What is it?

Sanborn Maps were created in the mid-1800s for the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company.  These maps allowed insurance agents to have an accurate assessment of the materials from which a building was constructed. However, to the historian, these maps can provide other information as well.  Every few years, these maps would be updated and any changes would be pasted on top of the old map.  Thus, these maps represent change over time in a neighborhood.  This Sanborn map is for a section of the Cradock neighborhood in Portsmouth.

Things to ponder...

* Can you find the sections that may have been pasted to the original map?

* Why are some buildings different colors?

* Create a hypothesis, based on closely looking at this map, of how Cradock may have developed over time.

* Look closely at the types of buildings represented on the Sanborn map.  What can you say about the people that lived here?  What services are provided within the neighborhood? 

Learn More!

* Ghent and Sugar Hill also have Sanborn maps! Click Here to see some of them!

* Find Sanborn Maps of YOUR neighborhood here!    

* Read: Freed, John. The Ship’s Bell. Vols 1 & 2. Manuscript. 1926-1928.
Located in the Portsmouth Public Library, Esther Murdaugh Wilson Memorial Room

* Visit: Historic Cradock: Portsmouth Virginia