Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
Researching Historic
Buildings in New York City
RESOURCE GUIDE
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
DATE
July 2016
SUMMARY
The Landmarks Preservation
Commission has created a Guide to
Research Resources to help you learn
more about your historic building. This
guide is intended to assist you in nding
construction dates, architects, and
original owners; alterations to buildings
and changes in ownership over time; the
names of building residents; and historic
photos, among other information.
Researching Historic
Buildings in New York City
RESOURCE GUIDE
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
Borough-Specic Resources P. 8
→
General Resources P. 3
→
Online Resources P. 10
→
3 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
When visiting a library or other institution, consult
its website in advance; note that some institutions
may charge fees for accessing collections or archives
and may have rules regarding the use of cameras and
recording equipment.
This guide is intended to assist those undertaking
primary-source research on New York City
buildings with the goal of nding construction
dates, architects, and original owners; alterations to
buildings and changes in ownership over time; the
names of building residents; and historic photos,
among other information. Before undertaking in-
depth primary-source research, the major secondary
sources on New York City buildings, including the
AIA Guide to New York City and Robert A. M.
Stern’s New York series (New York 1880, New York
1900, New York 1930, New York 1960, and New
York 2000) should be consulted. These books are
available in the Milstein Division of the New York
Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street.
Initial Steps
Before beginning your research, check to see if the
building is a designated New York City Landmark
or within a designated Historic District. The easiest
way to do this is with the interactive “Discover
NYC Landmarks” web map, located at nyclpc.
maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.
html?id=93a88691cace4067828b1eede432022b.
This map shows the location of every Individual
Landmark, Interior Landmark, Scenic Landmark,
and Historic District designated by the Landmarks
Preservation Commission (LPC), and provides
direct access to their designation reports. Every
Historic District designation report, except for the
very earliest, contains detailed entries on buildings
within the District, including their original owners,
architects, dates of construction, and alterations.
In some cases, the names of original owners or
architects were not known at the time of designation,
but this information may now be obtainable using
new research tools, including searchable digitized
newspapers (see below) that have come online since
the early 2000s.
Also check to see if the building has been listed
on the National Register of Historic Places, or
is within a National Register District. New York
State’s Cultural Resource Information System, or
CRIS (nysparks.com/shpo/online-tools/) features an
interactive map making it easy to search for National
Register properties and districts and nd reports,
photographs, and other related information.
After searching these sources, look up the
building’s Property Prole in BIS, the Department
of Buildings’ online Building Information System
(http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp).
The Property Prole often contains a wealth of
useful information, including the building’s block-
and-lot number, which is crucial for conducting in-
depth research. (Buildings Department, conveyance,
and tax information is generally easier to nd
when searching by block-and-lot number than by
address.) It will also show an “L” next to “Landmark
Status” if the building is a designated New York
City Landmark or is within a designated Historic
District. Other useful information may include the
building’s New Building (NB) application number,
Alteration (ALT) application numbers, and pdf
copies of Certicates of Occupancy (C of O’s). To
access this information from the building’s Property
Prole Overview page, click on the blue “Actions”
link toward the bottom of the page. Note that the
Property Prole sometimes contains a “Year Built”
eld which is not always accurate. The Property
General Resources
4 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
Prole is also accessible through NYCityMap
(maps.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap), which provides
links to additional information about the building
and its neighborhood.
For 20th-century Manhattan buildings, visit the
website of the Ofce for Metropolitan History,
which maintains an online searchable database
of New Building (NB) permits issued between
1900 and 1986. The database may be searched by
address, architect, owner’s name, NB number, or
other criteria. It’s located at www.metrohistory.com/
searchfront.htm.
New Building and Alteration Applications
A building’s New Building (NB) application is
generally the most accurate and complete source of
information about its construction. New Building
(NB) applications have been required for every new
building constructed in Manhattan since 1866. They
have been required for new buildings in the West
Bronx since 1874—when New York City annexed
the area west of the Bronx River—and for Brooklyn
buildings constructed since 1878. NB applications
became required for all other areas of what is now
New York City, including Queens and Staten Island,
by 1898, when New York City, comprising the
ve boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn,
Queens, and Staten Island, was consolidated into its
present form.
