[4.28.22] 15-Min Read: My interest in the old Sanborn Insurance Maps of Marietta, Georgia received something of a “boost” when I did some further searching for ones that were either older or newer than the 1911-year iteration. I found the 1911-edition map was achieved at the The Library of of Congress along with five others, but that was it.
Table of Contents: Click on Links to Jump to Section
- Where Else to Find Them & What They Offer
- How I Find My Rabbit Holes: The Whitlock Inn & Resort
- Getting back to the Sanborn Maps: Why Insurance Maps?
- For Those Interested in Detail & History
- How Fires Have Ravaged Marietta in the Past
- The 5,000-Foot-Views of the Maps: My composites
- 1885 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- 1890 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- 1900 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- 1905 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- 1911 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- 1923 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map
- Marietta Square Through Time
Where Else to Find Them & What They Offer:
On a hunch, I did some further searching that led me to the University System of of Georgia’s Digital Library Initiative where they too had a total of six Sanborn Insurance Maps for Marietta: 1885, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905 and it included the 1923-update, but not the 1911; interesting. There were also 1921 and 1930 maps of Acworth, Georgia, but that was all related to Cobb County.
Clearly, there was a 5-year update rhythm to the Sanborn maps, as they tended to build upon each other. The first set of maps from 1885 was essentially a single map of the city with a few detailed illustrations for some of the larger manufacturing / production businesses in the local area, and by 1923 there were 28-sheets in the update. However, five-years became six-years with the 1911 update, and then twelve-years with the 1923 update, after which there do not appear to be further updates for Marietta, Georgia with the last one for Cobb County maintained in the Library of Congress being a January 1930 map of Acworth, Georgia.
There’s an excellent article in the Library of Congress on-line Sanborn Map Collection Series that’s worth a read for anyone who is as fascinated by the maps as I am. From the article and in regard to the collection:
“The Sanborn map collection consists of a uniform series of large-scale maps, dating from 1867 to the present and depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of some twelve thousand cities and towns in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Sanborn collection includes some fifty thousand editions of fire insurance maps comprising an estimated seven hundred thousand individual sheets. The Library of Congress holdings represent the largest extant collection of maps produced by the Sanborn Map Company.”
As to their demise:
“More specific reasons for the decline in use of Sanborn maps were supplied by a librarian for the Insurance Company of North America. “As the nation grew in all areas,” she wrote, “keeping the maps up to date became cumbersome, time-consuming, and expensive. At the same time, increased financial strength of the Company and the progressive reduction in the number of instances in which we needed such detailed locality information led us to discontinue the service prior to 1950. No comparable source of data has replaced use of maps at INA. There is no need to maintain wealth of detail about the small risk to forestall the possibility of catastrophe from fire. Inspection services maintained by fire insurance rating organizations and our own inspection services have proved adequate in the light of modern building construction, better fire codes, and improved fire protection methods.”
In addition to seeing growth in business and home construction as new structures filled once vacant space and existing buildings were either expanded or replaced with larger ones, it was interesting to see how some of the street names changed. For example, what was shown as Hansell Street in the 1885 and 1890 updates showed-up renamed W. McClelland Street on the 1895 update of Marietta’s Insurance Maps, only to be Hansell Street again the 1900 update. It was also in the 1895 update when Paulding Street was renamed Whitlock St.
How I Find My Rabbit Holes: The Whitlock Inn & Resort
I suspect Pauling Street may have been renamed as an homage to the 150-room Whitlock Inn & Resort that had occupied an entire city block beginning at the corner of Paulding and Demead Streets. The Inn was within easy walking distance of the Marietta Train station but, tragically, burned to the ground by some accounts in April 1889, others reflect the 1890’s. I suspect the former is more accurate, as it’s far-more specific but have yet to find a news article to source, just somewhat generic accounts and not a lot of detailed photos. The original Whitlock Inn & Resort was subsequently replaced by a much smaller Whitlock Inn and Anderson homes that occupy the property to this day, although both are now essentially businesses not private residents.
Regardless, this is once again how I find myself headed down Rabbit Holes such as this one regarding Sanborn Maps.
Getting back to the Sanborn Maps: Why Insurance Maps?
From the Library of Congress Collection articles and many other sources that have used nearly the identical description comes the following:
“The maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining the degree of hazard associated with a particular property and therefore show the size, shape, and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories as well as fire walls, locations of windows and doors, sprinkler systems, and types of roofs. The maps also indicate widths and names of streets, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers.”
It’s also been noted that the maps, when updated with a regular rhythm, provided historians and officials with a ready reference for when and how towns and cities developed and expanded over-time, including major changes such as the creation of roads and clearing of land or existing developed land and structures — often times through the eminent domain process — to further development and growth.
