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Boundaries, Districts, and Zones in New York City: Buildings

This guide covers how to find cartographic materials related to the internal boundaries, districts, and zones of New York City.

Buildings

Using maps to get a better understanding of property in New York City, some questions you can answer include:

  • What was this community zoned for, in regards to land use?
  • What were the boundary lines of this property?
  • Who was the owner of this property?

To answer these types of questions, please see below for examples of different types of property mapping in NYC.

You can also refer to the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy's research guide titled House History Research at The New York Public Library for additional resources and materials that can be utilized alongside property-related maps.

Quick Links to Each Section on Page:

Zoning and City Planning Maps | Insurance Atlases: Blocks, Lots, and Property Boundaries | Cadastral Maps: Property Boundaries and Owners' Names | Tax Maps

Zoning and City Planning Maps

Maps accompanying report of March 10th 1916 showing tentative area districts in the City of New YorkZoning maps illustrate zoning districts. Each zoning district is "a residential, commercial or manufacturing area of the city within which zoning regulations govern land use and building bulk" (Glossary of Zoning Terms from NYC Planning).

When using the Online Research Catalog to search for zoning maps:

Additional city planning and zoning-related maps can be found on NYC's Planning:

 

Image Source: [Maps accompanying report of March 10th 1916 showing tentative area, height, and use districts in the City of New York]. 1916. NYPL Digital Collections Image ID 5059964

 

To find supplementary books and documents related to city planning and zoning maps, please conduct the searches listed on this page's "Catalog Tips" with "Cartographic" NOT checkmarked  in our Online Research Catalog. From these results, you can also checkmark any of the other listed formats. See below for a list of recommended materials when "Text" is checkmarked:

Insurance Atlases: Blocks, Lots, and Property Boundaries

Title page from 1901's Atlas of the borough of the Bronx, city of New York : based upon official plans and maps on file in the various city offices; supplemented by careful field measurements and personal observationsFire insurance atlases were created to allow insurance companies to have accurate information about property that was being insured.  As such, these atlases provide zoomed in view on various cross sections in urban areas, with detailed information on blocks, lots, buildings in the area, what buildings are made of, building dimensions, and what buildings were used for (ex. residential versus "special hazards"). 

When searching the Online Research Catalog for NYC insurance atlases, in the Advanced Search, checkmark "Cartographic" under Format and type the following into the Keyword Field for most results:

Keyword Search: 

An alternative search requires knowing a specific publisher of interest. Some examples of publishers in NYPL's collection include Sanborn, Bromley, Hyde, Robinson, and Perris.

Keyword Search: [area of interest] + Author Search: [Insurance Company]

NYPL has a large collection of New York fire insurance atlases. When looking for insurance maps related to New York City, we do recommend starting with the following catalog records:

To learn more, please view the NYPL Research Guide: New York City Property Map Collections at NYPL.

In addition, we do recommend reviewing the Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy's blog post 5-part series, Using Maps for Genealogy Research, in particular Part 2 titled Fire Insurance Maps - Exploring Space and Time for more information on how to use these types of atlases alongside genealogical records. 

When searching for fire insurance atlases, please be mindful that many atlases were printed in more than one volume. As such, different volumes will represent different regions of an area.

In addition, many fire insurance atlases were updated by taking older atlases and gluing paste-ins to represent any changes. As such, if a call number includes either "Updated" or "Upd.," please observe the later date as the year that is represented in the atlas.

​​​​​​NYC-Specific

General Collections

When reviewing insurance atlases, you might be:

  • interested in having additional historical context about why these materials were created
  • need assistance in deciphering these materials.

As such, please see the following resources that can help answer these questions, both from NYPL and other reputable institutions:

Cadastral Maps: Property Boundaries and Owners' Names

Cadastral maps are designed to show the boundaries of property land ownership, and typically will often include the names of land owners and/or estates (New York City Property Map Collections at NYPL: About).

When searching the Online Research Catalog for cadastral maps, in the Advanced Search, checkmark "Cartographic" under Format and type the following into the Keyword Field for most results:

Keyword Search: 

To learn more, please view the NYPL Research Guide: New York City Property Map Collections at NYPLMap of property New York Dock Company, warehousemen : borough of Brooklyn, City of New York.

Image Source: Map of property New York Dock Company, warehousemen : borough of Brooklyn, City of New York. / J.W. Galbreath Consulting Engr. 1911. NYPL Digital Collections Image ID 5003326

To find supplementary books and documents related to property owners' names, please conduct the following searches listed on this page's "Catalog Tips" with "Text" checkmarked  in our Online Research Catalog. 

See below for a list of recommended materials from the above search:

Tax Maps

Tax maps are designed to illustrate tax lots, which are used to assess property taxes. To depict tax lots, these maps will show " lot shapes, lot dimensions, block and lot numbers, street names, annotations indicating associated lots (Condominiums, Air Lots, Subterranean Lots, REUC), and mappable easements" (Property Information Portal's User Guide from NYC's Department of Finance).

When searching the Online Research Catalog for tax maps, in the Advanced Search, checkmark "Cartographic" under Format and type the following into the Keyword Field for most results:

Keyword Search: 

You can also do the following mixed search with Cartographic NOT checkmarked: 

To find current and historical tax lot maps, you can also utilize the following resources:

  • Discover New York City Landmarks via  New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
    • For landmarked areas in the city, this portal provides information about a location's history, its original uses, landmark designation report, and tax block and lot number.
    • When you click on an area, make sure to click the arrow on the pop-up box for the next page, to ensure that you see all of the information that is relevant to a location.
  • Property Information Portal via NYC Department of Finance
    • You can search by Borough / Block / Lot, Borough / Block, Address, Condominum Number, REUC IDENT, Air Lot Number, of Subterranean Lot Number.
    • Once you find a location of interest, you can either scroll down or click on the tabs at the top to find property info, building, land, assessments, exemptions, sales, mortgages, tax map history, and neighborhood-related information. You can also find a recent photograph of the location of interest.
    • If you navigate to "Tax Map History," you can find this location's "Library of Tax Maps" and "History of Alternation Books." 
      • These maps and books are downloadable as PDFs. 

NYC Property Information Portal showing details for NYPL's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

As noted on NYC311: "In 1940, and again in the mid-1980s, the Department of Taxes (now called the Department of Finance) took one photograph of every building in New York City as part of the property assessment process. Vacant land wasn’t photographed."

NYC Municipal Archives Collections

General Collections of the NYC Tax Lot Photographs