Suburban Development

A chunk of what is now called east Midtown, in 1867: This was officially part of the city, but the opening of the numbered street grid had created more buildable lots than were needed, so development was, as can be readily seen, patchy. There is very little on this map that is recognizable or still present. I’ll flag those things that are, everything else is gone. Reservoir Square at the lower left, is still there and now called Bryant Park. The big distribution reservoir next to it is the site of the New York Public Library. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was under construction at Fifth And 50th, listed here as R. C. Cathedral. Columbia College was at Fourth Avenue, soon to move to Fifth Avenue (on the current Rockefeller Center site) before moving uptown. There’s no Grand Central – not even the first (Grand Central Depot). There’s a way station at 42nd on the west side of Fourth Avenue, but the line continued south to 23rd Street, and partially south of that. The “1st & 2nd Av. R.R. Depot”…