For Those Interested in Detail & History:
To get the greatest detail from the maps it’s best to go to the Library of Congress Collection or University System of Georgia’s Digital Library Initiative website where the original, fully-digitized, multi-sheet maps can be accessed and enlarged with great detail. I’ve downloaded relatively high-resolution copies to my computer and used those to create composite view of each year’s updates for a bird’s eye view of the entire, contiguous sheets that make up the City of Marietta. Those composites are included and linked, below, as are a series of nine side-by-side, downtown comparisons for all seven-years the maps were produced and a recent Google-Maps capture used to show the “then and now” perspective.
However, everything on the Sanborn Maps is not necessarily included. In the first editions of the Marietta maps, some of large businesses that were included in detailed sub-illustrations weren’t too hard to append to the composites, but they began to include businesses as far as 14-miles to the east in Roswell which provided impractical. As to why businesses 14-miles away were included, it’s possible that given these were Insurance Co. Maps used by the Fire Departments when assessing their equipment and staffing needs, the large neighboring cities’ factories may have been included as part of a “mutual aid” arrangement that factored into insurance assessments and liabilities.
For those unfamiliar with the history of firefighting and fire insurance, it’s a fascinating subject given the major fires that plagued densely-populated urban cities in the 1800’s when so much was built of wood, illuminated by oil lamp flames, heated by open fire or coal-fired systems and then, in the 1880’s began to incorporate “electrified” systems that had not yet been time-proven for their durability and safety. This was at a time when home and building owners in many places in the United States had the option of paying a fire-protection subscription in advance to professional firefighting companies which was a large source of their funding for preferential attention. Volunteer fire companies were quite common and often times fire insurers contributed money to these departments and awarded bonuses to the first fire engine arriving at the scene of a fire.
The downside to some of these practices was the implied belief — real or imagined — that if a fire broke-out in an uninsured structure, the fire company might not even bother to respond or extinguish it, unless it was threatening an insured, neighboring structure or home. I’ve not studied the matter enough to know if that was a practice in the south or Marietta in particular, but it was used in Europe and Benjamin Franklin brought the practice into fashion in the U.S..
How Fires Have Ravaged Marietta in the Past:
However, point of fact, the city of Marietta and its downtown area has had it’s share of devastating fires that have reshaped the way it looks, to include a pre-Civil War, major fire in 1854 that destroyed most of the square and prompted the creation of the first Marietta Fire Department. General Sherman’s army also burned the city on November 13, 1864 after garrisoning there and pillaging for nearly five months following the Battle of Kennesaw, to include the Cobb County Courthouse and most of everything else on the Marietta Square. Also burned was the Georgia Military Institute previously located where the Marietta Hotel & Conference Center and City Club Golf Course now sit, noting 1851 Brumby House — built on the GMI campus by the Georgia Military Institutes’ first superintendent, Colonel Arnoldus V. Brumby — was one of the few structures spared.
Another major fire on the Marietta Square occurred the night of October 30, 1930, when more than half of the structures on the northeast corner of the Marietta Square were destroyed. The details of the fire are correctly captured in this May 21, 2011 article by “Patch”, noting the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Marietta Daily Journal both published erroneous histories in November 2019 and January 2020, respectively, associated with a change in ownership when, after 40+ years, Shillings Restaurant on the Square in Marietta changed hands and was becoming Mac’s Chophouse. For posterity, I created the photo composite above and at right spanning 110 years to show what the buildings facing the square from the northeast corner looked like before, during and after the fire, to include a January 2021 Google Streetview and segment of the 1923 Sanborn Map of those structures.
Around 1907, a fire also gutted what is now current home of Taqueria Tsunami in the Goldstein building, there was a deadly gas explosion on Halloween Night in 1963 at Atherton’s Drug Store — now occupied by the the Marietta Pizza Company — just down from the square the St. James Episcopal Church was almost destroyed by fire in 1964.
And, just in case anyone is curious, the Cuthbertson Building — originally built in 1917 as the Farmers & Merchant Bank — was not destroyed by fire. It was, instead, razed by the owner in November 2010 who’d allowed it to fall into disrepair. It remains a vacant lot on the north side of the Marietta Square at Root Street sometimes referred to as “The Gulch” or “The Goldstein Gap” by some, while waiting for the owner to develop an appropriate building design for its replacement, something other than the 5-story office building he first proposed or the more-recently proposed 3-story micro-brewery.
