archimaps: The Commissioners Plan of the City of New York in 1807 The 1807 version of the Commiss

archimaps:

The Commissioners Plan of the City of New York in 1807

The 1807 version of the Commissioners’ grid plan for Manhattan was adopted in 1811.

TheCommissioners’ Plan of 1811 was the original design for the streets of ManhattanaboveHouston Street, which put in place the rectangular grid plan of streets and lots that has defined Manhattan to this day. It has been called “the single most important document in New York City’s development,”^[1] and the plan has been described as encompassing the “republican predilection for
control and balance … [and] distrust of nature.”^[2] It was described by the Commission that created it as combining “beauty, order and convenience.”^[2]

The plan originated when the Common Council of New York City, seeking to provide for the orderly development and sale of the land of Manhattanbetween14th StreetandWashington Heights, but unable to do so itself for reasons of local politics and objections from property owners, asked the New York State Legislature to step in. The legislature appointed a commission with sweeping powers in 1807, and their plan was present in 1811.

Source:Wikipedia

Map of the city of New York and island of Manhattan as laid out by the commissioners appointed by the Legislature, April 3, 1807