Sanborn Maps, An Invaluable Historical Resource

 

The Sanborn Map Company published maps between 1867 and 1970 to help fire insurance companies determine potential risks for buildings in American cities. While their value for insurance policies has long ended, these maps serve a new purpose for historians and family history researchers. Precise locations of buildings and streets are included on the maps, as well as the types of construction materials used, water sources available, and how buildings were heated, among other information. While individual property owners are not usually given, researchers can find out the location of the homes and places of employment of their ancestors. 

At the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, Sanborn Maps can be accessed in a variety of formats. There are physical copies of the 1886 and 1905 atlases stored in the Archives, another atlas, with revisions into the 1950s, is also available for viewing. Microfilm roll 6885 contains copies of the 1886, 1893, and 1905 Sanborn Maps for Sandusky. And a digital collection of 40,000 Sanborn Maps of Ohio cities is accessible to Ohio library users through OPLIN Databases. This digital collection can be accessed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to holders of Ohio library cards. Some examples from this collection are below.

The J. Kuebeler and Company Brewery was located on the west side of Sandusky in 1886, on Tiffin Avenue.

This 1886 Sanborn Map shows locations of the Kuebeler brewery’s malt storage, fermenting unit and ice houses, along with many other details about the facility.

The Sandusky Library appeared on page 25 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map.

In the original library building, the reading room in the east wing of the Carnegie building had a skylight, and a music hall was in the west wing, complete with an area for storing scenery. Notes indicate that the library was heated with steam heat.

The street names and house numbers found on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps seem to come alive when one can locate photographs taken of a specific location. Below is a section of the 1893 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map which shows the corner of Monroe and Hancock Streets.

William Brehm had a dry goods store at 631 Hancock Street in 1893. The front window of Mr. Brehm’s store is visible in the picture below which also shows car number 9 of the Sandusky, Milan and Norwalk Electric Railway in 1893.

Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Sandusky.

Clues to Everyday Life in the 19th Century from a Sanborn Map

By looking more closely at page 5 from the 1886 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Sandusky, Ohio, we can learn more about what everyday life in Sandusky was like in the late nineteenth century. You can tell by all the businesses along Sandusky Bay that the fish and ice industries were important to Sandusky at that time.

Railroad Street is now Shoreline Drive. Instead of large hotel chains, hotels in the late 1800s were usually independently owned, such as the Sloane House, at the corner of Washington Row and Columbus Avenue in the 1880s.

Several livery businesses were located on page 5 of the 1886 Sanborn Map, which provided housing for the animals that were necessary for horse drawn vehicles.

The Active Turner Hall reminds us of Sandusky’s rich German heritage, about which Dr. Ernst Von Schulenberg wrote in his book, Sandusky: Then and Now.

We have three Sanborn Maps from different years at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center, as well as three Sanborn Maps, from 1886, 1893, and 1905 available on microfilm. Sanborn Maps may also be accessed online through the ClevnetResearch Databases, after logging in with your library card.

A View of Washington Row in 1906

Pictured below is a portion of Washington Row around 1906. The Odd Fellows Hall was built in 1889, by members of Ogontz Lodge No. 66. Like other lodge halls of this era
the Lodge met upstairs, and businesses rented space on the ground floor. John J. Marquart’s Undertaking Business is seen at the left of the photograph. George J. Doerzbach and John F. Renner were dealers in Pianos, Organs, and Musical Merchandise. Each gentleman’s name was featured above separate windows.

To the east of Renner & Doerzbach, was the Central Union Telephone Company. A small bell is barely visible in the lower left window. The telephone company building had previously been the home of Lucas Beecher, a well known lawyer and abolitionist. This building has been identified as a station on the Underground Railroad. A “hair dressing parlor” was in operation on the floor level of the Sloane Hotel, immediately to the east of the telephone company.

Below is a page from the Sanborn Fire Maps containing the Washington Row block between Jackson Street and Columbus Avenue.
By gathering information from the Sanborn Maps, city directories, and local history books of the area, we can learn more about everyday life at the turn of the century in Sandusky, Ohio. The telephone was a relatively new device. Transportation modes included bicycles and the horse and buggy. The store selling pianos and organs lets us know that music was of cultural significance to community residents. A large hotel indicates that the city of Sandusky was frequented by out of town visitors.

Visit the Archives Research Center of the Sandusky Library to learn more about the people and businesses of Erie County. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and Heritage Quest are two of the Research Databases which are accessible from home through the Ohio Public Library Information Network.