Borough President Of Maps

Scott Stringer shows how the office of borough president stays relevant:

[T]he Manhattan borough president is charged with keeping all the official maps of New York County dating back to 1748, many of which have faded and begun to crumble to the point that they are in dire need of preservation.

Last week, Stringer put out a request for information from preservationists for ideas on how to save the crumbling maps, which are still publicly accessible. He also wants to digitize them and possibly put them online.

This is not merely a matter of interest to historians. The old maps detail the 21 lakes or ponds, 61 miles of streams and countless hills that marked the island of Manhattan before they were reshaped, expanded upon, or wiped clean over centuries of hubris.

In fact, the maps are still consulted whenever development or construction is being done.

“This is the history of the center of the universe,” Stringer said. “These maps should not be in this condition — they should be in a museum.”

The Map Room of the Topographical Bureau — just down the hall from Stringer’s 19th-floor office at 1 Centre St. — contains a collection of 4,000 maps, 800 of which are being targeted for major restoration.

Some of the maps have already been removed from the large, bound volumes that are kept in a series of tall filing cabinets and placed on archival paper, but many are too vulnerable to be handled any longer.