Photographs offer a glimpse, of course; but while photographs convey the look and feel of a place, they usually don't reveal the area's layout. For example, if you lived in this spot 100 years ago, where would you shop? What might you do in your spare time? What sources of light and heat were available? Sanborn maps-- detailed city and town records maintained by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company-- can help you to visualize a neighborhood at this level, as they show and label individual shops, residences, churches, and other community resources.
And now, these addictive maps are online!! (When I first encountered Sanborn maps in grad school, one had to go to the city library and page through them, physically. It was fun, but also a lot of trouble.)
For example, I'll link you to the following images at the University of Missouri:
... Old St. Patrick Oratory (Kansas City, MO) in 1896
Zoom in, and find surrounding hotels, offices, dwellings (coded "D"), shops ("S"), the public library, the YMCA, a laundry, a drugstore...
... St. Francis De Sales Oratory (St. Louis, MO) in 1909
You'll see nearby tenements, flats ("F"), movie theaters ("moving pictures"), pool rooms, saloons (abbreviated "sal"), a laundry, etc.
Kansas residents can find many of their maps here, at the University of Kansas Libraries.
Whatever your city/state, be sure-- if you're interested--to check the online resources of your public library! Many county libraries have begun to offer digital access to their local maps... Keep in mind, too, that the Sanborn Company began these records in 1867 and updated them throughout the 20th century, so many different editions may be available to you. If your local library offers only maps dating from 1920- 1930, for example, look at the holdings of your area academic library-- there could very well be more!
Wouldn't this research make an interesting homeschool project in History?!
PS: Here's a helpful key to common Sanborn map abbreviations (University of Michigan).
If I stepped back 100 years in my neighbourhood my neighbour would still be parking his car opposite my driveway and blocking me in!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though ... a hundred years ago my neighbourhood would have been open fields full of apple trees. I remember areas around here which only a few years ago were open fields, and woods and mini-forests. Sadly, they're building on them very fast everywhere.
God bless.
Mine also would have been a farm, owned by one of the nearby town's original settlers/squatters; but the building (in town) that is now my favorite coffeehouse used to be a coal company, and I shop in what was the local vice district.
DeleteTake care!