the Project

Despite Seneca Village’s significance, no known photos or drawings, nor any above-ground traces of it, survive. After its destruction by the City of New York 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 make it challenging to imagine what the village was like and to fully understand its history.

Over the past three decades, 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 other historical communities that have similarly suffered disruption and displacement, the village has been relatively well studied. Yet questions still remain, and sources can be difficult to track down.

This project brings together, builds upon, and amplifies previous (and ongoing) research in creating accessible resources about this important place that can be experienced by visitors. The project's goals are to bring the thoughtful work of many researchers to new audiences (within New York and beyond) and 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.

Envisioning Seneca Village integrates diverse source material, earlier findings of many researchers, and methods from various fields. We envision the community in 1855, when it was at or close to its maximum size, and when two important surveys of the village were recorded: the New York State Census and the topographical map by Egbert Viele that is the foundation of our model. Still, a lot was left out of these and other records, so the project also requires speculation to imagine how Seneca Village might have appeared. We have sought both to faithfully depict what can be supported by evidence and to fill in gaps with informed assumptions. (For more information about how we developed our visualizations including considerations and assumptions, see Methodology. For a complete list of our sources, see References.)

In addition to the 3D model, the project includes a static (non-interactive) Tour through the Visualization, a printable Map-based Tour, and other materials (See the project’s Contents page for a full list of our website’s features.) Forthcoming are teaching guides to illustrate how the model can be used in high school courses, an imagined soundscape of the village, short videos about various relevant topics with experts, and a rendering of one of the interiors of the home.

The project, including the website, 3D model, and other related materials, 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 B. Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang. 2024. Envisioning Seneca Village. Website with interactive 3D model. envisioningsenecavillage.github.io.

**To cite the interactive, 3D model:**Gergely Baics, Meredith B. Linn, Leah Meisterlin, and Myles Zhang. 2024. "Envisioning Seneca Village: An Interactive 3D Visualization." 3D digital model. Envisioning Seneca Village. envisioningsenecavillage.github.io.

Please cite the other features, such as the Tour through the Visualization and the Map-Based Tour, similarly. Standalone publications (such as PDFs) include their citations for your reference.

the Team

This collaborative project is co-authored by Gergely Baics, Meredith B. 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 Professor of History and Urban Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. His research areas include urban history, 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 B. 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 Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and leads a spatial design and research practice, Meisterlin Projects. Broadly, her work engages techniques of social representation in architecture and 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 examined how state policy and technological innovations drove the loss of social infrastructure, civic groups, and family-owned small businesses in inner-city Newark and peer cities. Using archival sources and the tools of history, this work challenges the popular misconception that particular urban neighborhoods are marginalized as a result of the work ethic of those who 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. Former Chair, Parks and Recreation Committee, Manhattan Community Board 10. (Email)
Paul L. Johnson. Parish Historian, All Angels' Episcopal Church. (Email)
Salmaan Khan. Vice President for Planning and Research, Central Park Conservancy. (Email; LinkedIn)
Jessica Striebel MacLean. Director of Public History, 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. Academic Advisor, 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.