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Insurance Cartography in Cecil County
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By Michael L. Dixon
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D
o you need to discover how your town has changed or what your old house looked like years ago? The Society has a collection of little known maps which may be of assistance. Produced by the Sanborn Map Company, the maps were detailed atlases of towns and cities prepared for the exclusive use of fire insurance companies. Sanborn's archives contain approximately 1-million maps covering 12,000 towns and cities nationwide, and between 1885 and 1962 its insurance cartographers created 26 sets of maps of Cecil County towns.
(1)
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The Sanborn Company
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Surveyor D. A. Sanborn, in response to the need for "detailed and accurate information" to determine risks in insuring commercial and residential buildings, established his company shortly after the Civil War in 1867. While the Company changed over the years, it continued to compile and publish maps for the fire insurance industry for more than a hundred years. "Our maps are made for the purpose of showing at a glance the character of the fire insurance risks of all buildings. . . . Our customers depend on the accuracy of our publications, and rely upon the information supplied, incurring large financial risks without making personal examinations of the properties," the publisher's handbook said, explaining the aim of its product.
(2)
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Sanborn's examiners mapped all built-up parts of a town or city. These maps were drawn at the scale of 1 inch to 50 feet which allowed specific details to be shown. For example, street width, distance between risks, building dimensions, type of construction (frame, brick, stone, iron), number of floors, roof composition, windows, elevators, wall construction and street addresses are all shown. Building use details are noted such as dwelling or for business establishments and public buildings the specific occupancy. Topographic details such as street, alleyways, railways and prominent natural features are found. Naturally, public fire protection data is exhibited — the type of fire department and its apparatus, prevailing winds, the fire alarm system, and water supply.
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On the first visit to a town, the cartographers sketched out the town's streets, alleyways, railroads and topographical features. Then they would "measure out" and diagram all the homes and buildings. They also visited
the court-house, town-hall, and fire department to get public information. During subsequent visits the task was much easier; they just checked on changes in existing structures and sketched out areas where new growth had occurred.
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Mapping Cecil County
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Our collection contains all of Sanborn's Cecil County maps. The earliest is Elkton's. Published June 1885, this atlas contains three sheets. Elkton's population was 2,000 or about one-fifth its size today. As for fire protection: "No steam engines & no hand engines [sic], no independent hose carts, water facilities not good (Sanborn Map of Elkton, 1885)." Buildings of interest include: the courthouse at North and Main Street; the Railroad Hotel at High and North Street (in those days the railroad tracks were between High Street and Railroad Avenue); and the Felton House at Bow St. and Railroad Ave.
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Railroad Ave. was the northern edge of town; beyond this point were farmland and the grounds of the Cecil County Agricultural Society. High St. stopped a few hundred feet west of Bridge St. One area of the county seat, E. Main St. from Delaware Ave. to the creek, was being built-up with lovely Victorian homes. In fact, this neighborhood was growing so fast it would soon be annexed into town. Industrial development concentrated along the Big Elk Creek west of Bridge St. and Bridge St. around Railroad Ave. Out at the southeast edge of town on Delaware Ave., at the Big Elk
Creek, stood Vinsinger's Mill.
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Most Elkton's sheets contain underwriters' scribblings for these issues were originally owned by the Cecil Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a company acquired by Montgomery Mutual in 1967. Cecil Mutual's underwriters penciled in the risks they were assuring against loss, noting the value at risk and the policy number. The Howard House was insured for $2,000 by Cecil Mutual in 1910.
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In the Fall of 1891, Sanborn's map makers returned to survey a second county town, Port Deposit. During that visit, they produced three detailed sheets of the river town. Its population was two thousand, which is nearly three times its present count. Fire protection consisted of a "volunteer company of 48 men, 2 steamers . . . no hand eng. no h.& l. (hook and ladder) truck, 1 hose cart & one pumper. No water works but river always open." The Commercial Hotel was found in the center of town. Port of 1891 was mostly developed in the areas that it is today.
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Holdings At The Society
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The following lists the years the insurance cartographer's visited Cecil to map its towns.
(3)
All of these issues are found at the Society. For the complete catalog of fire insurance maps at the Society
click here.
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Chesapeake City -- 1901, 1907, 1923, 1933; Elkton -- 1885, 1891, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1912, 1922, 1931, 1962; North East -- 1933; Perryville -- 1904, 1910, 1923, 1943; Port Deposit -- 1891, 1897, 1904, 1910, 1923, 1943; and Rising Sun -- 1921, 1933.
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These maps provide one of the most valuable sources for finding facts about the age of a building, its construction, location, dimensions and occupancy. Studied cumulatively, the maps reveal the building's physical evolution plus changes in use over the years. They also show the growth of towns and let researchers see the detailed changes that have occurred in individual blocks and neighborhoods.
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Catalog of Fire Insurance Maps at the Society
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Bibliography
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1.Sanborn Company. Marketing Literature. Pelham: NY. 1995
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2. Library of Congress.
Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress
. pp 1 - 7. 1981.
Washington, D.C.
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3. Library of Congress,
Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress
. Checklist - Maryland. pp 254 - 257. 1981. Washington, D.C.
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