Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
By: Carolyn L. Barkley
I have written on several occasions about the exhilaration of moving beyond names and dates and adding detail about the lives of our ancestors. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to put their feet on the ground in a specific place and time. A significant resource in that effort can be found in Sanborn fire insurance maps.
The Sanborn Map Company’s historic collection includes maps of 12,000 American towns and cities between 1867 and 1970 (as well as some maps for Canada and Mexico). These maps, like many other resources, were created for fire insurance companies whose agents needed to determine the degree of risk represented by specific properties. The maps have also proved useful to social historians, architects, and local historians. More to the point, the content of these maps offers the genealogical researcher a wealth of detail.
Sanborn maps illustrate the physical footprint of a property as well as note its method of construction, height, number of stories, function, location of doors and windows, street name and number, street and sidewalk widths, and property boundaries. Symbols denote generic buildings such as stables, garages and warehouses. For example, “A” denotes “Auto, house or private garage;” “D” indicates “Dwelling;” and “Loft” identifies a “Tenant building occupied by various manufacturing or occupancies.” In some cases the names of factory owners and details on manufactures are included. This latter information can prove important when used in combination with the manufacturing non-population censuses available. Keys to the various symbols used can be found online: a black and white key at http://sanborn.umi.com/HelpFiles/bwkey.pdf and a color key at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/images/sandkey.jpg. In addition, a list of Sanborn map abbreviations can be found at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/maps/sanborn/sanbornabbrv.pdf. Researching a specific address and its surroundings through all maps available for its location can suggest aspects of the life-style of an individual, the development of the property, the socio-economic level of its neighborhood, and the growth of the town or city over time.
The original printed Sanborn fire insurance maps can sometimes be found in local and state libraries as well as in historical societies. You will also want to check the holdings of the state library in the area of your research. R. Phillip Hoehn’s Union List of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Held by Institutions in the United States and Canada (Western Association of Map Libraries, 1976-77) is a good source for locating these maps. The Library of Congress holds a collection of maps from copyright deposits and, in addition, has a set that was transferred from the Bureau of the Census. These latter maps may differ from the original in the deposit collections as the Bureau pasted corrections issued by the Sanborn Company over the original map sheets. When possible, both versions should be consulted. The Library of Congress collection is detailed in Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress: Plans of North American Cities and Towns Produced by the Sanborn Map Company (Library of Congress, 1981) or online at http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/sanborn/. This site is particularly important and convenient as you can choose a state and locality and identify the date and number of sheets available in addition to other geographical names that might be included, comments about the maps, and a URL if available.
Sanborn maps are available on microfilm in libraries and other research locations. For example, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City has the Sanborn fire insurance maps for St. Louis, Missouri, and the Boston Public Library holds maps for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
ProQuest has created an electronic database, Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970 that includes images of 660,000 large-scale maps for over 12,000 American towns and cities, reproduced from the Library of Congress’s collection. This collection is available only through academic and public libraries. As the collection is expensive, the scope of access may vary among institutions. Checking locally, I found that the Library of Virginia in Richmond provides electronic access to maps pertaining to Virginia localities only (to users visiting the library), while the Virginia Beach Public Library provides library card holders with electronic access to the full database (in-library and remotely). ProQuest indicates that the online version offers flexibility of use and improved viewing possibilities with images that can be easily manipulated and printed. A recent attempt to locate maps for a specific address, however, convinced me that using this resource is not for the uninitiated.
Initial steps were not difficult. I selected “Browse Maps” and the database prompted me to choose a state from a drop-down menu. I then chose a city (counties are also listed as choices). In my search, I chose Virginia and then Norfolk. A drop-down menu showed the years of available maps. I chose the earliest year, April 1887. I already had a specific street address (31 James Street) found in the 1880 census for the individual I was researching. I looked in the index to the 1887 map set and found that only James Street properties listed were located at numbers 140-161. The index referred me to map sheet 18 where I easily located the buildings at 140 through 161 James Street. However, the end of the street that would have included 31 James Street was not on sheet 18. I checked the bird’s-eye view map showing the entire city and illustrating where the various numbered map sheets were located. I could see the section of James Street that would include No. 31, but could not locate a relevant map sheet for that portion of the street. Luckily, I know Norfolk fairly well and could browse through the other available sheets with some sense of “too far west” or “too far south,” but could not (nor could staff who assisted me) locate a map for this particular street address. Cutting my losses, I chose a different year (1898) and was able to locate the appropriate map. Feeling a bit more successful, I selected “print current view.” Unfortunately, only the portion of the map image shown printed, and the quality of the print was not the best. I would recommend using this print selection only for a zoomed-in section of a map. Instead (and your ability to do this version may depend on the library’s rules about using thumb-drives), select “download map.” This choice will create a pdf map, in a new browser window, that you can then save or print.
My search illustrated that the mapping was not necessarily complete for some years and that it is very important to devote time to learning the various capabilities of the database. A good user’s guide to the Proquest database is provided online by the Geostat Center at the University of Virginia. This exercise illustrates, once again, that due diligence in planning a research trip is essential and well-worth your time beforehand.
Today, the Sanborn Map Company is based in Colorado. Its historical fire insurance maps, however, are available from Environmental Data Resources Inc., from whom individual maps may be ordered.
You may wish to read more about these fascinating maps. An extensive article is available online from the UC Berkeley Library and several links exist on Cyndi’s List. Diane L. Oswald’s Fire Insurance Maps: Their History and Applications (Lacewing Press, 1997) provides an in-depth discussion of not only the Sanborn maps, but the entire history and application of fire insurance maps.
Fire insurance maps are an often overlooked resource for genealogists. Make a New Year’s resolution to learn more about them and make use of them in your on-going research.