New Building applications include the date of ling
(and often, building completion), the architect’s
name and address, original owner’s name and
address, original building and lot dimensions,
and construction details. The NB application for
a building often resides within its block-and-lot
folder, which may also contain later alteration
(ALT) applications and architectural drawings
documenting changes to the building over its history.
For buildings in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens,
and Staten Island, block-and-lot folders may be
requested at the Manhattan ofce of the Buildings
Department; folders for block numbers 968 and
below may be paged from the Municipal Archives
(see below) and are delivered to the Archives from
offsite each Friday. For borough ofce locations
and contact information, visit www1.nyc.gov/site/
buildings/about/borough-ofces.page.
In cases in which the BIS Property Prole contains
NB and/or ALT numbers but these applications are
missing from the block-and-lot folder or otherwise
cannot be located, the best next step is to consult
either the Manhattan docket books in the Municipal
Archives or, for buildings constructed in Manhattan,
Brooklyn, and the Bronx between the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, the Real Estate Record and
Builders’ Guide (see “New York Public Library” and
“Online Resources,” below).
Both NB and ALT numbers are in the format ####-
YEAR. For the Municipal Building at One Centre
Street, for example, BIS shows an NB number of
459-08, meaning that its New Building application
was the 459th led in the year 1908. If an asterisk
appears next to an NB or ALT number in BIS, this
indicates a ling date of before 1900.
Municipal Archives
Located on the rst oor of the Surrogate’s Court-
Hall of Records Building (John R. Thomas and
Horgan & Slattery, 1899-1907, a designated New
York City Landmark and Interior Landmark), the
Municipal Archives houses a wide range of historical
resources. For visitor information, see www.nyc.gov/
html/records/html/archives/archives.shtml.
In addition to the Manhattan block-and-lot folders
for blocks 1 through 968, the most useful resources
at the Municipal Archives are:
• Manhattan New Building and Alteration docket
books, which provide NB and ALT information
5 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
for the period from 1866 to 1959. Although
the docket books provide less information
than the NB and ALT records themselves, they
are invaluable when NB and ALT records are
missing from their block-and-lot folders or are
otherwise unavailable. NB and ALT numbers
in the BIS Property Proles for Manhattan
buildings refer directly to the records in these
books. Indexes are available for locating NB and
ALT numbers that may not have been recorded
in BIS, although using the indexes is often
difcult and time-consuming.
• Tax assessment records, which provide the
owner’s name and tax valuation for each
property going back to the late 18th century.
These records often indicate the presence of a
building on the lot and the height of the building
in stories. The tax assessment records are
especially useful for determining construction
dates of buildings that predate the Buildings
Department. The Municipal Archives holds
tax assessment records for Manhattan (1789 to
1979), Brooklyn (1866 to 1975), Queens (1899
to 1988), the Bronx (1897 to 1962), and Staten
Island (1899 to 1979). Note that block and lot
numbers have often changed over time, and
historic tax assessments were often organized
by ward, making it crucial to consult historic
maps to determine the correct ward number and
historic block and lot numbers for the period of
construction.
• The circa-1939 and circa-1988 “tax photos,”
which are photographs of New York City
buildings taken in the 1930s and again in the
1980s. Prints of these photos may be ordered
for a fee; although all of the city’s buildings
were photographed, some photos have become
damaged or gone missing and are no longer
available.
In addition, the Municipal Archives has an extensive
historic photograph collection, much of which may
be browsed online at nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/
servlet.
City Register
Conveyance (deed) records trace the ownership of
buildings over time. Conveyances and mortgage
records from 1966 to the present (except for Staten
Island) are available online through the Automated
City Register Information System (ACRIS) at
https://acrisweb.csc.nycnet/cp/. For Manhattan, the
Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, property records up
to 1965 are on microlm at each borough’s City
Register ofce, located within the borough’s Finance
Business Center. For the locations and hours of
Finance Business Centers, see www1.nyc.gov/site/
nance/about/contact-us-by-visit.page. Staten Island
property records are at the Ofce of the Richmond
County Clerk at 130 Stuyvesant Place. For visitor
information, see www.richmondcountyclerk.com/
information.htm.
