Sanborn Map Company

American publisher of detailed urban fire-insurance maps from 1866 onward. D. A. Sanborn (1827–1883) founded the firm in 1866 in New York; the company produced street-by-street, building-by-building maps for fire-insurance underwriters across nearly all sizable American towns and cities through the mid-20th century. The company exists today as a digital-mapping subsidiary; its historical-mapping output is housed at the Library of Congress (the largest single Sanborn collection) plus various state and university libraries.

For H and H Coffee Factory research, the Sanborn Map Company is the producer of the primary research tool — the Sanborn fire insurance maps — that the KB cites for SA urban-history work. The company itself is rarely the subject of a citation; the maps it produced are.

See resources/sanborn-fire-insurance-maps.md for the research-tool reference page including usage guidance and SA-specific availability.

Brief corporate history

• 1866 — D. A. Sanborn founds Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau (later Sanborn Map & Publishing Co.).
• Late 19th c. — Expansion across all major American cities; SA coverage begins in the 1880s and continues through the post-WWII era.
• 1960s–1970s — Fire-insurance industry shifts to other risk-assessment methods; Sanborn map production for the U.S. winds down.
• Today — Sanborn Map Company exists as a digital geospatial-services firm; historical Sanborn maps are public-domain research assets at LoC and partner institutions.

H&H-relevant Sanborn coverage

Sanborn maps covering the H&H operating decades and addresses are the specific research resource. The KB’s various places/ pages cite Sanborn maps as the research path for:

• Building footprints and floor-plan layouts (e.g., 601 Delaware machinery layout per places/601-delaware-street.md)
• Adjacent industrial neighbors (e.g., the concrete company at places/1008-hoefgen.md)
• Occupancy and use history (e.g., places/1223-west-commerce.md)
• Block-level industrial-zone evolution along Burnett Street and Delaware Street

See also

• resources/sanborn-fire-insurance-maps.md — the research-tool reference; SA availability + access guidance
• places/601-delaware-street.md — cites Sanborn maps for machinery layout research
• places/1008-hoefgen.md — cites Sanborn maps for neighbor identification
• places/1223-west-commerce.md — cites Sanborn maps for occupancy verification
• places/utsa.md — likely Sanborn-map repository for SA editions