Black's Survey of Alvarado

In doing early research on Alvarado, I've run across real estate transactions that mention lot and block numbers for properties in Alvarado. An article might say that Mr. Public has sold lot 6 of block 72, to Mr. Smith. I've seen the use of this numbering scheme from the 1860's all the way up to the 1890's. For a long time I had no idea what map was used to reference these block numbers. I finally found mention of a survey by George Black, dated November 8, 1853, but not recorded until 1860. Another article from the San Francisco Call from March 20, 1896, refers to "Black's survey of the town of Alvarado" as the source of the block numbers. Now I knew the source, I had to find this map.

With no luck finding the map via online source, I finally decided to dig into the Fischer collection at the Museum of Local History. I found reference to an Alvarado map in the database and went looking for it. What I found was a map with no survey date, but a signed note saying that the map was filed on March 10, 1860 and signed by G. R. Mason, county recorder. The map does show number on the blocks of Alvarado. One source said that the County Courthouse was in Block 81 and the maps shows Block 81 right were the Courthouse was, this must be the Black's map.

The most interesting thing about the map is that is shows a canal, running parallel to Horner street. It also shows a number of streets that I know never existed, like Castro, Alvarado, Sutter, Wainright, Black, Fremont, Jones and Randell streets. It shows a plaza on Smith roughly across from where the elementary school is. It looks like this map was a proposed map of Alvarado, of what it could look like if laid out this way, with the addition of a canal. It is unclear why it was used to document real estate transactions in unknown. It might be possible that it was the only map of Alvarado at the time.