Warranty Deed, No. 11, Bernard J. and Emily S. Donovan to John J. and Rose M. King, August 19/20, 1944

Warranty Deed, No. 11, Bernard J. and Emily S. Donovan to John J. and Rose M. King, August 19/20, 1944

1944

Abstract of Title of Robert L. Nicholas and Marilou S. Nichols

paper

This abstract of a title for a home sale in 1958 includes all abstracts going back to the original ownership of the land by the Ritchie family of Saratoga Springs. This document is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, albeit indirectly, this abstract tells a map story. Many titles and mortgage documents identify property based on original plats—property maps filed with the County Clerk in Ballston Spa. This page from a title for a house on Ritchie Place and Lake Avenue identifies the plot from two maps. The first is an 1881 survey conducted by Louis H. Cramer of the estate owned by Mme. Jumel. The second identifies the property as Lot 3 owned by James Ritchie, per a map filed by city engineer Samuel J. Mott on April 16, 1923, with the County Clerk.

But this title, perhaps, offers more interesting insights not from the map, but from sales restrictions. Between 1931-1944, sale of this property prohibited workshops, factories or gasoline stations, hinting at resistance to certain activities near downtown. But it is the comment that “said premises shall not be sold, leased or otherwise disposed of to any other than white people “that perhaps most asks us to look with new eyes at the era’s city maps.

Private Collection

Mott, Samuel J.
Ritchie
Jumel
Cramer, Louis H.

Property and Development

Demographics

4/8/2015