Sanborn Map Company Fire Insurance Maps for West Virginia
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 1307
The Sanborn Map Company created large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American cities and towns during the late nineteenth and twentieth century to provide fire insurance agents with sufficient information to assess fire insurance liability. Maps show size, shape and construction of buildings, street names and widths, property boundaries, building use, and the locations of water mains, fire alarms, and hydrants, among other things. The Sanborn Map Company updated the maps to reflect new construction and changes in existing buildings, thereby illustrating the urbanization of America. Collection contains Sanborn maps for towns and counties in West Virginia from 1884 to 1934, though most date from the early twentieth century. Typically, there are several maps for each location. There are some microfilm copies available in collections W-1526 and W-3432. There are also digital scans available for most of the maps in this collection (except where noted).
The Addendum of 2013 June 17 contains one volume of Sanborn insurance maps for the town of Buckhannon, including the base map of 1930, and amendments for 1947, 1956, and 1961. The Addendum of 2013 December 04 contains two volumes of Sanborn insurance maps for Morgantown, WV; one is from 1927 with corrections to 1948, the other is from 1927 with corrections to 1954.
English
No special access restriction applies.
Researchers may access digitized materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Daniel Alfred Sanborn (1827-1883), a surveyor from Somerville, Massachusetts, established the Sanborn Map and Publishing Company in New York in 1867 to provide fire insurance agents with standardized maps that allowed them to analyze property hazards. Sanborn mapmakers surveyed 12,000 cities and towns in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and, as urban areas changed and developed, updated their maps to reflect new construction and changes in existing buildings. Maps show size, shape and construction of buildings, street names and widths, property boundaries, building use, and the locations of water mains, fire alarms, and hydrants, among other things. In 1904 the company name changed to Sanborn Map Company, and in 1996, the collection was taken over by Environmental Data Resources, Inc.
2.38 Linear Feet (2 ft. 4 1/2 in. (113 oversize folders, 1 ft. 10 in.); (1 large flat storage box, 1 1/2 in.); (5 unboxed volumes, 5 in.))
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository