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Title:
MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION AND ADVANTAGES OF BRUNSVLLE AS A COMMERCIAL MANUFACTURING AND DEEP WATER PORT FOR THE COAST OF TEXAS DRAWN BY H.H. BRUNS, SURVEYOR, HOUSTON TEXAS, MARCH 1895
- Author: H. H. Bruns
- Date: 1895
- Condition: See description
- Inches: 33 3/4 x 27 1/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 85.72 x 69.21 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308282
Unrecorded Map of Houston with Ephemeral City of Brunsville and South Texas Coast
Very rare promotional blueprint map showing late 19th century Houston and environs, with insets of the South Texas Coast and the ephemeral suburb “Brunsville”. Although Brunsville appears on maps of Houston as late as the 1950’s, little evidence of its existence remains today.
The eponymous Brunsville map was drawn by H.H. Bruns, an enigmatic character who successfully achieved obscurity. No record of the man Bruns or city of Brunsville is recorded in the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) handbook. There is no more comprehensive account of Texas history than the TSHA Handbook.
The map attests to Bruns enterprising nature. The map’s legends and inset text block extol the virtues of Houston as a modern, thriving and growing commercial and industrial city. Average wages of $550 a month are recorded, as are extensive demographic details on water, gas, sewer and electrical lines. Trade and commerce feature extensively, with notes of bank deposits cleared annually as well as the amount and type of products flowing into and out of the city. Bruns apparently used the map to lure prospective residents and capital investors. His neatly laid out city has a large central public oval with extensive landscaping. Manuscript additions show the Bruns residence and identify Houston, Galveston, Galveston Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, Bayous and water depths.
Condition: 33” x 27.25” blueprint map on paper. Loss at folds into image, the largest approximately 1.5.x 0.75”. Chipping at margins, manuscript additions, minor soiling.
Rarity: Not in OCLC, not in Phillips “American Maps in the Library of Congress”. No sales records. A ghost.