Deed and mortgage records prior to 1965 are
organized by liber and page and have been
microlmed. To nd liber and page numbers for
records relating to specic properties in Manhattan,
the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, consult the
index books in the appropriate borough’s City
Register ofce. There are separate index books for
conveyances and mortgages as well as multiple
deed and mortgage index books covering different
time periods. Both the conveyance and mortgage
books are organized by block and give the liber
and page numbers for records associated with each
property on the block. Note that within the index
books, properties are often identied not by street
address but by lot number and/or distance from the
nearest intersection—for example, 150 95th Street
in Brooklyn might be identied as “95th Street, S.S.
(south side), 125’ W. of Marine Avenue.” Distance
from the nearest intersection may be calculated by
consulting the current tax map, which provides the
dimensions of all city lots and is available at gis.nyc.
gov/taxmap/.
6 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
Although most City Register ofces contain both the
index books and microlmed records, for Brooklyn,
the index books are at the Queens City Register
ofce in Jamaica while the microlmed records are
at the Brooklyn City Register ofce in Downtown
Brooklyn.
On Staten Island, the research process is slightly
different. Here, the indexes are “grantor/grantee
indexes,” meaning that property ownership is traced
back using the names of the grantors (conveyors/
sellers) and grantees (acquirers/purchasers) of the
property. Many of the deeds themselves are available
for viewing in large bound volumes or on computer
terminals, depending on the year. Staff is available
for assistance, and property information may be
printed from the computer terminals for a small fee.
New York Public Library
The main building of the New York Public Library
at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd
Street is an invaluable resource for researching
the history of New York City buildings and their
architects, owners, and residents. Designed by
Carrère & Hastings and constructed from 1898 to
1911, this designated New York City Landmark and
Interior Landmark is now known as the Stephen A.
Schwarzman Building. For visitor information, see
www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman.
Begin your visit at the Milstein Division of United
States History, Local History and Genealogy on
the rst oor. Reference librarians in the Milstein
Division will be able to assist you in researching
your building and its owner, architect, and historic
tenants using the Division’s extensive collection of
books and other resources. They will also be able
to assist you in using the library’s online research
tools, which include searchable newspapers and
genealogical resources including the ProQuest
databases of historic New York City and African-
American newspapers, Ancestry.com, and
HeritageQuest Online. (These electronic databases
are also accessible at New York Public Library
branches.) For a list of online databases available
at the New York Public Library, see www.nypl.
org/collections/articles-databases and lter for the
subjects “New York City History” and “Genealogy.”
The library’s catalog may be searched from its home
page, www.nypl.org.
The Library also houses an extensive microlmed
collection of city directories for all boroughs
dating back to the 18th century, and well as historic
telephone directories and address telephone
directories, the latter of which list residents by
address instead of by name. The address telephone
directories, along with state and federal census
records available through Ancestry.com and
HeritageQuest Online, make it possible to nd the
names of building residents at specic points in time.
The Library also has microlmed copies of the Real
Estate Record and Builders’ Guide, which contain
NB and ALT information for Manhattan, Brooklyn,
and the Bronx from 1868 to the 1920s, although
it is often easier and faster to download issues of
the Guide directly from Columbia University’s
website (see “Online Resources,” below). A separate
Brooklyn and Long Island edition of the magazine,
available from offsite at the New York Public
Library (and not available from Columbia), contains
NB and ALT information for Brooklyn from 1905 to
1912.
Other New York Public Library resources include:
• The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map
Division, which houses an extensive collection
of New York City maps, including historic
re insurance atlases showing individual lots
and building outlines. Many of these maps
have been digitized and are available online
at digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/explore/
7 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
dgexplore.cfm?topic=all&col_id=442. These
maps may be useful in narrowing down
construction dates when other documentation
can’t be found, and in determining historic
block, lot, and ward numbers for tax assessment
research.
• The Library’s collections of New York City
photographs, accessible through a map-based
interface at www.oldnyc.org.
• The Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, one of
the country’s leading African-American history
resources (www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg).
• The Latino and Puerto Rican Cultural Collection
at the Bronx Library Center (www.nypl.org/
locations/bronx-library-center).
• The Library’s Art and Architecture Division on
the third oor of the Schwartzman Building,
which has an extensive collection of architecture
books and journals as well as clippings les, on
microche, relating to specic architects. The
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, which
is available online throughout the library, is an
index of journal articles about specic buildings
and architects. For visitor information, see www.
nypl.org/locations/schwarzman/art-architecture-
collection.
