Melville Family Properties as Revealed in Taxation and Assessment Records

Taxation and assessment records covering residences owned or rented by the Melville family have been cited very few times in publications to date. I reviewed these records for the Town (later the City) of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for the period of 1850–1927, covering the years the "Arrowhead" farm was in family hands. Not only were all the descriptions and valuations of real and personal property recorded for the first time but analyses were conducted reflecting both changes in land ownership and use and also the family's fluctuating finances. I also examined similar records covering the "Gansevoort mansion" in Northumberland, Saratoga County, New York, from the 1860s through the 1880s as well as those covering the City of Albany in the 1830s and New York City (Manhattan) from 1847 through 1891.