The Price of Hearth and Home Part I
By: Riley Wentzler & Felicia Barber
Few things are of higher importance to an individual than the: location, price, and safety of his/her home. This is why every ancient culture (and in this case we are using ancient as a synonym for the word, “polytheistic,” meaning a culture with multiple Gods/ Goddesses): Aztec, Chinese, Egyptian, Norse, Roman, Greek, Hindu etc. has had a God or Goddess of Hearth and Home. Therefore, we decided to research housing prices in Greenburgh. To do this properly, we need to do 4 things:
1. We need to consult the Real Estate Record Database hosted by Columbia University (hereafter referred to simply as “The Database”). The earliest record in The Database is January of 1870. Reading The Database properly is hard. Entries look like this: 133D st , n. a, 300.3 e. 5th av., 18.9.x99.11, house aud lo Thomas H. Farr^^a to Galen T. Porter, of Greenburgh, Westchester co., N. Y. April 22 1870. Plus, not every mention of “Greenburgh” in The Database actually refers to property in Greenburgh. For instance, the above entry refers to a house located at 300 East 5th Avenue, Manhattan which Thomas H. Farruca a resident of Manhattan sold to Galen T. Porter, a resident of Greenburgh on April 22 1870. Property which is actually in Greenburgh is referenced this way: