Essex Market, Grand, corner Essex. Exchange Alley, from 55 Broadway west to New Church. Exchange Court, 74 Exchange place. Extra Place, rear of 10 First. Franklin Market, Old slip. Franklin Place, from 68 Franklin east to White. Franklin Terrace, rear 364 West Thirty-sixth. Garden Row, 140 West Eleventh. Gay, from 141 Waverley place north to Christopher. Gouverneur Market, Gouverneur slip. Gouverneur Slip, from 371 South north to 613 Water. Gramercy Park, from 106 to 142 East Twenty-first south to East Twentieth, between Third and Fourth avenues. Hamilton, from 73 Catharine east to Market. Hanson Place, Second avenue, between 124th and 125th streets. Harry Howard Square, the open space bounded by Canal, Walker, Baxter, and Mulberry. Hester Court, rear 101 Hester. Irving Place, from 117 East Fourteenth north to East Twentieth. Jefferson Market, Sixth avenue corner Greenwich avenue. Lamartine Place, West Twenty-ninth, between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Lawrence, from 126th near Ninth avenue to West 120th at the Boulevard. Liberty Place, from 57 Liberty north to Maiden lane. Little West Twelfth, from Gansevoort west to the North River. Livingston Place, from 325 East Fifteenth north to East Seventeenth. London Terrace, West Twenty-third, between Ninth and Tenth avenues. Ludlow Place, West Houston street, between Sullivan and Macdougal. Madison Square, north, East Twenty-sixth, between Fifth and Madison avenues. Manhattan, from West 124th, corner St. Nicholas avenue, to Twelfth avenue. Manhattan Market, Eleventh avenue, corner West Thirtyfourth street. Marketfield, between Broad and the Produce Exchange. New has been extended one block, now ending where Marketfield does. It begins in Wall. Martin Terrace, East Thirtieth, between Second and Third avenues. Milligan Place, 139 Sixth avenue. Minetta Place, rear 2 Minetta. Mission Place, from 58 Park north to Worth. Mitchell Place, East Forty-ninth, between First avenue and Beekman place. Mott's Lane, from 767 Eleventh avenue west. Mount Morris Avenue, from West 120th, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, north to 124th. Mount Morris Place, West 124th, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. Neilson Place, Mercer, between Waverley place and Clinton. place. New Chambers, from 67 Chatham east to Cherry. New Church, from 182 Fulton south to Morris. Part is now known as Trinity place. North William, from 16 Frankfort north to Chatham. Pacific Place, rear 133 West Twenty-ninth. Park, from 36 Centre east to Mott. Formerly Cross. Park Place, from 237 Broadway west to the North River. Part formerly known as Robinson street. Park Row, now (1890) includes Chatham street. Patchin Place, 111 West Tenth. Pleasant Avenue, from East 106th, east of First avenue, north to the Harlem River. Prospect Place, from East Fortieth, between First and Second avenues, north to East Forty-third. Rachel Lane, from 4 Goerck east to Mangin. Roslyn Place, Greene street, between West Third and West Fourth. Rutherford Place, from 224 East Seventeenth south to East Fifteenth. St. Clement's Place, Macdougal from West Houston to Bleecker, and from Waverley place to Clinton place. St. Nicholas Avenue, 110th and Sixth avenue to 145th and Ninth avenue, thence to 155th and Kingsbridge road. Seventh Street Place, rear 185 Seventh. South Fifth Avenue, from 70 West Fourth south to Canal. Formerly Laurens. South William, from 7 William west to Broad. Spencer Place, West Fourth, between Christopher and West Tenth. Striker's Lane, from 743 Eleventh avenue west. Sylvan Place, north from East 120th to East 121st, between Lexington and Third avenues. Thomas, from 317 Broadway west to Hudson. Formerly ran from Church to Hudson, but by its extension through the Hospital grounds has become longer. Tompkins Market, Third avenue, corner Sixth. Trimble Place, from 115 Duane north to Thomas. Tryon Row, from 1 Centre east to 36 Chatham. one building on this, the Staats-Zeitung. Union Market, East Houston, corner Columbia. There is only Union Square, from Fourteenth to Seventeenth streets, and Broadway to Fourth avenue. Vanderbilt Avenue, from 27 East Forty-second to East Forty fifth. Vannest Place, Charles street from West Fourth to Bleecker. Washington Market, Fulton, corner West. West Washington Market, West, between Fulton and Vesey. (Now removed further uptown.) Winthrop Place, Greene street, between Waverley place and Clinton place. Worth, from 72 Hudson