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New York City Property Map Collections at NYPL: Brooklyn

This guide describes the ways researchers can navigate NYPL's various NYC real property cartographic collections via the research catalog and Digital Collections to locate cadastral, fire insurance, topographical, and real property auction maps.

Brooklyn (Kings County)

The majority of the Library's Brooklyn cadastral maps were published between mid 19th century and the early 20th century, following the gradual expansion of the independent city of Brooklyn through annexation of neighboring towns in Kings County until it was itself absorbed into the conurbation of Greater New York in 1898 becoming one of the City's five boroughs.  The best way to locate these maps in the research catalog is by using keyword search terms combined with the borough or neighborhood name:

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available:

The Library's collection of fire insurance maps are available via atlases and sheet maps, the Digital Collections, online databases, and microfilm. Our collections include depictions of some of the blocks and lots of the city of Brooklyn starting in 1855 and document its expansion and eventual transformation into a borough contiguous with the boundaries of Kings County.   

Atlases and Sheet Maps

Locating maps can be challenging because the subject heading Fire insurance -- New York (State) -- New York is all-encompassing and will result in records for all five boroughs. It's best to search the research catalog using keyword search terms such as:

Below are links to catalog records that include a large portion of Sanborn and other fire insurance atlases that show Brooklyn's expansion from the mid 19th century to the present:

Digital Collections Images

Over the past few years we have uploaded scans of most of our copyright free NYC fire insurance atlases to the Digital Collections. Browse the NYC Fire Insurance, Topographic and Property Maps research guide to locate Brooklyn atlas maps published between 1855 and 1920.

Online Database

The Library has a subscription to the ProQuest Digital Sanborn Map database which can be accessed at all branch libraries or via your own device when you login using your NYPL library card. To view maps of Brooklyn select "New York" under the state tab and then select "Brooklyn." This database includes Brooklyn Sanborns from 1886 to the early 1950s.   

Microfilm

The Library also has copies of late 19th century and 20th century Sanborns on microfilm, this format may be preferred if you need to document the transformation of a site over a long period of time.  To view maps published before 1952 browse the catalog record Sanborn fire insurance maps - New York; for maps published from the 1960s to the 1990s see the record Fire insurance maps from the Sanborn Map Company archives.

 

The majority of the Library's collection of Brooklyn topographic surveys were published by the USGS and may be viewed online via their topoView web portal. However, there are also a few other surveys created between the mid 19th and early 20th century that include names of property owners, and in some cases include depictions of buildings, property boundaries, and landscaping.  These maps may be located in the research catalog using the keyword search term "Brooklyn topographical." 

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available:

Real property auction maps, also known as "farm maps", are sheets or pamphlets created by auctioneers sometimes containing maps, birds-eye views, and or descriptions of land for sale. The majority of the Library's collections that show property for sale in Brooklyn were published  between the late 19th and mid 20th century and document the gradual transformation of the borough's southern and eastern neighborhoods from a collection of sparsely populated "suburban" areas into a dense urban space tightly connected by a interconnected grid of streets, avenues, and parkways.  The easiest way to locate this map type in the research catalog is by using the keyword search term "Brooklyn real property auction." 

Below are a few highlights from the collections with links to the research catalog and Digital Collections when available: