Fire Insurance Map of Perry Knitting Co., 1913

Sanborn 1913--small.jpg
Sanborn 1913--large.jpg

Dublin Core

Title

Description

Sanborn Map Company created extremely detailed renderings (1:600 scale) for the purposes of fire insurance underwriters. Important details like building use, construction materials, water supplies, power plant, sprinkler systems, and more enabled accurate assessment of fire risk. They remain valuable tools for historical research because they were updated frequently. For the PKC, we have maps from the years 1884, 1894, 1900, and 1906. Taken together, they document a period of growth for the company.

In this cropped image, the last one available from the Library of Congress, several wood-frame buildings have been demolished and what becomes known as Mill #5 has been constructed. A large picker house has been attached to Mill #3. By this point Mills #1-2, the oldest buildings, seem to have been consigned to a machine shop and storage--with the exception of the Cutting Room. This map is also of interest for its hints of daily social life for its employees. There's mention of a restaurant on the Office's second floor. Near the top of the map, at the corner of Hope and Stanton Streets, we see a "Polish Club" and dance hall next to each other--presumably for the mill's hundreds of Polish-American employees.

Creator

Sanborn Map Company

Date

Contributor

Source

Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA

Digital ID #http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3804pm.g3804pm_g061701913

Format

Type

Still Image Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Map

Geolocation