Missing Deeds?

[Jacqueline]

Hi all,
Jackie here. I’ve been researching the history of the Along-the-Hudson Park, but can’t find records of relevant real estate transactions from 1898 through 1917. This is a critical era during which ATH was formed, buying pieces of the large estates and making its earliest property sales. The people at the NYC Registers Office in Queens (where the historical records are kept) tell me the deeds from these years are missing. I’m going to contact the Westchester County Archives to see if the deeds somehow ended up in their collection, but does anyone have any other ideas of where I could look?
BTW, if anyone has any questions about the early ATH homes, families, etc., I’m happy to share what I know so far. I hope to become more adept at posting here.
Many thanks, everybody.

[dwolff49]

I’m sure you’re doing a geographical search, but if you’re using the name Along-the-Hudson Park, that could be at least part of the problem. It’s called Riverdale Park. Regardless, as you know, anything you learn would be welcome to all of us. Oh, and there are two houses where the park stops and then restarts. That history would be interesting too.

[dwolff49]

I see I was mistaken about the name of a housing development vs present day Riverdale Park. Thank you, Nick, for correcting me.

[julieabellhorn]

Hi Jackie,

I haven’t done any Bronx deed research since the records moved to Queens, but back when they were at the Bronx City Register I think the microfilm/fiche was available. And I think I remember the grantor/grantee original folios once existed for the Bronx when they were at the original City Register office.  Are you saying that neither the original copies nor the scanned versions can be found now? If so, that would really be a shame.  I’ve found that usually the best sources for up-to-date information are usually the title searchers who do this for a living.  If you go in person to Queens, see if you can find a friendly regular and try to pick their brain.  Good luck!

Best,

Julie

[ndembowski]

Some may not know about Along the Hudson Park, which was an early 20th century real estate development south of today’s Riverdale Park.  Here is a map advertising lots in the development:

One question I have about it has to do with the “Private Boat Landing” on the Hudson River at the end of 231st Street:

The map shows an overpass over the railroad tracks leading to the river bank.  Today there still is an overpass there although it has seen better days (photo courtesy of Kevin Horbatiuk):

I wonder if this boat landing is collectively owned by the homeowners of the former Along the Hudson Development.

[Tom Gaffney]

Hi, All,

The “Along the Hudson Park” was not a City Park, but a private development.  Most of the houses shown on that developer’s Map are still there, although the one shown fronting on Spuyten Duyvil Parkway, on Plot 22, may be torn down soon. Nipnicheson Glen has been obliterated, but that large house next to it is still there.

To search the provenance of City Parks, the deed registry is usually not always where you find it.  Parks were often acquired by condemnation or by resolutions of the “Sinking Fund”.  If you are going to search the deed registry, you need to find a veteran examiner at the Bronx City Register’s Office who will do a ‘common owner’ search, going back to when the overall area was owned by one party. In this case, that’s pretty easy, as the “Along the Hudson Company” owned the parcel when the Map was filed.  I can’t make out a date on the Map, but it shows the Henry Hudson Bridge, which opened in 1936.  Waterfront access was a common perquisite on filed maps.  My guess is that the mapmaker acquired riverfront rights from the prior owner, which were not always wiped out by the Hudson River Railroad right of way, and that each homeowner had a right to this dock. Whether this right was lost since 1936, or simply fell into desuetude might be worth looking into for these property owners.

If you have the time, a good place to research City Parks might be the Parks Department Headquarters at the Arsenal in Central Park. As always, the trick is to find the right person there.

Thanks,

Tom

[Thomas Casey]

I found The Westchester County Tax Accessor Archives have many deeds of the Bronx beyond 1898, at least complete up to 1898

[Jacqueline]

Thanks, all—this is great information!
I’ve wondered about that private boat landing, too. There are notices in the Real Estate Record regarding transactions for underwater properties, but I haven’t looked into them yet. The photo helps in figuring out how they might have accessed the landing. No doubt I’ll discover more if and when I find those deed records!

[Jacqueline]

And thanks, Nick, for posting the map and clarification.

[Jacqueline]

[Jacqueline]

In partial answer to Nick’s question #4207: This page from the 1912 city tax record, right column under Hudson River, shows the owner of the boat landing as Along the Hudson Co. At this point I think it means that the development’s investors, and not the homeowners, owned the dock. I haven’t yet found any information indicating what relationship ATH Co. had to the individual property owners. Nick, maybe this answers part of your question?
Jackie

[Brendan]

I was a title examiner in the Bx, beginning in ’83.  The record room, then on 161st St, flooded in the early ’70’s and many maps and libers could not be saved, making searches against properties in some areas problematic.  During the depression,.the WPA had put people to work creating a block and lot indexing system with maps of what was conveyed by deeds recorded against lots in the block – tracing paper pages were added when lot lines changed.  Together with Title Guarantee’s plant, and back and forth to the indexes and libers, everything could be insured.  I vaguely recall I was put on the property you mention.  Some brain cells are telling me it had to do with the land under water, but I don’t know.   Land under navigable water was/is conveyed by the Federal gov, or the owner of the recorded Letters Patent Uncle uses to convey.  However, since early last century it is uncommon to obtain Letters Patent in areas like the one in.question (there is also a $1 redemption clause the gov inserts in LP).  The foot bridges over RR tracks, that one sees along the Hudson River are there to keep the LP valid.  No access means abandonment, which would extinguish.  I don’t think I ever found the Letters you searched for, which could have been granted any time after the Revolution.

[Brendan]

Memory of the matter returned.  Our client had a client with dreams of building a dock.  It wasn’t the first time someone thought of it.

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