Museum of the City of New York
The museum is home to an extensive collection of
New York City photographs, thousands of which
are now available online. To access the online
collection, visit collections.mcny.org/Explore/
Formats/Photographs. For additional information,
see www.mcny.org/content/research-policies.
New York Historical Society
The Historical Society’s library is one of the city’s
great repositories of manuscripts, printed materials,
and photographs. Much of its photographic
collection has been digitized and is accessible online
at www.nyhistory.org/library/research. Among
the Historical Society’s photographic holdings
are pictures taken between 1900 and 1908 during
construction of the city’s original subway lines to
document the conditions of buildings adjacent to
construction. The Society also has large holdings of
historical atlases, maps, and architectural drawings
and records. An appointment is required to access
some of these materials; consult the website for
details.
Borough-Specic Resources P. 8
→
←
General Resources P. 3
8 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
The Bronx
• The library and archives of the Bronx Historical
Society contain thousands of books, maps,
city directories, manuscripts, photographs,
post cards, and other materials related to
Bronx history. In addition to its Archives, the
Society operates two museums: the Museum of
Bronx History, housed within the Colonial-Era
Valentine-Varian House at 3266 Bainbridge
Avenue; and the circa-1812 Edgar Allan Poe
Cottage at 2640 Grand Concourse. Both of
these houses are designated New York City
Landmarks. Use of the Society’s Library
and Archives is by appointment only; see
bronxhistoricalsociety.org/library-archives/ for
details.
• The Bronx was annexed by New York City in
stages beginning in 1874; before then, it was
part of Westchester County. Because of this, the
Westchester County Archives in Elmsford, N.Y.
holds extensive records on Bronx properties
through the 19th century. For information
on collections, location, and hours, visit
archives.westchestergov.com. Land records for
Westchester County, including old conveyance
records for properties that are now in the
Bronx, may be searched online (for a fee) and
downloaded by clicking the “Records Online”
tab at www.westchesterclerk.com.
Brooklyn
• In addition to its collections of historic atlases,
directories, and real estate brochures, the library
of the Brooklyn Historical Society houses
the Brooklyn Land Conveyance Collection
and Brooklyn and Long Island Scrapbook
Borough-Specic Resources
Collection. The former comprises an enormous
collection of index cards, organized by block
number, that document individual property
transactions in Brooklyn from the 17th century
to 1896. Each card contains information about
the property’s grantor and grantee, as well as an
outline of the property including its dimensions.
The Scrapbook Collection consists of newspaper
clippings that are searchable using an onsite
card catalog. These clippings often contain
obituaries and other stories about Brooklyn
residents, architects, and building owners. The
Society, which is housed in a designated New
York City Landmark and Interior Landmark
designed by George B. Post and built in 1878-
81, also mounts several exhibitions each year
related to Brooklyn history. The Library is open
Wednesday through Saturday afternoons; for
visitor information, see www.brooklynhistory.
org/library/visit.html. To search the Library’s
catalog, visit www.brooklynhistory.org/library/
search.html.
• Along with books, historic maps, lms, and
other resources related to Brooklyn history, the
Brooklyn Collection of the Brooklyn Public
Library is home to a comprehensive collection
of newspaper clippings that originally served
as the “morgue le” of the old Brooklyn Eagle
newspaper. The Collection, which is located on
the second oor of the Brooklyn Central Library
on Grand Army Plaza, includes hundreds of
thousands of photographs and other images of
the borough, many of which have been digitized.
These images may be searched through the main
online catalog of the Brooklyn Public Library:
www.bklynlibrary.org. For more information on
the Brooklyn Collection, visit www.bklynlibrary.
org/brooklyncollection. The Brooklyn Public
Library also provides digitized, downloadable
Brooklyn city directories dating from 1856 to
1908 (http://www.bklynlibrary.org/citydir/) as
well as full, searchable access to the Brooklyn
9 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
• The St. George branch of the New York Public
Library contains a section devoted to Staten
Island history, including all issues of the Staten
Island Historian from 1938 to the present, as
well as microlmed issues of the Staten Island
Advance dating back to 1886. The library also
has microlm reels of the early Staten Island
New Building and Alteration docket books.
These are especially useful in researching Staten
Island buildings constructed before the 1910s
because of a re that destroyed most of the
borough’s earliest Buildings Department les.
