Insurance maps of the Warehouses, &c. in Brooklyn, 1861

By The Red Hook WaterStories team

William Perris was a first in producing fire insurance maps for Brooklyn. The Great fires in 1835 and 1845 that destroyed large sections of the New York City made it clear to insurers the utility of knowing what buildings were made of and what hazards might be in them.

Here is the key to the color of the buildings: pink means brick, yellow means wood a wooden structure.

Below are select plates from Perris's 1861 map showing sections of the Red Hook waterfront:

Double Page Plate No. 8; [Map bounded by Hamilton Ave., Bowne St., Imlay St., Commerce St., Ewen St., Ferris St.; Including Wolcott St., Sullivan St., King St., North Pier St., South Pier St.]

Page Plate No. 9; [Map bounded by Conover St., Ferris St., King St.; Including Van Brunt St., Reid St.]

Double Page Plate No. 10; [Map bounded by Irving St., Van Brunt St., Sedgwick St., Degraw St., Beach Place, Sacket St.; Including Ferry Place, Union St., Hamilton Ave., Partition St., Dikeman St., Ferris St., Wolcott St.]

Page Plate No. 11; [Map bounded by Atlantic Basin, Summit St., Gowanus Bay, Van Brunt St.; Including Erie Basin, Bowne St., Imlay St.]

Page Plate No. 12; [Map bounded by Ferris St., Columbia St., Furman St., Joralemon St.; Including Conover St., Partition St., Vandyke St., Irving St., Sedgwick St.]

click on the images of the maps below to see them in larger scale

Date:

1861

Subjects

Sources:

Insurance maps of the Warehouses, &c. in Brooklyn from the Navy Yard to Portition Street, By W M. Perris, C.E. and Surveyor. Perris & Browne, Publishers of Insurance Maps, No. 13, Chambers Street, New York. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1860, by William Perris, in the Clerk's office of the District court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. Corrected to October 1861, by Harry, H. Browne. General Insurance Surveyor, 14 Wall Street, New York.
Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, New York Public Library,
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/atlases-of-new-york-city#/?roots=2:f415fc20-bc69-0132-4124-58d385a7bbd0/1:dc5faae0-c602-012f-f7ab-58d385a7bc34
Insurance maps of the Warehouses, &c. in Brooklyn from the Navy Yard to Portition Street, By W M. Perris, C.E. and Surveyor. Perris & Browne, Publishers of Insurance Maps, Corrected to October 1861, by Harry, H. Browne. General Insurance Surveyor,

Published on May 18, 2018. Last updated on Apr 27, 2022.