This page includes the references cited and notes per annotation in the 3D model and tour through Seneca Village, followed by a bibliography with complete citations per source. Jump to full Bibliography.

Annotation Notes

1. Visualizing a Village

Key map sources: Sage 1838, 1856; Dripps 1851; Common Council 1853?; Serrell 1853; Viele 1855.
Key sources about architecture: Valentine 1862, 1865; McAlester and McAlester 1984; Noble 1984; Carter and Cromley 2005.
Key primary social history sources: All Angels’ Church Parish Records 1846–1858; Letters of affidavit (Mathews 1855; Pease 1855; Quinn 1855; Riddles 1855; Trustees of African Union Church 1855; Williams 1856; Webster 1856; Wallace 1857?); New York City Death Records (NYCMDR 1812–1860); New York City Property Tax Assessment Records (NYPTAR 1828–1855); New York State Census (NYSC 1855); US Federal Censuses (USBC 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860).
Key social history and historical archaeological secondary sources: Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992; Hodges 1999; Harris 2003; Wall et al. 2008, 2019; Manevitz 2021; Miller 2022; Linn et al. in press.
About the collaborative historical archaeological project: Wall et al. 2004; Linn et al. 2023.
Archaeological site report: Wall et al. 2018.

2. Nanny Goat Hill

Elevation: Viele 1855.
Name of hill: Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992, 66 citing New York Times 1924:16.
Surrounding areas: Hooker 1828; Dripps 1851, 1852.
Linked illustration “View from Summit Rock West”: Viele 1857.
Community founded by African Americans: Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992, 65–73.

3. Origins of Seneca Village

Initial land purchases: New York City Land Conveyances 1630–1975; Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992, 65.
Number of families and composition calculated by Meredith Linn and Marie Warsh using a variety of primary sources, especially USBC 1850; NYSC 1855; NYPTAR 1828–1855; and Sage 1856.
Churches and schools: Sage 1856.
Property ownership, self-sufficiency, and village complexity: Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992, 65–73; Wall et al. 2008, 2018, 2019; Manevitz 2021; Miller 2022; Linn et al. in press.
Slanderous newspaper article: New-York Daily Times 1856, 3.

4. All Angels’ Church and Cemetery

Number and location of churches: Sage 1856.
Mission, cost of church, and deeding of property: Johnson 2023, 17–18.
Linked image of St. Michael’s Church: French 2021.
Relocation of Church and photo of All Angels’ Church exterior in 1887: Johnson 2003, 41–42; All Angels’ Church 2020.
Description of church exterior: Miller 2022:202–203 paraphrasing the Christian Witness and Church Advocate 1850, 186.
Cemetery visualization informed by photograph of sister parish, St. Michael’s Church, in French 2021.

5. All Angels’ Church Interior

Description of church interior: Christian Witness and Church Advocate 1850 cited in Miller 2022:202–203.
Photo of All Angels’ Church interior in 1887: Johnson 2003, 41–42; All Angels’ Church 2020.
Surviving parish records: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.

6. Wilson Family House

Identification of this structure as the Wilson home and its size: Sage 1856.
Construction date: NYPTAR 1849–1852; USBC 1850.
House materials: Sage 1856 and Wall et al. 2018, 53–54.
Details about Wilson family members and relationships: NYSC 1855; USBC 1850, 1860; All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.
Mr. Wilson as sexton: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858; Johnson 2023, 35–36, 45, 47, 61–62.

7. Wilson Family House Artifacts

Artifacts excavated: Wall et al. 2018; New York City Archaeological Repository 2020. See also: Wall et al. 2019 and Linn et al. in press.
Wilson children attending school: USBC 1840, 1860.
Mrs. Charlotte Wilson is noted as not able to read or write in the 1850 Federal Census, able to read only in the 1855 New York State Census, and able to both read and write in the 1860 Federal Census.
For more about school attendance in Seneca Village versus downtown in “Little Africa” see Wall, Rothschild, and Copeland 2008.

The Wilson house is the inspiration for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (2021) “Afrofuturist Period Room.”

8. African Union Church

Construction date and relationship with downtown branch: Colored American 1840, cited in Central Park Conservancy 2023; Trustees of African Union Church 1855.
Origin of African Union Church: Russell 1920.
Birthplace of William Mathew: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
NYC Death Records are in the Municipal Archives.

