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Redefining the Metropolitan District of New York
Rare variant of this Important Broadside Map of the New York Metropolitan District, intended to illustrate the Merchant Association of New York's campaign to have the definition of the New York Metropolitan District redefined by Congress.
The map was prepared in conjuction with the Associations efforts to have the US Census Department redefine its Metropolitan District, which was the set at the area 10 miles outside of New York's then city limits. The Assocations efforts were part of a concerted effort to re-examine urban transit and other planning immediately prior to the Great Depression, which became a continuing issue for the next decade.
At the bottom right corner is a letter from the Committee on Definition of New York's Metropolitan District to the the Board of Directors of the Association, providing as follows:
The Committee on Definition of New York's Metropolitan District, set up as a result of action by the United States Chamber of Commerce and the United States Census Bureau, recommends for your favorable consideration and for submission of approval to the Census Bureau, a new boundary line for the Metropolitan District of New York. . . .
The occasion for re-defining the Metropolitan District is the inadequacy of the present district as defined by the Census Bureau and the confusion in the public mind regarding its exact limits. Further reason for the new definition lies in the growing significance of the adjacent territory in relation to important urban problems such as transportation, particularly rapid transit, recreational facilities, city planning, etc. . . .
The present Metropolitan District is established by an arbitrary ruling of the Census Bureau which fixes the boundary at a line drawn parallel to and 10 miles distant from the corporate limits of the City. . . .
Specifically, as shown in the attached map, the District recommended is comprised of the five boroughs of the City of New York, all of Rockland, Westchester and Nassau Counties . . .and the two towns of Huntington and Babylon in Suffolk County . . . ; in New Jersey, all of the Counties of Hudson, Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Union, Morris, Monmouth, Middlesex and Sommerset; and in Connecticut, the towns of Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan and Norfolk in Fairfield County.
The present example bears the imprint and stamp of C.B. Tariff Bureau Inc. Lithographers, 143 Liberty Street, New York, N.Y.
Our example varies from the 1927 example illustrated by the Museum of the City of New York, which does not include the imprint of C.B. Guthrie. http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=24UAYWRXFO703