The “Unplanned” City: Jersey City 100 and 150 years ago.

Based on insurance atlases created by the G. M. Hopkins Company in 1873 and 1919, this web page reconstructs the development of Jersey City, NJ across a period of rapid industrialization.

In a process known as "georectifying," historic maps are overlaid above the contemporary geography to reveal the extent of radical urban change over time.

Every street, building, trolley line, property line, railroad, factory, and more is digitized on this map for the years 1873 and 1919. The name of every single property owner is shown on the 1873 map, and the material of all buildings on the 1919 map. The 1873 map captures Jersey City in the middle of America's Industrial Revolution. The city population 90,000 was largely rural farms at the city edge. By contrast, the 1919 map captures Jersey City at its economic height population 300,000: built up on all edges and teeming with dozens of freight yards, hundreds of tenements, and thousands of factories. Explore any address. Drag the time slider to reveal the city past vs. present.

Beginning in 1912, the city government engaged the new profession of urban planning to develop the city’s first Master Plan, which appeared in 1920. These maps show the development of the city in the half century before the first Master Plan.

• Can you find your address and your home on this map? What was your neighborhood like in 1873? How had it changed by 1919?
• What kinds of businesses and factories were found in your neighborhood?
• What patterns of urban growth do you notice on these maps?
• What concerns might have led to the desire to create a plan for future development?
• How is the historic city you see here different from the same city and streets today?

 City Planning in Perspective: A History of Jersey City from 1912 to Present 

Beginning in the 19th century, cartography businesses such as the G. M. Hopkins company of Philadelphia created detailed city maps for use by insurance companies. Most often associated with the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, the maps document information such as the building footprint, dimensions, height, material, owner, and land use, as well as the locations of fire hydrants, water mains, trolleys, railroads, and natural features.

Fire insurance companies used these maps to assess the risk of fire for each building in the city, and therefore the amount the building's owner needed to pay them in fire insurance. These maps are the most detailed historical record available for America's historical built environment, and have outlived their intended use to become key primary source documents for historical research.

 City Planning in Perspective: A History of Jersey City from 1912 to Present 

This publication and project are made possible by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (a division of the Department of State) and administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs (Thomas A. DeGise, Hudson County Executive & the Hudson County Board of County Commissioners).

Project made possible through the assistance of Chief Librarian John Beekman

Map digitized and prepared for online viewing by historian  Myles Zhang