What are Fire Insurance Maps?
Originally created for the fire insurance industry, these maps provide the most complete visual record of the evolving built environment in St. Louis, covering commercial, industrial, and residential neighborhoods. Urban planners, architects, urban archeologists, and historians as well as to those engaged in family, neighborhood, and house history regularly consult the fire insurance maps.
In St. Louis, Alphonso Whipple produced fire insurance maps between 1870 and 1898. This company was then absorbed by the larger Sanborn Company.
Sanborn maps date back to the 1860s and were created as a detailed building record by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company. They are large scale (50 feet to the inch) and highly detail and include such information as building location, construction materials, and building height.
FiMO Sanborn Maps +more
- Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo) This link opens in a new windowA research portal to find and view high-definition, color Fire Insurance Maps, Real Estate Atlases, Plat Books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information. This subscription includes Illinois and Missouri. Learn more about this database
WashU Libraries' subscription includes the following areas: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Digital Whipple Maps of St. Louis
- Unreal CityWashington University Libraries and the Missouri History Museum hold approximately 3,300 fire insurance maps produced in St. Louis by Alphonso Whipple between 1870 and 1898. Visit the Unreal City to view these historic maps of St. Louis.
Currently use of these paper maps is restricted by their brittle condition, but through this joint digital project, the maps are now made available to the public.
Sanborn Maps - other formats
The latest print edition (1998) of Sanborn maps for St. Louis can be viewed in the Art and Architecture Library Reference Section. Use the available street index to locate the volume and page for your area of interest.
Older (1990) paper editions of the Sanborn Maps are held in the West Campus Library.
Digital Sanborn Maps is an online resource consisting of scanned black and white images of Sanborn maps for Missouri. The maps were produced between 1876 and 1970, and can be searched by city and date. Maps for St. Louis are available from circa 1903 - 1950
- St. Louis City
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Maps for St. Louis are available from circa 1903 - 1950 - St. Louis Metropolitan Area
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Kirkwood (1926-1949)
St. Charles (1886 -1947)
St. Peters (1912 & 1917)
O'Fallon, MO (1912) - State of Illinois
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Provides digital access to thousands of large-scale Sanborn fire insurance maps searchable by Address and GPS coordinates of thousands of American towns and cities.