east to Chatham. Formerly Anthony. In no American city does the nomenclature need more system than in New York. New York and Brooklyn practically make one city, with three very distinct parts. The island of Manhattan has the streets we have just given; Brooklyn has about as many, and there are a large number in the annexed district. No rule is observed about naming streets in either section, fancy alone governing. But Brooklyn will soon annex Flatbush and the rest of Kings County, as it once annexed Williamsburgh, and each of these neighborhoods will have its own pet system of streets. It cannot fail, too, of annexing Long Island City. What man can then attempt to keep a record of the thoroughfares of this metropolis, and to say where they are? The perplexity that the lack of system will inevitably introduce can be seen in London, with its dozens of Albert streets, Victoria places, and Wellington rows. For the convenience of the Post Office that city has been divided into districts, marked North, East, and so on. But can any resident recollect the streets of all London? now. Some new and more thorough plan must be adopted here than We have Broadway, East Broadway, West Broadway and Broadway alley; Fifth street and Fifth avenue; Pike street and Pine street; Jones street, Jones lane and Great Jones street; and Doyers street and Dover street. In the annexed district there are Bayard street, Bridge street, Broad street, Catharine street, Cedar street, Chestnut street, and Church street, without going down any further in the alphabet. All these and a hundred more are duplicated on the island; most of them are again repeated in Brooklyn. Some authority that shall give us a complete and consistent plan is needed to determine upon the appellation of our thoroughfares. Some of the features which should be embraced are: 1. Not to change the name of any street that has borne a certain cognomen fifty years. 2. To change the name of all newer ones that vary from each other no more than one letter. There could not then be a Grand and a Grant street, or an Art and a Hart street. 3. No such duplication of names should be allowed as Catharine street and Catharine lane, Madison street and Madison avenue, Twelfth street and Little Twelfth street. 4. Numbered streets should stop at One Hundredth. Frequent errors happen from the mistake of Twenty-fifth for 125th street. 5. Distinguish the different parts of the metropolis by confining them to certain letters of the alphabet. Let the letters above E be used alone in the annexed district; from F to L the island; M to R Brooklyn, and S to Z Long Island City. Thus when Clay street was named any one would know that it was in the annexed district; Norton would be in Brooklyn, Fenimore in New York and Tampa in Long Island City. Such a system could easily be learned, and would be of great value to our citizens. This metropolis is destined speedily to attain five millions of population. Few New Yorkers can give the names of any streets in the annexed district or in Brooklyn, and it lately fell to the lot of the writer to pilot an uptown cab driver to John street. The city was so large the driver did not know the downtown streets. LAND TITLES IN NEW YORK CITY.* The people of the several American colonies prior to the War of the Revolution, and especially in the province or colony of New York, from its first settlement and organization, were fully alive to the importance of maintaining and preserving public records, and particular care seems to have been taken from the beginning to make and perpetuate records affecting real estate. In this respect the American colonists greatly improved upon the system long in practice in England, under which transfers of real estate were conducted and kept at the office of a solicitor or attorney at law, or among the private papers of some country squire or land proprietor. Under the system of primogeniture prevailing in England, however, the preserving of claims of title to real estate was not so difficult as in this country, in which estates were more frequently sold or divided and subdivided. The records of conveyances of real estate, in the province or colony of New York, began with the earliest Dutch colonial period and was continued during the English colonial period, and these records were kept in the office of the Secretary of the colony * Communicated by Diedrich Willers, Jr., late Deputy Secretary of State and Secretary of State. |