The Real Estate Record and Builders Guide, a weekly magazine detailing building activity in New York City and its environs began publication in the late 1860s. The project website includes all available public domain content, from Volume 1 (published in 1868) to Volume 110 (published in 1922), a total of over 112,500 scanned pages. The Real Estate Record was digitized from microfilm and original printed volumes in the Avery Architectural & Fine Art Library, as well as from supplemental volumes made available by the New York Historical Society.

“This is an incredibly exciting development for anyone interested in the architecture of New York City,” said Andrew Dolkart, James Marston Fitch Associate Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning. “The Real Estate Record is a treasure trove of information about the architecture and real estate history of New York, but as a multi-volume printed set has always been a cumbersome and frustrating resource, with endless lists in minute print, that will now be easily accessible in this online format.”

Users may browse by volume or search by keyword. Advanced search features allow for proximity searching for names or addresses within standard subsections such as: alterations, conveyances, foreclosures, judgments, leases, mortgages, new buildings, and sales.

The website is a joint project of the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, the Libraries' Preservation and Digital Conversion Division, the Libraries' Digital Program Division. Digitization was implemented by Columbia University Libraries in collaboration with Backstage Library Works and the Internet Archive (IA). Those volumes digitized by Internet Archive are also available through its interface.