Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Documented Look at the Past

If you’re fascinated by how cities and towns have transformed over time, the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are a rabbit hole you will love. I was today years old when I learned about these archives of the past! They were created from 1867 into the late 20th century and are incredibly detailed, large-scale maps  originally made for fire insurance companies to assess risk.  They ended up documenting almost every building in thousands of American communities down to construction materials, storefront names, widths of streets, and even the location of fire hydrants and outhouses. The maps were updated periodically (sometimes every few years), so you can literally watch neighborhoods sprout, factories rise and fall, streetcars appear and vanish, and entire downtowns shift block by block over decades.  

It’s easy to spend hours looking at them.  Start looking up your childhood home and suddenly three hours are gone as you trace how the corner grocery became a parking lot, how the old rail yard turned into a park, or how your quiet suburb was once surrounded by farmland and trolley lines. 

The Library of Congress has digitized over 25,000 sheets and made them free to explore here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/

Grab a coffee, pick a town, and prepare to lose an afternoon (or in my case, evening).

Much Love, 

Lynn 

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