New York State Comptroller's Office Tax Assessors' Atlases B0961

New York State Comptroller's Office Tax Assessors' Atlases

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Overview of the Records

Repository:

New York State Archives
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230

Summary:

This series contains tax assessors atlases of counties, boroughs, cities, and towns. The bulk of the records are assessors atlases of counties and towns in Kings and Richmond counties. They were apparently prepared to determine land ownership for the purpose of tax assessment. Also included are 38 published atlases of counties, boroughs, cities, and towns, most of which were annotated with lot numbers and names of owners, for the purpose of tax assessment.

Creator:

New York (State). Comptroller's Office

Title:

Tax assessors' atlases

Quantity:

13 cubic feet

53 volumes

Inclusive Dates:

1864-1927

Series Number:

B0961

Arrangement

Geographical by county, and therein numerical by volume number.

Scope and Content Note

B0961-85: These are tax assessors atlases of counties and towns in Kings and Richmond counties. They were apparently prepared to determine land ownership for the purpose of tax assessment, and were received from town supervisors and treasurers and filed with the Comptroller's Office. Some plats bear manuscript annotations that apparently indicate parcels sold in Comptroller's tax sales.

The volumes are divided by county into two subseries. They share many of the same characteristics, and map information generally contains lot or parcel numbers and dimensions; names of property owners; street names; bodies of water and (sometimes) bulkhead lines; and dominant landmarks.

Subseries 1: Tax Assessor's Atlases of Kings County Towns, 1871-1875, 1881, 5 volumes. Subseries 1 consists of five volumes containing 145 large scale lithographed plat maps for the Town of New Lots and Town of Gravesend Sewer District No. 3 in Kings County (now borough of Brooklyn). Maps in the first four volumes are products of the two respective towns and were received from the town supervisors; the fifth volume is an annotated copy of a commercially produced atlas.

All maps are lithographs, either pasted or sewn onto fabric. Maps in four of the five volumes are in color. The plats show subdivisions, lots, roads, bodies of water, condition of land (sometimes) and buildings present on specific parcels, some of which are named. Maps generally measure 59 x 44 cm or larger, within varying volume sizes (some maps cover two pages). Characteristics vary within the individual volumes as to title pages, filing and compilation dates, and scale. Some volumes may contain an index map, an alphabetical index by name of property owner, or a color block legend. Some have continuation directions in the form of pointed finger illustrations drawn by hand. The final volume is an annotated copy of "Robinsons Atlas of Kings County New York" containing 32 colored plates done to a scale of 60 feet to one inch, plus one key map in the front of the volume, and a final plate of the City of Brooklyn done to a scale of one mile to three inches.

Subseries 2: Tax Assessor's Atlases of Richmond County Towns, 1883-1896, 10 volumes. Subseries 2 consists of ten volumes containing 219 plat maps of Castleton, New Brighton, Middletown, Southfield, and Staten Island in Richmond County. Maps in the first nine volumes seem to be products of the localities, while the final volume is an annotated copy of a commercially produced atlas.

Characteristics vary within volumes. Some contain maps dated similarly; others have varying dates, some based on the same survey. With the exception of some initial maps in some volumes, all maps are colored or annotated in color, and are either pasted or sewn onto cloth. In general, maps give similar information to that in Subseries 1. Scale is generally 100 feet to one inch, except for the final volume in which it is 400 feet to one inch. Map size is 63 x 81 cm or smaller, with the bulk of maps approximately 48 x 68 cm.

The first six volumes cover Castleton and New Brighton wards 1 to 6, and arrangement of maps within the volumes indicates that property information was updated from previously prepared maps that are placed at the beginning of each volume. Volumes 7 and 8 cover Middletown, pages 1 to 16 and 17 to 28 respectively. Volume 9 contains "Amended Tax Maps" in the Town of Southfield. Volume 10 is the "Atlas of Staten Island" that contains an outline plan and index to the atlas in the front of the volume.

B0961-99: This accretion consists of 38 published atlases of counties, boroughs, cities, and towns. Most are annotated (some heavily) with lot numbers, and occasionally with names of owners, for the purpose of tax assessment. Some include statements of date received from the county treasurer and signature of the comptroller.

Related Material

B0963 New York State Comptrollers' Office Index to Tax Maps for Kings and Richmond Counties, indexes the 1985 accretion of this series.

Other Finding Aids

Available at Repository

Most county atlases include a town index.

B0961-99: Volume list is available at the repository.

Processing Information

Former accretion B0962-85, accessioned in September 1985, was combined with accretion B0961-85 by Archives staff in February 1991 upon determining that they had been inadvertently divided into separate series.