9. Colored School #3

Attached schoolhouse: Sage 1856; Freeman 1966, 342, cited in Rosenzweig & Blackmar 1992, 71.
School name and Caroline W. Simpson as teacher: Valentine 1855, 253. Note, Valentine 1856, 264 lists the teacher as Caroline W. Thompson.
Subjects taught and night schools: McCabe 1872, 668-669.
Founding and importance of African Free Schools: MAAP 2024.
African Free Schools as precursor to and relationship with NYC public school system: Mccarthy 2014.
Engraving of African Free School #2 on Mulberry and Grand Street, opened in 1820: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, the NYPL. Available online from MAAP 2024.
For more about African Free Schools, and another “Colored School,” #4 on West 17th Street, see Washington 2022.
School attendance of village children ages 4–14: 1850 Federal Census. This census also suggests that boys in the village were more likely to attend school into their early teenage years than girls.
For more about school attendance in Seneca Village versus downtown in “Little Africa,” see Wall, Rothschild, and Copeland 2008.

10. School Yard and Games

On 19th-century games Seneca Village children may have played: Giffard 2022.
For more about 19th-century games and toys, see King Manor 2024 and Chudacoff 2007.
Marbles were also popular and found in the 2011 archaeological excavations of Seneca Village, but they are too small to depict in the model.

11. AME Zion Church and Greenhouse

First landowners: Rosenzweig & Blackmar 1992, 65; Ng 1999, 41, citing Grady Turner, Cynthia Copeland, and Herbert Signoret’s research in the New York City Land Conveyances Grantor Index 1825–1832.
Location of AME Zion’s lands: Sage 1856.
AME Zion Church history and break from the John Street Church: Hood 1914, 19-21; Bradley 1956, 81-83.
GPR Testing: Conyers 2005.
Laying of cornerstone: New-York Daily Tribune 1853, 7.
Map showing greenhouse: Sage 1856.
For a short history of the AME Zion Church see Winchell 2020.

12. Haff House and Garden

Smith’s ownership of the land: NYPTAR 1828–1841; Sage 1838.
Smith in the AME Church: Bradley 1956, 83.
Levin Smith portrait: The only known image of a Seneca Village resident is an artist’s portrait of Smith in the collection of Mother AME Zion Church, reproduced in New-York Historical Society Education Department 2010, 17.
Haff’s ownership: NYPTAR 1842–1857; USBC 1850; NYSC 1855; Sage 1856; Miller 2022, 189-190.
Haff family names: NYSC 1855.
Relationship to Rev. Stillwell: 1831 marriage announcement Sawyer 1931, 11.
Rev. Stillwell’s relationship to AME Zion Church: Hood 1914, 19-21; Bradley 1956, 81-83.
Haff’s gardening prize: American Institute of the City of New York 1844, 30, cited in Lee and Hunter 2016, 4-5.
Haff’s proprietorship of Elm Park: Lamb 1884, cited in Lee and Hunter 2016, 4-5.

13. Williams House

Williams first individual to buy land in village: New York City Land Conveyances 1630–1975; Rosenzweig & Blackmar 1992, 65.
Place of birth, occupation, and family members: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
Ages of family members in the annotation diverge slightly from those reported in the 1855 census and are based on more reliable sources, courtesy of his descendant Mareia Williams, including the death certificate of Jeremiah Williams, the marriage certificate of Jeremiah and Ann E[liza] Turin Williams, the death certificate of Andrew Elias Williams, and an affidavit of Ellen Ann [Williams] Butler.
Membership in the African Society and AME Zion Church: Zuille 1892, 27-28; Alexander 2008, 155.
Residence of Ellen Williams Butler: inferred from NYSC 1855; Sage 1856; and family relationship.
Williams’s letter: Williams 1856.
Williams’ descendants: CBS Sunday Morning 2022.

14. Landin House and Stables

Landin family’s residence in this structure: Sage 1856.
Renting to Jacksons: inferred from NYSC 1855.
Attached stable and other stables in village: Sage 1856.
Landin family, ages, and places of birth: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
Baptisms and marriage of Sarah Landin to John Peterson: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.
Josiah Landin’s land purchases, rental from Zabriskie, and planting business: Miller 2022, 188–189.
Landin’s possible relationship with Zabriskie inferred by Linn from Zabriskie family wills, Ancestry.com.

