Indiana Sanborn maps now online

[Eric Reinert]

Indiana University in Bloomington has recently completed scanning nearly all Sanborn Insurance maps for Indiana from the 1890's to the 1920's. I had a look at some of the Hammond maps for 1915 and they are large .pdf files that are slow to load (probably really, really slow if you don't have much internet speed) but are worth the wait. Lots of good info here:

http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1002181

Eric Reinert

[Roger Nulton]

Thanks for posting this, Eric.  What a great resource!  I remember copying some of the maps in the Bloomington library some 30 years ago.  A tedious process.
Roger Nulton

[David Longest]

These are truly a great resource when studying your hometowns.  I too copied these at the New Albany P. L. about 10 years ago.  It is funny how such a resource still leaves questions, mainly: why weren't they published more regularly and continually. 

Thanks, David

[Tim T Swan]

Outstanding find, Eric!  Amazed to see that the CI&L once had a seven-track yard alongside Lyman St. between Douglas and Carroll Sts. (about where the brick joint Erie/MON depot used to be)!

Too bad they don't cover South Hammond.  I suppose that's because back then, that area was way out of town.

I've attached a scan of the best map I've seen in the Hammond group.  On one sheet, it shows the MONON's downtown triangular stone depot and its freight house, plus the frame Erie/C&O depot across the tracks (which burned down around 1940) and at the bottom, the NKP depot.

[Eric Reinert]

Tim,

I agree! I am sure this bunch of scanning represents a huge amount of hours that IU students and faculty devoted to this project. Thank you IU Library! They've created another valuable resource for historians of all sorts.

I also found it surprising the Hammond City limits only went to Standard Avenue (165th street) in 1915! I thought they annexed all the way to the Little Calumet River much earlier than that. I was surprised the Monon had their yard adjascent to the Erie's yard too. Of course, the Monon didn't build South Hammond yard until, what? 1901 or so?

As the copyrights expire they will post later versions. These all had pretty long copyright periods. (75 years or so?) I can't wait to see the circa 1940 and later maps coming in the next few years.

Eric