A valuable tool for any history buff are the the Sanborn Maps. Originally created to assess fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States, the maps are now seen by historians, genealogists, sociologists, preservationists and even city planners as a valuable guide to tracking the growth of a town, state or country.
The maps include detailed information regarding town and building information in approximately 12,000 U.S. towns and cities from 1867 to 1970. Fortunately the Orange County archives has Sanborn maps of Los Alamitos for three years — 1898, 1907 and 1922.
Mapping for insurance, and specifically fire insurance, purposes had begun in in London in the late 18th century. In the decades following
the Civil War, fire insurance mapping grew as rapidly as the growth in the country, the rebuilding of the South and massive westward expansion. Factors such as the Homestead Act, railroad construction, the Industrial Revolution and massive immigration into the United States all fostered huge population growths, urbanization, and heightened demand for mapping.
The Sanborn Company began making fire insurance maps in 1867 when founded by Daniel Alfred Sanborn, a surveyor from Somerville, Massachusetts. The Sanborn Map Company created maps for fire insurance assessment in the U.S. and within several decades became the largest and most successful American map company. Sanborn was headquartered in Pelham, New York, but had regional offices in San
Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta. The Sanborn Company sent out legions of surveyors to record the building footprints and relevant details about these buildings in all major urbanized areas regarding their fire liability. It was because of these details and the accuracy of the Sanborn maps, coupled with the Sanborn Company’s standardized symbolization and aesthetic appeal that made the Sanborn Company so successful and their maps so widely utilized.