Situated on the Island of Manhattan in New York City, Carmansville was born from the redevelopment of the area by Richard Francis Carman after the great fire of 1835 that devastated the area, destroying 600 houses.

Historical boundary lines to Carmansville vary by authority listing them, but roughly it occupied the area on northern Manhattan Island from north of 130th Street ( a little north of Central Park - in the early 1800's this area south of Carmansville was known as Manhattansville) all the way up to the north end of the Island. The eastern boundary was 8th Avenue (east of there was and still is Harlem) and the western boundary was the Hudson River.  This included the historic area of Washington Heights.  While Richard Carman did not own all the land, he owned enough of it to have the name of Carmansville appear on maps and the name still sticks to certain parks and police precincts in that area. 

The "India House" mansion which was built in 1837 is a historic architectural landmark in Manhattan, and was built as the home of Richard F. Carman.

1851 map of Upper Manhattan Island shows in paled blue the location of Trinity Church Cemetery. Just to the lower left of it on the river was the 152nd Street "Carmansville" Station, which was also a popular fishing pier.  To the right and just below Trinity Cemetery was the home of Richard F. Carman and just south of that the Hudson River Rail Road Hotel.  Just north of Trinity Cemetery is the home of James J. Audubon, an area known as "Minniesland" and Washington Heights.

While Richard F. Carman seems to have been the source of the development  of the area and as such the namesake, the evidence appears that the money behind the name was probably his father's as Richard's cousins, in particular Richard Carman Combs, also seems to be a man of means in the area and it was from his estate that the City of New York bought some of the the property to build the railroad along the Hudson River. Although I have not discovered the price, even in the 1800's I am sure Westside Manhattan real estate was no bargain. I received the following additional information in December 2007 from Matthew Spady, webmaster of the AudubonParkNY.com website.

"Attached are two pictures of the gravesite of Richard F. Carman and his family in Trinity Cemetery, land that he owned briefly before selling it to the Trinity Corporation for development into the cemetery.  The first burial there was in 1843, a year after the Audubons moved to Minnie's Land which, as you know from the map on your site, abutted the cemetery on the north. 

Carman was a good friend of the Audubons and appears several times in their correspondence.  According to one Audubon biographer (Alice Ford), he lent the Audubons money just before they moved, with which Lucy Audubon bought a barouche.  Ford doesn't list a source for that bit of information, so I don't really know where she got it, but suspect it was also in the vast hoard of Audubon family correspondence. 

Carman was also a very active founding member of the Church of the Intercession and a member of the vestry during its first years.  His name appears often in the vestry minutes.  Since the church's first building sat in the middle of Carmansville, I imagine he either sold or donated the land for the building.  Sooner or later, when I'm researching land records at the City Directory, I'll check that.

An interesting legend - that the Audubons sold Carman the land that he sold, for profit, to the Trinity Corporation - refuses to die.  It is not true.  Carman bought the Trinity plot (about 44 acres) the same day that the Audubons bought their property (about 22 acres); and both bought it from the same source: the New York Bowery Fire Insurance Company .  Perhaps the legend arose because Carman did briefly own (or hold a mortgage on) the Audubon property before they bought it.  I don't have that specific record, but have seen all of the transactions listed in the master ledger at the City Registry.

When the Hudson River Railroad came up the west side of Manhattan, they settled with the various landowners.  I don't know how much land Carman then owned on the river, because he had sold a large piece of it to Trinity, but the John and Lucy Audubon $1666.66 for their portion and Victor and his wife Georgianna received "$833.33 1/3 dollars lawful money of the United States of America" for theirs.  Those 1847 dollars translate into $39,682 and $19,841 respectively.  Apparently, though, no one wanted to sell and some of the residents considered an injunction.  However, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had the political connections to carry off the deal, was a formidable opponent, and they all just sold."