Logics of Business Placement in Mid-19th Century New York

Gergely Baics, Barnard College
Leah Meisterlin, Columbia University

Using spatial data of circa 10,000 geocoded businesses (covering 20 different occupations) obtained from the 1854 Manhattan city directory, this paper explores the logics of commercial and retail business placement in mid-19th-century New York. We use various techniques of spatial analysis to offer a three-pronged explanation: first, we measure the degrees of centrality for different business types; second, we study the locational incentives of business placement embedded within the street morphology; and third, we explore the relationship between business placement and local demographic characteristics. Midcentury New York offers an ideal case study for two reasons. First, predating comprehensive municipal zoning, the mid-19th-century American city was characterized by a largely unregulated land-use environment, whereby the market logics for business placement faced little to no government or planning restrictions. Second, by this period, New York was by far America’s largest city, with a population of 600,000 people, and a highly-developed and differentiated commercial and retail geography, including a clearly-defined central business district, dozens of commercial corridors, and neighborhood level retail districts.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 149. Regional Development and Inequality