15. 86th Street

Identification of houses along 86th Street as belonging to the Williamses, Landens, and McCollins: Sage 1856.
To view how 86th Street connected Yorkville, Seneca Village, and Bloomingdale, see Dripps 1851. Miller (2022, 127–129) shows how the original boundaries of Yorkville included the area of Seneca Village.
Families who moved to Yorkville after Seneca Village was destroyed include the McCollins, Gearys, Harrisons, and Greens, according to the 1860 Federal Census. Andrew Williams also purchased a home in Yorkville. His son, Jeremiah lived there in 1860, according to the federal census of that year, and Andrew Williams died there in 1878, according to his descendant, Mareia Williams.

16. McCollin Houses

McCollin ownership of properties: New York City Land Conveyances 1630–1975; NYPTAR 1827–1840; USBC 1850; NYSC 1855; Sage 1856.
Date of construction: NYPTAR 1830–1840.
Value in 1855: NYSC 1855.
Dimensions of houses: Sage 1856.
First names, ages, and occupations: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
Elizabeth Harding McCollin’s land purchases and properties: New York City Land Conveyances 1630–1975; Sage 1838, 1856.
Marriage: Methodist Marriage Register for the City of New York 1819–1837, 102.
Property once owned by Diana Harding: Sage 1856.
Possible enslavement of Samuel Harding: Miller 2022, 172.
House residents in 1855: NYSC 1855.

17. McCollin Outhouses

Our interpretation of these structures as outhouses is speculation based on size and location in comparison to known privies, see Geismar 1993; Cantwell and Wall 2001, 242-247.
On chamber pots: Noël Hume 2003.
Growing concerns about hygiene: Brown 2009.
Nightsoil men and value of human and animal waste for fertilizer: Geismar 1993; Baldwin 2012; and McNeur 2012.

Note that while human waste was thought to be potentially dangerous to health because of the foul vapors, or “miasmas,” they emitted, the idea that microscopic organisms, or “germs,” within fecal matter caused disease would not be discovered until the 1870s and not widely accepted for at least a decade after that.

18. Geary House

Property location and purchase date: NYPTAR 1849; Sage 1856. Miller (2022, 283–284) notes that the wealthy NYC cotton merchant George G. Root commissioned a large “house, stables, sheds, icehouse, & c.” on the property (per an 1846 advertisement) in order to create a resort by the reservoir, but he declared bankruptcy and the property changed hands a few times before being purchased by the City for the use of the reservoir keeper. This explains the large size of the house and why it had a piazza or covered porch.
Piazza: Common Council of the City of New York 1853?.
Geary family Bible:Ancestry.com.
Roman Catholicism: Several of the Geary children were baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral and St. Peter’s, Archdiocese of New York 1831.
Geary family names, ages, and occupations in 1855: NYSC 1855. Neighboring structures: Sage 1856.

19. Croton Receiving Reservoir

Costliest public works and largest constructions: calculated by Baics 2016, 46–48 with information from Koeppel 2000, 167–172.
Tourism: Koeppel 2000, 277.
Drawing of reservoir: Currier 1842.
That the aqueduct’s embankment was at street grade at 86th Street: Schramke Description of the New-York Croton Aqueduct 1846, 49-50; Wegman 1896, 58.
Availability of Croton water: Spann 1981, 120.

20. 85th Street

Thumbnail: Schramke Profile of Lower Part of Croton Aqueduct 1846.
For the Aqueduct’s length and dimensions: Tower 1843, 91-93.
For the aqueduct’s placement 5-10 feet under 85th Street, where it connected to the Reservoir’s influent gate: Historic American Engineering Record 1968.
Locations of churches, school and homes along 85th Street: Sage 1856.

21. Mathew House

Mathew’s ownership of this property: NYPTAR 1832–1855; Mathew 1855.
Property value and details about household members: NYSC 1855.
African Union preacher: Trustees of African Union Church 1855; NYCMDR 1836–1849 (oversaw burials).
Compensation and property improvements: Mathew 1855, courtesy of Marie Warsh, John Reddick, and the Central Park Conservancy.
Landscape features: Viele 1855.

22. Garnet House

Construction date: NYPTAR 1837.
Value and information about occupants in 1855: NYSC 1855.
Adjacent fields: Viele 1855.
Church affiliation: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.
Garnet financial trouble and taxes paid by St. Michael’s Church member: quitclaim to Rev. Peters, courtesy of Paul Johnson; NYPTAR 1845–1855.

23. Sylvan House

Basement and stoops: Sage 1856.
Sylvans living in this house: Inferred by NYSC 1855 order of households and Sylvan’s ownership of this property from 1829–1840 in NYPTAR 1829–1840; Sage 1838.
Details about the Sylvan and Jimmerson families: NYSC 1855. Birthplace in Haiti and spelling of daughter’s name “Charlot” suggests family might have been French speaking.
Possible immigration during Haitian Revolution: Foreman 2016.
Barn: Sage 1856.

