| What did Washington,
Front and Lincoln Streets and residential areas in Blair look like in
1886, 1889, 1897, 1902, 1909 and 1923? What kinds of businesses were
housed in late 19th and early 20th century buildings
still in use today?
The public is invited to find out answers to these questions and learn more about the development of early Blair at "An Evening with the Sanborn Maps" on Thursday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in Dana College’s Durham Classroom Center, the Gardner Lecture Hall. Nathan Kramer will present and discuss the maps. The hour-long program featuring projections of the Sanborn Insurance Maps is the second in the Blair Historic Properties Registry’s "Blair: Reminisce!" series. The Registry is a part of the Blair Historic Preservation Alliance. Because Sanborn Insurance Maps show the outline, size and placement of buildings in almost every town and city in the country, their production was a major enterprise. From the 1880s on, they were prepared every few years for use by fire insurance underwriters. The detailed maps reveal the purpose of structures, materials used, the number of stories, placement of windows and doors, locations of lot lines, water pipes, hydrants and cisterns, and street layout and former street names. The maps of Blair reveal, for example, that there once was a YMCA on Lincoln between 16th and 17th Streets, that Front Street had three hotels and a park where the post office now stands, and that there were livery stables, restaurants and movie theaters in what residents today might consider surprising locations. Maps currently available for Blair date from 1886 (2 maps), 1889 (4 maps), 1897 (4 maps), 1902 (5 maps), 1909 (7 maps) and 1923 (7 maps).
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