De-construction

Pondering the renovation of the changing view, brought to mind how buildings around town have evolved.

consists of 4,445 maps by the Sanborn Map Company depicting commercial, industrial, and residential areas for 133 municipalities [within Georgia]. Originally designed for fire insurance assessment, the color-coded maps relate the location and use of buildings [frequently naming the business that was housed in the building], as well as the materials employed in their construction. The maps indicate which city utilities--such as water and fire service--were available.

Fire insurance maps document the changing face of towns and cities, providing highly detailed information for each neighborhood and block. The Library of Congress web site refers to them as "probably the single most important record of urban growth and development in the United States during the past one hundred years."

Not every city in Georgia has a map. I used this with an intro to college class that was looking at Cartersville history. (Cartersville is in Bartow County, as is this campus). For Cartersville, there are maps for 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1909, 1916,and 1921. 36 years of detailed city maps!

It's not too difficult to navigate the maps. There is a tool bar with zoom in/out and pan left/right arrows at the top of each map. The search boxes are self explanatory and yes, the more accurate an address you have, the better your results on the map!

In conjunction with Google Earth one could see how much an area has changed in over a 100 years!


-kss