Commisioner's Plan of 1811(New York, New York);1811-15; Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Architecture in America

The commissioner’s plan of 1811 was an attempt to plan ahead and organize the existing Manhattan map grid. The original Manhattan reached from the lower tip of the island to what is now 23 street. From time to time the city sold portions of the land in order to raise fund for the city to pay for municipal buildings and services. This also allowed the city to keep the taxes low. In 1789 nine buyers bought almost 200 acres of land in Manhattan, this was the prime time to buy land in the city. Although these land owners were signed in to 21-year leases. Once the land was purchased it was up to the land owner to establish the layout of the streets and blocks up until 1807. In 1807 the city had legislators from Albany pass a bill for the city to be able to propose the layout of the city grid for the streets and the blocks. The reasoning to have the city decide where and how to have the grid for the city is so the island of Manhattan would have some sort of order and to help the health of the city. The issue of this was the city did not have enough authority to enforce these rules that were authorized by Albany. As the Manhattan common council was dissatisfied with the lack of authority the requested a revised piece of legislation. A month later after the request Albany passed the bill that would give commissioners exclusive power to layout streets, roads, and public squares, if the changes benefited the general public. This also granted to shut any streets that do not follow the proposed grid lines of legislation. Although this power only extended to Houston street to the northern part of Manhattan. Once the street grid was established and was opened the city was to purchase land required at “reasonable compensation”, the exception was only if the land owner did not comply with the city’s guide lines. The commissioner was also granted to enter any land during daylight hours to perform surveys and take measurements. Although this did not go over smoothly with the land owners and residents as there was opposition.