Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
Art & Architecture Collection

Ownership: mortgages and deeds

If all places fail in locating information on a building, then perhaps the following resources may be able to shed some light on your address:

Office of the City Register
Access to Conveyance Records (deeds and mortgages), which may include information about: when the building was built, parties to the sale, buildings on the site, material used for construction and the name of the architect

ACRIS
Search property records and view the documents online for Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, and Brooklyn from 1966 to the present

Property Shark
A property and real estate website that is searchable by address, borough and block level. Registration is required and a subscription needed for more than four searches per day

Mighty Map
Online database that is searchable by address, intersection, block and lot, borough or map.  Reports on NYC buildings and property including owners, tax liens, auctions, foreclosure sales, zoning, land use, lis pendens, building permits, tax values and comparables.  Includes data on building residents and businesses.  Professional edition is accessible onsite at SIBL through subscription. 

Municipal Archives
Access to the microfilm collection of the Assessed Valuation of Real Estate 1789-1979 which contains the name of the owner (or occupant) with a description of the property and its assessed valuation.  Especially useful for structures built prior to the Department of Buildings in 1866