Kips Bay, East River

Original title: Kips Bay Bei Newyork. Watercolor by Freiherr Ernst, dated August 31, 1830, dedicated to Georg Dennig. Printed text in German: Nach der Natur gezeichnet, und dem Herrn Georg Dennig freundschaftlich gewidmet von Fr. Ernest. Source: Collection of I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints, New York Public Library.

Maps of the 18th and 19th centuries show three different bays named Kips Bay, Kip's Bay, Keps Bay or Keeps Bay along the Manhattan shore of the East River, south of Turtle Bay. The bay depicted here by F. Ernst is south of the Bellevue Hospital, between about West 17th Street to 26th Street. There were two river mouths in the area.

Kips Bay was named after Jacobus Hendrickson Kip (1631–1690), a New Netherland Dutch settler, son of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, whose farm ran north of present 30th Street along the East River. On September 15, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, the British forces landed at Kips Bay.

Here is what I. N. Phelps Stokes (The Iconography of Manhattan Island, ..., 1918, plate 107) wrote about this illustration: «This view is taken from the pier below the rocky promontory at the foot of 37th Street, looking south across Kip’s Bay [ this promontory was probably actually across the East River, near Newton Creek, see note below ]. The German artist probably used the common technique of the pre-photography era, which was a camera obscura with zoom lens, which had been used to draw skylines since the 18th century]. The cupola of Bellevue Hospital is seen at the right. The Henry A. Coster estate, purchased in 1835 by Anson G. Phelps, lay just to the north of the hospital grounds, between 29th and 34th Streets. The house itself, which stood near the north-west corner of First Avenue and 3oth Street (Pl. 154-d), is hidden by the projecting point, but the pier at the foot of the place is distinctly shown.

There is some confusion in regard to the designation of Kip’s Bay, some maps—for instance the Bridges Map, of 1811—assigning the name to the northerly of the two small bays which indent the shore, one between 32d and 34th Streets, and the other between 35th and 37th Streets. The Kip property, as shown on a map of the estate of Eliza Kip made by Smith in 1833, included both of these bays, and it is evident that the name was applied to both.

The Kip farm originally extended irregularly from about 26th Street to 42d Street, east of the Road to Harlem, and the old Kip farm-house stood on the south side of 35th Street, one hundred feet east of Second Avenue. A view of the old house is contained in the Manual of 1852, p. 472. Samuel Kip laid out eight roads across his farm, which he named Kip’s Bay, Samuel, Elbert, Maria, Cornelia, Eliza, Susan, and Louise Streets —the last five being named after his daughters. With the laying out of the city streets under the commissioners, all of these old roads were discontinued. The farm was divided up into parcels, and sold, the most northerly parcel being offered for sale, in 1807, as the “Quarry Lot,” there being a quarry of building stone on it. The advertisement states that a “road by the name of Susan street, 60 feet in width, leading along the southerly side of the lot from the highway to the river, forms one of the several avenues from the premises to the public road.” —American Citizen, June 29, 1807.»