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Description

Unrecorded early map of the City of Detroit, published in New York by Endicott.

Endicott's map of Detroit is the first map to show the progress of the development of the then Territorial Capital of Michigan beyond areas covered by the Mullet and Farmer maps, continuing the trend of the development of the town away from the Detroit River.

The history of the mapping of the City of Detroit begins with Augustus Brevoort Woodward, (1774-1827), the first Chief Justice of Michigan Territory. Thomas Jefferson appointed Woodward Chief Justice on March 3, 1805. Woodward arrived in Detroit (then Territorial Capital of Michigan) on June 30, 1805, several weeks after the fire of June 11, 1805 wiped out virtually the entire town.

Woodward and Governor William Hull began planning the new city based upon Pierre L'Enfant's model for Washington D.C. Woodward's plan attempted to live up to the newly-adopted city motto, Speramus Meliora, Resurgit Cineribus ("We hope for better days, it will rise again from the ashes"). The plan began the process of shifting the town away from the river and beginning to develop inland. Woodward Avenue in Detroit, originally called Court House Avenue and other names, was popularly named for Woodward's efforts in rebuilding. Woodward, somewhat in jest, claimed the road's name as nothing more than the fact that the road traveled toward the wooded area to the north of the city.

Woodward proposed a system of hexagonal street blocks, with the Grand Circus at its center. Wide avenues, alternatively 200 feet and 120 feet, would emanate from large circular plazas like spokes from the hub of a wheel. As the city grew, these would spread in all directions from the banks of the Detroit River. When Woodward presented his proposal, Detroit had fewer than 1,000 residents. The plan was abandoned after only 11 years, but not before some of its most significant elements had been implemented. Most prominent of these are the six main "spokes" of Woodward, Michigan, Grand River, Gratiot, and Jefferson Avenues together with Fort Street.

Endicott's map map provides a detailed plan of the area centered on Woodward's Grand Circus. It is perhaps most notable for the area shown to the north of the the Grand Circus, an area which does not appear in Mullet's maps of 1830 and 1831 or in the early maps by Farmer, suchs as Farmer's 1835 Map of the City of Detroit in the State of Michigan, which extend north to Montcalm Street, whereas the present map by Endicott extends another 6 blocks to the north.

The plan depicts a large portion of what is today downtown Detroit, encompassing the area bounded by the Grand River and Fort Gratiot Roads to the south and Saint Joseph Street to the north. The most interesting feature is the awkward juncture of the remnants of Judge Woodward's visionary 1806 plan, which featured triangular sections and broad avenues radiating from a "Grand Circus," with the more regular gridiron pattern instituted by his enemies around 1818. In a bitter irony, north of the Grand Circus Woodward Avenue was narrowed and renamed after Judge Witherell, one of his fiercest opponents and a leading advocate of the gridiron layout. Another interesting feature is the "John R. Williams Reserve" shown at the center of the plan. In 1824 Williams was elected the city's first mayor, but this writer has been unable to determine the nature of the Reserve.

George Endicott was born in Canton, Massachusetts on June 14, 1802. Endicott began his career in Baltimore as an ornamental painter beginning in 1820. George Endicott's earliest imprints appear in 1830, when he and Moses Swett, an experienced lithographer from Boston who had previously worked for Pendleton, formed a partnership located at Graphic Hall on April 1, 1830. The firm relocated to New York in December 1831, where it took offices at 111 Nassau Street, from 1831 to 1834. Thereafter, A merica on Stone lists Endicott as operatint from 359 Broadway from 1834 to 1840.

New York As It Is (1837) lists Endicott's address as 22 Nassau Street and 359 Broadway. Ironically, 22 Nassau Street was also the address of the publisher of New York As It Is, John Disturnell. This is the only record we could locate of Endicott working from 22 Nassau Street.

Given that Endicott learned the lithography trade from Swett, it seems likely that the present imprint was done sometime between 1834 and 1836, shorty after Farmer's publication of his map and after the dissolution of the Endicott & Swett partnership.

The map is of the utmost rarity. We have found no recorded examples and no references to the existence of the map. Not in Karrow, Printed Maps of the Middle West; OCLC; or Phillips, Maps of America.

Condition Description
Minor spotting and a few minor creases.