Title
New York City Mayoral Auctioneer’s Quarterly Return, January 1836
Description
Autograph manuscript legal document signed by Mayor Cornelius V. W. Lawrence twice, being a sworn quarterly return of real-estate auction sales submitted by auctioneer Richard. M. Penoyer and clerk Charles A. Haswell. Single folio sheet written recto and verso, listing numerous property transactions including Texas land, Brooklyn lots, and Rahway parcels. Sworn before the mayor January 21, 1836.
3 — 20,000 acres land in Texas
3 — 10,000 do. do. (same)
6 — House lot No. 30, Grand St
6 — do. of Sullivan St
6 — do. & 2 lots in Pitt St
8 — 213 lots at Rahway, N.J.
12 — 140 acres land in Rahway Co.
12 — House lot on Mercer St
12 — do. in Abingdon Square
12 — do. 50 Elee (?) St
13 — 20 shares Colorado stock
13 — Lease of 26 lots at Williamsburg
13 — 1 lot in Carmel (Putnam Co.)
21 — 10 do. at Yonkers
28 — House & 20 lots on 120th & 121st Streets
30 — 40 lots on 62nd & 63rd Streets
30 — 102 lots in Rahway
9 — 10 lots on 5th Avenue
10 — 42 lots at Brooklyn
10 — 65 do. do.
10 — 8 do. do.
24 — 6 do. on Great Kill road
24 — House lot in Lispenard St
24 — do. in Church St
1 — 43 lots at Rahway
(Columns record whether Auction or Private sale and the amounts realized — totals range from tens of dollars to ~$15,000 blocks.)
A superb snapshot of the 1835–1837 speculative land bubble:
You have four simultaneous booms recorded in one return:
Texas land scrip speculation (before annexation)
Upper Manhattan street grid expansion (120th–121st streets barely developed)
Brooklyn & Williamsburg suburban subdivision boom
New Jersey commuter town development (Rahway)