Item #20874 New York City Map: "Discription (sic) of L. Ackermans Property in Franklin St & West BWay and of Church Property" L. Ackerman, Thomas Riley.

New York City Map: "Discription (sic) of L. Ackermans Property in Franklin St & West BWay and of Church Property"

ca 1840. Sketch map of property in Tribeca, 5th Ward of New York, bordered by Franklin Street and West Broadway, one of the most exclusive residential neighborhoods in Manhattan, and showing "Thos. Riley's Hotel".

Thomas Riley, an Irish immigrant to New York, recognized the potential for a high end hotel given the fine homes in the area, and opened the 5th Ward Hotel in 1826. Riley displayed curiosities and historical artifacts in the hotel's public room, and eventually the hotel became known as Riley's Fifth Ward Museum Hotel.

A contemporary account of the Fifth Ward Museum states that the public room also included in its collection one of the Hawaiian clubs used to kill Captain James Cook: "Among its curiosities were a two-headed calf eloquently stuffed, the pig that butted a man off the bridge, one of the Hawaiian clubs that dashed out the brains of Captain Cook, Tecumseh's rifle, a pipe that General Jackson had smoked, and a large number of genuine relics of the colonial days of New York." ('A Tour Around New York And My Summer Acre, Being The Recreations Of Mr Felix Oldboy'. Mines, John Flavel. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1893, p 18).

Riley even rescued a statue of William Pitt which had been defaced by British soldiers at the end of the Revolutionary War and placed it on the Franklin Street hotel facade.

Ackerman owned 5 lots; this sketch map was evidently done for him as his property is shaded in, with pencil. Other land owners listed as Smith Harriott, Mrs. Galagher & the Church. Some pencil annotations of length and breadth. Docketed on the reverse.

On paper 6 1/2 x 7 1/2", old folds. Appears to be separated from the bottom of a letter, but with the text on verso when it was filed. Very good condition. Item #20874

Price: $275.00

See all items in NEW YORK CITY
See all items by ,