Bromley Atlases.
The Bromley atlases of New York City (or Manhattan, etc.) are crammed with detailed information, so much so, that they can be difficult to digest. Along with street names and addresses, they strive to present the structural material of buildings (wood, stone, brick), dimensions of buildings (stories, width along street front), street width, along with sewage, water and a host of other information.
The New York Public Library system has the most complete set available online. These can be downloaded and, for those in the public domain, used at will. Those available through their NYPL Map Warper have the highest resolution — and a high resolution may be necessary to read all of the information. A typical tiff format file is approximately 80 MB. The legend to the 1897 set of maps is presented in two parts, below.
Below is a portion of plate 8 from the 1897 Atlas. This is the neighborhood around Tesla's 46-48 E Houston laboratory where he worked from July, 1895 on into the 20th century.
From Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley, 1897. The names of Mulberry, Mott and Elizabeth were added and general map information running beneath E. Houston was eliminated.
Trow's Directories.
Many of the annual editions of Trow's business directories and city directories of New York are available online from Hathi Trust, Archives.org and Google Books. These are presented in converted text as well as the scanned files, among other formats. The text allow word searches but the conversion can induce errors and searches can be incomplete. In one instance, E Houston became B Houston in the text version. In another, extreme case, "ass E Houston b" i" iosoioooher Morris" was "356 E Houston Isselbacher Morris" in the photocopy.
Although it is likely that scan conversion errors made my search incomplete, I did check each information "hit" against the scans of the original document and errors were corrected. My search focused on each reference to E Houston from the 1898 edition. I also checked key addresses in the 1897 directory.
Combining the Information.
The East Houston laboratory was located at addresses 46-48 on the north side of East Houston with Mulberry Street to the west and Mott Street to the east.
Addresses:
North side East Houston, Mulberry to Mott: 42 to 52 (even numbers) Width of block: 171.3 feet.
South side East Houston, Mulberry to Mott: 41 to 55 (odd numbers) Width of block: 175.5 feet.
Guide to the format of occupants of buildings.
Category of business as presented in Trow's. Name of business or owner last name, first name. Address. (Page in directory, 1898, unless otherwise noted.)
E. Houston, northwest corner of Mulberry.
Building address: 40 E. Houston. Lot #: 43. Street front width: 35.1 feet. Five stories. Brick.
Occupants:
Spool Cotton. Pollack, Max. 40 E Houston (p.1008)
Millinery Goods. Hochheimer, Albert, 40 E Houston (p. 717)
Clothiers. Samuels M. and Co, 40 E Houston (p. 284)
E. Houston, southwest corner of Mulberry. (Puck Building, still standing)
Building address: 39 E. Houston. Lot #: 45. Street front width: 118.11 feet. Eight stories. Brick.
Occupants:
Newspapers, Periodicals & c. Puck (w) Keppler & Schwarzmann 39 E Houston. Note: & c. was a way of noting etc.
Puck Quarterly. Keppler & Schwarzmann, 39 E Houston
Puck's Library (m) Keppler & Schwarzmann. 39 E Houston
Puck's Stories (q) Keppler & Schwarzmann. 39 E Houston (p. 755)
E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, North Side.
Building address: 42-44 E. Houston. Lot #: 25. Street front width: 44.8 feet. Six stories with basement. Brick.
Occupants:
Cigar Dealers. Laredo, Jose 42 E Houston (p. 249)
Roofers, Metal. Borkel, John, 42 E Houston (p. 966)
Braids. Schwaze, George, 44 E Houston (p. 144)
Bicycles & c. Pinover A. & Co. 44 E Houston (p. 96)
Straw Goods Dealers. Marty John & Son 44 E Houston (p.1039)
The Building with Tesla's Laboratory:
Building address: 46-48 E. Houston. Lot #: 33. Street front width: 42.4 feet. Seven stories with basement. Brick.
