ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the spatial distribution of the immigrant population in New York City, specifically the German immigrants in the Lower East Side around Tompkins Square that became 'Kleindeutschland', Little Germany. By 1880 when immigration transformed American society, Manhattan became a 'city of immigrants' with distinctive spatial neighborhoods occupied by one immigrant group that brought its distinctive culture with them. Peter Stuyvesant, the last Governor-General of Dutch New York, and his descendants owned the salt meadows along the East River, which had little value until the nineteenth century. The base layer of the historical geographical information system consists of an 1891 Robinson map of the area overlaid with the modern digital street map from the New York City Planning Department. The Robinson maps include detailed information for each property on the city blocks including street addresses, width of lot, and each building's lot coverage.