portrait is to check the classic "mug book" for white males of the
era, King's Notable New Yorkers (1899). But Mr. Rawitzer didn't make the cut.
However, he does appear in the obscure Empire State Notables (1914), also at
the Historical Society. If you're really dedicated, ask for help at the
library of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, at 122 East
58th Street (NYC 10022; 212-755-8532; fax: 754-4218; http://www.nygbs.org/),
the power nexus for professional genealogists, many of whom take on
family-history projects.
Members ($60/year) in the "G&B" also have on-line access to the ProQuest
digitization of The New York Times. This is a fair demonstration of how to
investigate a building, although it does not show the blind alleys and false
leads that often confound a researcher. It touches on the main resources for
a late-19th-century house occupied by a family of means; the techniques for
recovering information on a tenement family would be much slimmer, and
slightly different. In such cases municipal records -- births, deaths,
marriages, naturalization -- become very important. These are split up in a
crazy quilt among the Office of the City Clerk, the Department of Health, the
State Supreme Court, Surrogate's Court and the Municipal Archives although
Archives has most of the ones people want. Many staff members at those
locations know how to do this type of research, but anyone will profit from
Estelle Guzik's terrific "Genealogical Resources in the New York Metropolitan
Area," published at $29.95 by the Jewish Genealogical Society and available
from out-of-print book dealers for $30-50.
There are also other sources: The index (1875-1906) of the gossipy New York
Tribune, a great source for things The Times considered unfit to print; this
index is widely available in hard copy, and recently on-line (if your library
subscribes) from the digital publisher Paratext - it is a tremendously
valuable source, and they also include an index to The New York Times in the
19th century and other news journals. There are also historic photographs
(widely dispersed, but Kenneth Cobb, Director of the Archives personally
saved the astounding, building-by-building collection of "tax photos" of
1939-1940; http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/records/html/collections_photographs.html);
voting-registration records (which are rarely tapped); doing research on the
architects and builders or the occupants of apartment houses. New York's
buildings are as varied as human beings, and each one calls out from a
different path.
The journey is as much fun as reaching the destination.
Christopher Gray
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