• The library at Historic Richmond Town houses
15,000 volumes, archives dedicated to the
borough’s history, and thousands of historic
photographs, and is open by appointment. For
details, visit www.historicrichmondtown.org/
treasures/collections/archives.
Eagle newspaper between 1841 and 1955
(bklyn.newspapers.com).
Queens
• Formerly known as the Long Island Division,
the Archives at Queens Library is the borough’s
most comprehensive historical resource, its
collections of books, historic maps, photographs,
clippings les, and other resources numbering
in the hundreds of thousands. Although the
Archives’ primary focus is on Queens, its
collections cover all of Long Island, including
Brooklyn and Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
The Archives is housed within the Queens
Central Library at 89-11 Merrick Boulevard in
Jamaica. For additional information, visit www.
queenslibrary.org/research/archives.
• The Queens Historical Society in Flushing
maintains a research library that is open to the
public by appointment. For information, visit
www.queenshistoricalsociety.org/library-and-
collections.html.
• Housed in the striking Gothic Revival style
Fort Totten Ofcers’ Club (c. 1870; enlarged
1887; a designated New York City Landmark),
the Bayside Historical Society maintains a
library and archives dedicated to Bayside and
its surrounding neighborhoods. Visit www.
baysidehistorical.org/collections.html for details.
Staten Island
• The archives and library of the Staten Island
Museum, also known as the Staten Island
Institute of Arts and Sciences, contain 15,000
reference volumes, historic maps, directories,
military enlistment records, church and cemetery
records, genealogical resources, and more
than 60,000 historic images, along with an
architectural survey collection. The archives
and library are open by appointment only. For
information, visit www.statenislandmuseum.org/
collections/history-archives.
Online Resources P. 10
→
←
Borough-Specic Resources P. 8
10 of 10
Landmarks Preservation
Commission
Resource Guide
Researching Historic Buildings in New York City
July 2016
to nd images by location.
• Brooklyn Visual Heritage (www.
brooklynvisualheritage.org) contains thousands
of historic Brooklyn images accessible through
a keyword-searchable database. The site was
created through a collaborative effort of Pratt
Institute, the Brooklyn Historical Society,
Brooklyn Public Library, and Brooklyn
Museum.
• The Old Fulton New York Post Cards and New
York State Historic Newspapers websites (www.
fultonhistory.com and nyshistoricnewspapers.
org) provide unlimited access to keyword-
searchable 19th- and 20th-century newspapers
from around New York City and State,
including, at Old Fulton Post Cards, the historic
African-American newspaper The New York
Age.
• Dozens of historic New York newspapers,
including the Amsterdam News, Herald,
Tribune, and Sun, as well as newspapers from
around the country, may be searched at the
Chronicling America website of the Library of
Congress (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov).
• People, organizations, and addresses associated
with historic properties are easily searchable
through Google Books (books.google.com)
and the Internet Archive (https://archive.org),
which provides access to millions of books and
other documents, many of which may be fully
downloaded.
In addition to the previously mentioned online
resources provided by the city’s libraries and other
research institutions, there are many free online sites.
• For those researching New York City buildings,
their owners, architects, and occupants,
Columbia University provides three key
resources, the most important being the
digitized Real Estate Record and Builders’
Guide (rerecord.cul.columbia.edu), a weekly
chronicle of building activity searchable for
the period between 1868 and 1922. During this
time, the Record and Guide listed all of the NB
and ALT applications led in Manhattan (and,
for many years, in Brooklyn and the Bronx),
making it possible to look up new building and
alteration information using the NB and ALT
numbers from a building’s BIS Property Prole.
Volumes of the Record and Guide may also be
downloaded directly from this site as searchable
pdf’s. Brooklyn NB and ALT records from 1905
to 1912 were published in a special Brooklyn
and Long Island edition, which is available
through the New York Public Library. Columbia
University also maintains the Biggert Collection
of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial
Stationery (https://biggert.cul.columbia.edu) and
the New York Real Estate Brochure Collection
(nyre.cul.columbia.edu), a searchable database
of nearly 10,000 pamphlets promoting new
apartment houses built throughout the ve
boroughs between the 1920s and 1970s.
• The Greenwich Village Society for Historic
Preservation maintains an archive of historic
images at www.archive.gvshp.org/items/browse.
Click on “Search by map” at the top of the page
Online Resources