24. Dunn Shanty, Barn, and Stable

1856 map: Sage 1856.
Anchoring to bedrock: Viele 1855.
Dunn family’s origins, ages, names, occupations: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
Renting from Pease: NYPTAR 1855; Sage 1856.
Church affiliation and son’s burial: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.
Milk in city: Lobel 2014, 84–88 and 95–102; McNeur 2014, 134–174; Baics 2016, 254, 318, 325.
Stable and barn: Sage 1856.
Rendering of barn and stable informed by Valentine 1862, 1865; Noble 1984, 16–18.
Nearby stream: Viele 1855.

25. Sally Wilson House

Location of house and ownership: Sage 1856; NYPTAR 1844–1855. See also Miller 2022, 270–271, for more information about Sally Wilson, including her connection to the nearby wealthy white landowner David Wagstaff.
Details about Sally Wilson and Sarah Tredwell: NYSC 1855.
Advertisement: Freedom's Journal 1829 cited in Miller 2022, 192.
Value of house in 1855: NYSC 1855.
Importance of chickens: Williams-Forson 2006.
Village dogs: Peters 1907, 94–95.
Planted fields: Viele 1855.
Water collection and use of landscape: Wall et al. 2018, F-44; Linn et al. in press.
Newspaper article: New-York Daily Times 1856, 3.

26. Webster and Philips Houses

Purchase date: NYPTAR 1854; Webster 1856.
Philips shanty: Sage 1856.
Ages, origins, children, occupations: USBC 1850; NYSC 1855. The 1850 and 1855 censuses give conflicting information about Matilda Philips’s age—both indicate she was 19—and we have been unable to find other sources to clarify the issue.
Marriage of Catharine Matilda Scudder to William Philips: All Angels’ Church 1846–1858.
McCollins’ land ownership: NYPTAR 1855; Sage 1856.
Scudder family in village: NYPTAR 1833–1843; Sage 1838; USBC 1850.

27. Webster and Philips House Artifacts

Artifacts excavated: Wall et al. 2018; New York City Archaeological Repository 2020. See also: Wall et al. 2019 and Linn et al. in press.
Plant remains: Jacobucci and Trigg 2012; McKnight 2014; Wall et al. 2018, 73–74 and F-44–F-50.
Animal remains: Wall et al. 2018, 70–73; Watson 2018.
Button from man’s coat: White 2005.

28. Ishmael Allen Shanty and Shop

Allen’s shanty and shop size and location: Sage 1856.
Details about Allen family: NYSC 1855.
Race as a social construction: see Fields and Fields 2012 and the American Anthropological Association’s 2024 interactive website Understanding Race, among myriad other sources.
For a personal reflection upon shifting census categorizations of a family, see Morris 2017.
For more about blacksmiths in 19th-century free African American communities, see LaRoche 2014.

29. John White Shanty

Details about White family: NYSC 1855.
Shanty size and renting from Wallace: Sage 1856.
African Americans in maritime industries: Bolster 1998.
Davis, neighbor: inferred from NYSC 1855.
Value of homes: NYSC 1855.
Lucy Celia Wallace inheritance: Will of Isaac Wallace, Ancestry.com.

30. Tanner’s Spring

Spring location: Viele 1865; Central Park Conservancy 2023.
Variable accessibility to Croton water: Spann 1981:120.
William Mathew’s well: Mathew 1855.
Photograph of Tanner’s Spring: Smith 1901.

31. Gallagher House and Stable

Gallagher home location: Sage 1856.
Gallaghers among earliest Irish residents and family details: USBC 1840; USBC 1850; NYSC 1855.
Naturalization: NYSC 1855.
Stables: Sage 1856.

32. Conclusion: Seneca Village Demolished for Central Park

Village’s destruction: Commissioners of the Central Park 1858; Marie Warsh pers. comm.; Miller 2022.
Recent pre-demolition construction: New-York Daily Tribune 1853, 7 ; NYDTAR 1853–55.
Petitions: Mathews 1855; Pease 1855; Quinn 1855; Riddles 1855; Williams 1856; Webster 1856; Wallace 1857?.
After Seneca Village: USBC 1860; USBC 1870; and also for the Wilsons, Johnson 2023, 35–36, 45, 47, 61–62.

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