# Sanborn Map question?



## Worldcupkeeper (May 21, 2007)

Ive been looking through the sanborn maps online and I dont really know what the outhouse would be, I have an idea but I wanted your opinion. Are these little buildings the outhouses? Would it be worth digging?


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## bottlenutboy (May 21, 2007)

i wouldnt think so....it looks like it has a road  running through the middle of them


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## Jim (May 21, 2007)

They could be privies or sheds. Privies were sometimes located at the back of the lot, along the alley like those small buildings are. Look for depressions and probe the site of them to see if they were privies. ~Jim


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## RICKJJ59W (May 21, 2007)

Thats a alley running down the middle and should be privys to the back of the alley,thats a row house set up,what year was this sanborn?  Rick


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## Worldcupkeeper (May 21, 2007)

> ORIGINAL:  RICKJJ59W
> 
> what year was this sanborn?


 
 1903


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## RICKJJ59W (May 22, 2007)

bottle diggin will do that to ya. Rick


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## CALDIGR2 (May 23, 2007)

It appears that those little boxes are "double troubles", or back to back privies that are shared by two properties. Look at the location of the structures and you'll see that they sit right on the line between houses. 1903 is a bit late for outhouses in most communities, but not in some. Many smaller towns were't served by a modern sewer system 'til later in the second decade of the 20th C.

 A quick probe at the location will tell you the situation. Get after it.


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## logueb (May 23, 2007)

I've been thinking about this one for awhile, and I believe that they could be the back to back privies.  I think that one of the frustrations of locating privies in the South is that they were shallow rather than the wood or brick lined ones up North.  We used a privy when I was a kid.  No joke, pure fact.  We did not get "Indoor plumbing" until I was about 10 years old.  They cleaned the privies down here on a regular basis.   The town that I went to school in had a guy with a two wheeled cart pulled by a mule that he used to clean out the privies in town.  You did not want to get behind that thing in the summer.  Remember cars did not have air-conditioning and you rode with the windows down.
 Anyway, if they were made to be cleaned on a regular basis the alley would make sense. You could clean both sides from the narrow alley.  They may have done this due to the hot climate of the South and for sanitary means.


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## epgorge (May 23, 2007)

Loqueb, 
 How far do these Sanborns go back? Would they have one for an old tavern (1880) in Carlisle Mass.? How about 1850 in little towns in Vermont? How would I get them? 
 Thanks!
 Joel


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## bottlenutboy (May 23, 2007)

www.sanborn.umi.com

 see if they have what your looking for i think the earliest sanborns are 1860s 1880 should be easy to get if they have the town your looking for

 username: residence

 password: welcome


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## PhilaBottles (May 23, 2007)

that alley looks like it made it easy for the privies to be cleaned out. they look like outbuildings...if they are, they are probably shared. 

 but ive never dug a privy. []

 Matt.


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## epgorge (May 24, 2007)

Spence, 
 The url didn't work Neither did Flickers. His myspace did. Huh, first time I ever set foot there. Sure heard enough about it.


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## CALDIGR2 (May 24, 2007)

> ORIGINAL:  epgorge
> 
> Spence,
> The url didn't work Neither did Flickers. His myspace did. Huh, first time I ever set foot there. Sure heard enough about it.
> ...


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## epgorge (May 24, 2007)

I found it through google and got in. Thanks. There isn't a listing or Carlisle mass though. I wonder why? I found the new poultney vermont but not the old poultney.
 Joel


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## druggistnut (May 25, 2007)

To use the UMI site, you HAVE to be using Internet Explorer as your browser to get in. I sign in on AOL, go to IE and hit the UMI link. Works every time. Took me a while, and someone told me about IE. Never worked for me until then.
 Bill


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## logueb (May 25, 2007)

Joel, Since being introduced to the Sanborn Maps through this Forum, I have done a small amount of reasearch to find out what they are.  It appears that the Sanborn Company went to towns and did a liability/ risk survey for the insurance companies.  Such as the ISO (Insurance Service Organization) does today.  The mapping of the towns  showed what was protected and what was unprotected by the current firefighting equipment and water supplies. That may be why privies are not listed on many of these maps, there was not much monetary loss due to fires.  Also I find that the dates that these maps were done was not uniform from town to town.  One town will show only a 1922 map and a neighboring town  will have one dating back to 1904.  There is a symbol listing somewhere on the web showing what the symbols mean.  In the 1x,  the 1 stands for the story and the x stands for shingles.  I'm going to do more reasearch when I have time. Hope this helps.


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## appliedlips (May 27, 2007)

The outbuildings on the maps are probably privies but only a probe will say for sure.They are not shared as there is one for every house.Sanborns are not a reliable means for the locations of privies.A tool shed,coal shed,summer kitchen,any small out building can appear.I have seen many a Sanborn from the 1880's that show no outbuildings in yards that I dug later privies in.A probe is the only way of knowing.Most smaller cities and towns here in the midwest still had privies in the early 1900's.Good luck with your digs,Doug


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## Trying not to break it (May 28, 2007)

hi all,  as often as i have tried i can' get excess to sanborn site,  it keeps telling me that they are available  at my local library,  i check with the main library for balt. co. and they don't have them.  any sugestions?   thanks rhona


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## Worldcupkeeper (Jun 5, 2007)

*RE: Another Sanborn Map question?*

ok ive got another question. I cant find a map of this area any earlier. This one is from 1917 and im wondering about the building that is labeled Out Ho.


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## Worldcupkeeper (Jun 5, 2007)

*RE: Another Sanborn Map question?*

This is the same area from 1924. The little Out Ho. buildings are gone.


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## dirtmover (Jun 8, 2007)

Thanks for the info on how to get to in the maps. I had been trying for months with no luck and I finally got in today.


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## GreenDigger (Jun 8, 2007)

Here is a map of my last privy dig.  The small square is where we found the bottles.  https://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p8/hotrailz/1900map.jpg


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## GreenDigger (Jun 8, 2007)

https://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p8/hotrailz/1885map.jpg


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## GreenDigger (Jun 8, 2007)

The 1900 map shows current dig and the 1885 map shows last dig and future dig that we have probed and hopefully the confederate gold.


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## Worldcupkeeper (Jun 9, 2007)

I went over to the property today to do some probing, this is my first time probing for a privy. The probe went down a little hard at first but after about a foot it started to go down very easy. It ended up going down the entire legnth of the probe very easy. I probed around some more and hit what felt like bricks about 1 1/2 feet down in another spot. What does it really feel like when you hit a privy?

 This is the spot I probed on the sanborn, I checked the other pits on the left of the map but they were under gravel and concrete.


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## Worldcupkeeper (Jun 9, 2007)

and this is the spot of the possible pit. huge slab of concrete and a dumpster on it. I probed from the corner to the bottle in the pic and out about 2 feet, everywhere else around the spot was extremely hard to probe.


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