The Architecture of the 1853 Levey Wall Map

The Washington County Historical Society presents a Kronkite Lecture: The Architecture of the 1853 Levey Wall Map presented by William Krattinger September 21st @6:30 PM. Free and Open to the Public.

Numerous New York county wall maps were published in the 1850s, among them Morris Levey’s 1853 map of Washington County. Published in Philadelphia, Levey’s map was the first widely available source that identified the county’s various property owners, and it formed a precursor to the later county atlas compilations. In addition to depicting the county’s various municipalities, roads, churches and burial grounds, and property owners, Levey’s map also provided statistical data as well as visual representations of some of the county’s notable places and architecture, which appear within the map’s margins. This talk will largely focus on the map’s architectural representations, which provide valuable visual information on some of the county’s better-known landmarks and characteristic building types at the mid-nineteenth-century point. A number of the buildings that appear graphically on the Levey map remain extant, and particular attention will be paid to these, as expressions of particular architectural styles or types, or for their value in relation to historically prominent families and individuals. 

William Krattinger is an architectural historian and longtime employee of the state’s Division for Historic Preservation and an adjunct lecturer in the history department at SUNY Albany.

September 21st, Wing-Northup House, 6:30pm- 167 Broadway, Fort Edward, NY 12828