Vote for the Sanborn Maps You Want to See Online Next

July 29, 2009 by Nicholas Graham

UPDATE: The people have spoken! We will digitize Sanborn maps from Winston-Salem next. It’s a great set — we’ll include maps from 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1907, 1912, and 1917. The 1917 set is especially rich, covering the whole city and surrounding industrial areas on 112 sheets. Look for these to start appearing soon, with Durham and Hillsborough to come a little later. The full tally of votes is below.

The North Carolina Maps project is continuing to grow, with a big focus of the current year being the digitization of all of the pre-1923 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps in the North Carolina Collection. These are fantastic resources, showing towns and cities from around the state in incredible detail. Designed to be used by insurance agencies and local fire departments, the maps show the footprint, size, and purpose of most buildings in the city. The downtown areas are especially interesting as they show what kinds of businesses were located in each building. This example shows a block along South Front Street in Wilmington in 1904:

We’ve finished the sets of maps for Kinston, Wilmington, and Charlotte, and we’re working on Greensboro right now. Keep up with our progress on the Sanborn Map page on our website.

In an effort to democratize the digitization process, I’d like to have your help in choosing what city to work on next. All of the cities and towns for which pre-1923 maps are available will be done eventually, but if you can’t wait to see these fascinating maps for your hometown, cast your vote in the comments section below. For a full list of the cities and towns that are available, see the list of Sanborn maps on the NCC website.

Once we’re done with Greensboro (It’ll probably be about a week and half), I’ll count the votes and the city that has the most will be the one we work on next.

Posted in Tar Heelia | 154 Comments

154 Responses

on July 30, 2009 at 8:50 pm Teresa

Winston Salem, please
on July 30, 2009 at 8:50 pm Terry

Winston Salem!
on July 30, 2009 at 8:51 pm Terri

Winston Salem
on July 30, 2009 at 8:52 pm Morgan

Winston Salem please
on July 30, 2009 at 8:53 pm Morgan

Winston Salem…
on July 30, 2009 at 9:11 pm Sandra Peterson

Winston-Salem, please.
on July 30, 2009 at 9:17 pm Jerry S.

Winston-Salem
on July 30, 2009 at 9:18 pm Peggy E.

Winston-Salem
on July 30, 2009 at 9:27 pm Pat Van Cleve

Winston-Salem
on July 30, 2009 at 9:29 pm Pat Van Cleve

I vote for Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 12:42 am Michael Bacon

Durham. We have a cooler independent historical blog anyway! (http://www.endangereddurham.org/)
on July 31, 2009 at 6:09 am M.K. Ramm

Durham, please!
on July 31, 2009 at 8:44 am Ben Morgan

Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 8:45 am Carolyn Marshall

My vote is for Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 8:49 am Paul Marshall

Very definitely – Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 8:54 am Mike Marshall

Hope you will do Winston-Salem. A great job overall and thanks for the effort.
on July 31, 2009 at 9:16 am Phil Daniels

Winston Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 9:19 am Carole Holt

I vote Winston- salem- it has a long rich historical background
on July 31, 2009 at 9:23 am Raymond Smoot

Winston-Salem, please
on July 31, 2009 at 9:32 am William Turkett

Winston-Salem please!
on July 31, 2009 at 9:33 am Kristina Turner

Winston-Salem NC if you Please! Thanks SO Very much !
on July 31, 2009 at 9:35 am Nan Phillips

Winston=Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 9:52 am Julie Wilson

Winston-Salem!
on July 31, 2009 at 10:11 am Catherine W. Pitts

Winston-Salem, NC
on July 31, 2009 at 10:18 am Mark Marshall

Winston-Salem is my vote.
on July 31, 2009 at 10:41 am Dorsey

Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 10:41 am Margaret Lewis

Winston-Salem has my vote.
on July 31, 2009 at 10:48 am george

Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 10:56 am Meredith

Winston-Salem!
on July 31, 2009 at 11:00 am Peggy T

Winston-Salem, NC
on July 31, 2009 at 11:14 am charles k casey

any published maps would become helpfull to to the public that has a intrest in this , my home state . rich in history , winston -salem gets my vote
on July 31, 2009 at 11:17 am Fam

Thank you so much, folks, for your votes. But no election is over until the last vote is counted, so please urge your family, friends, etc to come and vote as well.

If we win, I promise to put a little slide show on our website that will demonstrate one of the many values of the Sanborn Insurance Maps.

If you go to the NC Miscellany home page and look a few entries before the Sanborn map one, you’ll see a cool blue button with 50-15 printed on it. It’s from a popular slogan in Winston-Salem in the early 20th century, and it exemplifies the same kind of local spirit that you have exhibited in the last 24 hours.

Fam Brownlee, Jr.
NC Room
Central Library
on July 31, 2009 at 12:33 pm Peter Koch

Waynesville too as the historic society is just opening up an exhibit on the history of that county…
on July 31, 2009 at 1:07 pm Andrew Sprouse

Durham!!!
on July 31, 2009 at 1:18 pm Erica Fields

Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 1:34 pm clarence

winston-salem
on July 31, 2009 at 1:53 pm Nancy Binder

Winston-Salem next, please
on July 31, 2009 at 1:57 pm Arza Don Patterson

WINSTON-SALEM please.
on July 31, 2009 at 2:41 pm Amanda

Winston-Salem!!!
on July 31, 2009 at 2:54 pm Ben

Winston-Salem!
on July 31, 2009 at 3:02 pm Lisa A

Winston-Salem please!
on July 31, 2009 at 3:07 pm Nearous Sizemore

Winston-Salem!
on July 31, 2009 at 3:16 pm Nicholas Graham

The voting is done, and the winner by a landslide is Winston-Salem. Here’s the full tally:

Winston-Salem: 94
Durham: 15
Hillsborough: 14
Rutherfordton: 2
Mooresville: 2
Kannapolis: 2
Waynesville: 2
Wilkes County: 2
Kernersville: 2
Asheville: 1
Love Valley: 1
Concord: 1
Oxford: 1
Raleigh: 1
Warrenton: 1
Canton: 1
Elizabeth City: 1
Surry County: 1
Gaston County: 1
Apex: 1

Thanks to everyone who participated. Keeping checking the Sanborn Map page on the North Carolina Maps site — we’ll have lots more coming soon.
on July 31, 2009 at 3:20 pm Mel White

The dual-city history of Winston-Salem and it having been the largest city between DC and Atlanta in its early days are strong reasons for it to be next.
on July 31, 2009 at 4:11 pm Fam

Thank you Nicholas, and thank you all who voted, no matter what city you voted for.

We had a lot of fun, and I have been hearing from people who, because of this vote, to their delight, discovered NC Miscellany, the NC map site and much more.

Again, thanks to all, the NC Miscellany staff and all voters.
on July 31, 2009 at 4:58 pm Bob Hensley

Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 7:32 pm Andrea

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem Winston-Salem
on July 31, 2009 at 7:57 pm Ina

Winston-Salem
on August 1, 2009 at 10:15 pm Mark Chilton

Who knew N C Miscellany had so many readers . . .
on August 3, 2009 at 11:39 am Spencer Gung

My vote is for Winston-Salem!