Occupants:
Pianos. Electric Self Playing Piano Co. 1144 Bway & 46 E Houston (p. 870)
Tools Central Novelty. 46 E Houston (p. 1087)
Type Writers’ Supplies. Commercial Typewriter Co. 46 E Houston (p.1100)
Lithographer’s Colors and Inks. Hellmuth, Charles (agent for Kast & Ehinger). 48 E. Houston (p.674)
also listed under:
Bronze Powder. Hellmuth Charles. 48 E. Houston (agent for Kast & Ehinger). (p. 173)
Ink Printing. Hellmuth Charles (agent for Kast & Ehinger). 48 E Houston street. (p. 568)
Additional occupants at this address from the 1897 Trow's.
Electrical Instrument Manufacturers. N.Y. Accumulator & Electric Co. 150 Nassau & 46 E. Houston (p.388)
Machinery Dealers, Paper Box. Hobbs Mfg. Co. 46 E. Houston (p. 647)
E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, North Side, Continued.
Building address: 50 E. Houston. Lot #: 22. Street front width: 20.9 feet. Brick. (Number of floors unspecified)
Occupants:
Delicatessen. Benderoth, Adam. 50 E Houston (p. 336)
Building address: 52 [through 56] E. Houston. Lot #: 21. (Note: On the map, this building continues to end of block and its division into specific addresses is unspecified.) Street front width: 64 feet. Brick. (Number of floors unspecified)
Boot & Shoemakers. Forgione Michael 52 E Houston (p. 125)
Wines, Liquor, and Lager Beer. Gerrety Thomas F. 56 E Houston (p. 1157)
E. Houston between Mulberry and Mott, South Side.
Building address: 41 E. Houston. Lot #: 19. Street front width: 21.3 feet. Brick. Five stories.
Occupants: (none encountered)
Building address: 43 E. Houston. Lot #: 20. Street front width: 20.9 feet. Brick. Three stories with basement.
Occupants:
Millinery Goods. Kaplan Max 43 E Houston (p. 717)
Publishers. Feigin & Minkowitz. 43 E Houston (p.893)
Building address: 45 E. Houston. Lot #: 21. Street front width: 22 feet. Brick. Four stories with basement.
Occupants: (none encountered)
Building address: 47 E. Houston. Lot #: 22. Street front width: 23.6 feet. Brick. Three stories with basement.
Occupants:
Tailors. Levy’s Henry, Son. 47 E Houston (p. 1057)
Building address: 49 E. Houston. Lot #: 23. Street front width: 24.7 feet. Brick with stone front. Five stories.
Occupants:
Feathers, Fancy & Military. Michelson, Pauline, 49 E Houston (p.447)
Bonnet & Hat Frames. Brandt ,Herman, 49 E Houston (p. 107)
also listed under:
Ladies’ and Children’s Caps. Brandt, Henry, 49 E. Houston. (p. 594)
Building address: 51 E. Houston. Lot #: 24. Street front width: 13.5? feet. Brick with stone front. (Number of floors, difficult to read)
Occupants: Barbers. Fischer, Otto. 51 E Houston (p. 74)
Building address: 53 E. Houston. Lot #: 25. Street front width: 25.1 feet. Brick with stone front. (Number of floors, difficult to read)
Occupants: (none encountered)
Building address: 55 E. Houston. Lot #: 26. Street front width: 25 feet. Brick with stone front. Five stories.
Occupants:
Clothes, Cleaners & C. Weiner, Morris. 55 E Houston (p. 281)
Cider & Vinegar. Baltheshofer, Gustav. 55 E. Houston; also wines & liquors. (p. 242)
also listed as:
Wines, Liquors & Lager Beer. Baltheshofer, Gustav, 55 E Houston (p.1145)
Sources:
The Trow’s Business Directory of New York City (formerly Wilson’s) 1897 and 1898. The Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York. At HathiTrust.
Atlas of the city of New York, Manhattan Island. From actual surveys and official plans by George W. and Walter S. Bromley, 1897. From NYPL Map Warper. Free account required.
Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. Its sequel, set in 1890s Manhattan and titled A Predator's Game, features Nikola Tesla as a dective and will be available from Rook's Page Publishing, March 28, 2016. (More details coming soon.)
His recent mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.
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