the Project

Despite its significance, no known photos or drawings of Seneca Village, nor any above-ground traces of it, survive. After its destruction by the city in 1857, the village was omitted from city histories and almost forgotten for over a century. Envisioning Seneca Village wrestles with these stark facts that can make it challenging to imagine what the village was like and to fully grasp its significance.

Over the past three decades, however, scholars, educators, artists, and descendants have brought Seneca Village back into public memory, through archival and archaeological research, educational outreach, works of art, and more. Compared with many other historical communities that have similarly suffered disruption and displacement, the village has been relatively well studied. This project aims to build upon and amplify existing (and ongoing) research to create an accessible model of this important place that can be experienced by visitors. The project's goal is to bring the thoughtful work of many researchers to new audiences, within New York and beyond, to enhance public knowledge, encourage new studies, and commemorate the history of this community. While the history of Seneca Village’s destruction is important, we aim to highlight and honor the lives and the community that villagers made there.

The process of building the 3D model integrated diverse source material, earlier findings of many researchers, and different methods from various fields. Still, the project also required some speculation to imagine how Seneca Village might have appeared in the mid-nineteenth century and in 1855, in particular, the date of the last New York State census of the village and of a topographical map by Egbert Viele that is the foundation of our model. Throughout the process, we have sought both to faithfully depict what can be supported by evidence and to fill in gaps with informed assumptions in order to represent what life within this community may have been (For more information about how the model was developed, including considerations and assumptions, see Methodology. For a complete list of our sources, see References.)

In addition to the 3D model, we have included a static (non-interactive) Tour through Seneca Village. Forthcoming are teaching guides to illustrate how the model can be used in high school courses, short videos about various relevant topics with experts, and a rendering of one of the interiors of the home.

The project, website, 3D model, and other related materials here are offered for public use under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution, Non-Commercial license. If you are a researcher interested in using the underlying GIS data created to support this project, please contact one of us via email.

To cite the project: Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang. 2024. Envisioning Seneca Village. Website with interactive 3D model. envisioningsenecavillage.github.io

the Team

The project is a collaboration between Gergely Baics, Meredith Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang. Our team also included research assistants: Barnard College students Sarah Baybeck, Maia Donald, and Jesse Pearce. Additional support has been provided by the Central Park Conservancy and generous guidance from advisors listed below.

Gergely Baics (Email; Profile) is Associate Professor of History and Urban Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. His research areas include urban history (Americas & Europe), spatial history, U.S. economic and social history, and social science history methods. He is the author of Feeding Gotham: The Political Economy and Geography of Food in New York, 1790-1860 (Princeton University Press, 2016). His articles have appeared in the Journal of Urban History, Urban History, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, and Planning Perspectives. He is also one of the Co-PIs on the public spatial history project Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas.

Meredith Linn (Email; Profile) is Associate Professor of Historical Archaeology at Bard Graduate Center. She researches artifacts, documents, and oral histories to discover more about people omitted from traditional histories. She is particularly interested in issues of health, healing, and community in nineteenth-century New York City. Her book, Irish Fever: An Archaeology of Illness, Injury, and Healing in New York City, 1845–1875, and articles published in the journal Historical Archaeology investigate the experiences of Irish immigrants. She is also a co-author of the archaeological site report of the 2011 excavations of Seneca Village and an assistant director of the long-term collaborative team researching the village, the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History (IESVH).

Leah Meisterlin (Email; Website) is an urbanist, cartographer, and geospatial methodologist. Broadly, her work engages techniques of social representation in data visualization, critical geospatial analytics, and informational ethics. Her articles and essays have appeared in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Planning Perspectives, the Avery Review, and ARPA Journal. Among others, her work has been shown in exhibition at the Oslo Architecture Triennial and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is also one of the Co-PIs on the public spatial history project Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas.

Myles Zhang (Email; Website) is a PhD candidate in architecture and urban history at the University of Michigan. His dissertation examines how state policy drove urban decline in Detroit and Detroit-like spaces, in which state actors and market influences target specific urban neighborhoods and communities and subject them to displacement. Using the tools of history and archives, this work challenges the popular misconception that particular urban neighborhoods are marginalized as a result of the work ethic of those who occupy and live there.

Project Advisors

Special thanks to to the Central Park Conservancy for their generous support.

Lane Addonizio. Consultant and former Vice President for Planning, Central Park Conservancy. (Email; LinkedIn)
Alice E. Baldwin-Jones. Anthropologist, LaGuardia Community College & IESVH. (Email; LinkedIn)
Elizabeth Blackmar. Historian, Columbia University.
George Brandon. Anthropologist, City College, CUNY Graduate Center & IESVH.
Kelly M. Britt. Archaeologist, Brooklyn College. (Email)
Cynthia R. Copeland. Public Historian, IESVH.
Diana diZerega Wall. Archaeologist, City College, CUNY Graduate Center & IESVH.
Andrew S. Dolkart. Historian, Columbia University. (Email)
Karen Horry. Chair, Parks and Recreation Committee, Manhattan Community Board 10. (Email)
Salmaan Khan. Vice President for Planning and Research, Central Park Conservancy. (Email; LinkedIn)
Jessica Striebel MacLean. Historian, Central Park Conservancy. (Email)
Alexander Manevitz. Historian, Baruch College, CUNY. (Email; Bio)
Sara Cedar Miller. Historian Emerita, Central Park Conservancy. (Email; Bio)
Leah Mollin-Kling. Urban Archaeologist, NYC Archaeological Repository, a project of LPC.
John T. Reddick. Director of Community Engagement Projects, Central Park Conservancy. (Email)
Nan A. Rothschild. Archaeologist, Barnard College, Columbia University, & IESVH.
Geoffrey Jackson Scott. Cofounder and Creative Director, Peoplmovr. Head of Immersive Development, Culture House Immersive. (Email; Bio)
Herbert C. Seignoret. Colin Powell School, City College of New York, CUNY, & IESVH (Email)
Amanda Sutphin. Director of Archaeology, NYC Archaeological Repository, a project of LPC. (Email)
Eric K. Washington. Independent Public Historian. (Email; Website)
Kevin Wiley. Urban Archaeologist, NYC Archaeological Repository, a project of LPC.
Andrew Thomas Williams IV & Mareia M. Williams. Descendants and family historians. (LinkedIn)

Note: The Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village History (IESVH), also known as the Seneca Village Project, is a group that has been collaborating on researching Seneca Village since 1998.