Commissioners’ Map and Survey of Manhattan Island

Anna Deavere Smith: This map may look familiar. It shows Manhattan, with its famous grid plan. We can see the streets and avenues that intersect at perfect right angles and structure our daily lives in countless ways. But look closer. This is not exactly the Manhattan we know today. Where is Central Park? It should be nestled in the center of the plan, stretching from 59th to 110th Streets. And what about the upper tip of the island? The grid simply vanishes north of 155th Street.

No, this is not Manhattan as it is—or even as it was. Hand-drawn in 1811, it’s a vision of what Manhattan might one day become. In the early 1800s, the city consisted only of the tangle of disjointed streets you see at the bottom of the plan. North of that, Manhattan was a sparsely populated patchwork of farms, meadows, ponds, and streams. If you look closely, you can see these natural features, along with existing streets, buildings, and even the names of property owners, delineated beneath the grid.

But the city was bursting—and a plan for northward development was needed. John Randel, Jr., just 21 years old, was commissioned to create the blueprint for expansion. Randel’s plan would transform Manhattan’s winding trails and uneven plots into precise, easily managed city blocks.

But not everyone was happy. Some found the plan unsightly and unimaginative. Others feared for their homes and livelihoods. One woman whose house was imperiled by the plans pelted Randel and his colleagues with cabbages and artichokes. Despite the outcry, Randel’s plan was a preliminary blueprint of what was to come—a harbinger of the massive changes and eventual urbanization that would define New York City.