The 5,000-Foot-Views of the Maps: My composites
As previously noted, anyone wanting to look at all of the maps in detail, I’ve included links below the seven composite and well as the nine center-city side-by-side images that open one of two .pdf files that are high-resolution and can be significantly scaled-up on a desktop or laptop computer screen. However, for anyone looking for the originals with all of their individual sheets or the four-to-seven commercial structure details, should use the following links to the on-line, large-scale and high-resolution maps in the collection at either Library of Congress Collection or the University System of of Georgia’s Digital Library Initiative websites. If anyone is truly a glutton for punishment and has PowerPoint on their computer, this is the link to the 75mb original file with the seven composites.
However, for those who just want to peruse a sampling of the map sets in low-resolution, I’ve provided-so below and as noted, all can be opened in a new window or have links to detailed .pdf files.
1885 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 3,000
This original map included two sheets, the first being all-inclusive of the city proper, with a second sheet that provided details for five businesses: one just north of town and three others some 14-miles away closer to the city of Roswell, Georgia. The round stamp on the front of the map includes information regarding their fire protection services noting water services were “indifferent,” prevailing winds, etc..
Each sheet also includes a “Key” to the colors and notations that appear on the buildings regarding construction, stories, height, etc.. For simplicities sake, and relative to the construction materials used for the buildings on the maps, noting most in Marietta were Yellow, Red or Blue. This remains constant for the 1885-1923 set.
- Yellow = Wood Frame
- Red = Brick
- Blue = Stone
- Grey = Iron
- Brown = Adobe
- Green = Specials
1890 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 3,000
It had now expanded to three sheets, with an inset Drawing Sheet Overview and now an Alphabetized Index of which sheets reflected the location of key private and public structures. The third sheet provided details for the same five businesses as they did in 1885: one just north of town and three others some 14-miles away, closer to the city of Roswell, Georgia. The round stamp on the front of the map includes information regarding their fire protection services noting water services were “Not Good,” prevailing winds, etc.
1895 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 3,500
It had now expanded from three to five sheets, with the Drawing Sheet Overview and an Alphabetized Index, to include details for three businesses on the first sheet. The first and fifth sheets provided details for the same five businesses as they did in 1885: one just north of town and three others some 14-miles away, closer to the city of Roswell, Georgia. However, this sheet also included a sixth business about 1/2-mile from the center of town and the new Waterstreet Public School No. 1 about 1/4-mile from the center of town that I’ve elected to leave off my composite. The round stamp on the front of the map includes information regarding their fire protection services noting water services were “Not Good,” prevailing winds, etc..
1900 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 5,000
It had now expanded from five to eight sheets, where the Drawing Sheet Overview and Alphabetized Index shares the details of two businesses. The first, sixth and eighth sheets provided details for a total of seven businesses, as well as the Waterstreet Public School No. 1 and several small segments of structures in the city that did not fit on the other sheets. The round stamp on the front of the map includes information regarding their fire protection services noting a more detailed “Note” was added to the 1st sheet providing significantly more detail regarding the city’s fire services and water supply.
1905 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 7,000
It had now expanded from eight to ten sheets, where the Drawing Sheet Overview and Alphabetized Index shares the details of the Glover Machine Works and a 2nd Public School. The first, fifth, ninth and tenth sheets provide details for a total of eight businesses, as well as the Waterstreet Public School No. 1 and several small segments of structures in the city that did not fit on the other sheets. The round stamp on the front of the map includes information regarding their fire protection services and, as in 1900, a “Note” was added to the 1st sheet providing significantly more detail regarding the city’s fire services and water supply.
1911 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 8,000
It had now expanded from ten to nineteen sheets, where the Drawing Sheet Overview and Alphabetized Index is all that appears on the first sheet. The round stamp on the front of the map is now gone replaced by narrative details regarding the water facilities, fire protection services and notes that the streets are not paved but in fair condition and that there is public electricity. There are seven businesses outlined in greater detail, most of which are north or south of the central city area on sheets 9, 15, 18 and 19 and a few several small segments of structures in the city that did not fit on the other sheets. As before, the businesses are sufficiently far-enough from the center city area that it’s not practical to include them in my 10,000-foot-view composites.
1923 – Sanborn Map Company, Marietta City Insurance Map: Population 6,000
For some strange reason, the city population dropped from 8,000 to 6,000 since the 1911 update, which far exceeds the clearly understated estimate of 875 deaths attributed to the Spanish Flu for the city of Atlanta alone. So, that’s one I’ll have to go back and look at as I suspect, perhaps, they erroneously started using the estimated population of Cobb County with the 1900 update, instead of just the city of Marietta, and corrected that in 1923.
Regardless, the update had now expanded from nineteen to twenty-eight sheets, where once again only the Drawing Sheet Overview and Alphabetized Index is all that appears on the first sheet, along with a detailed narrative that outlines the water facilities and fire protection services. There are seven businesses outlined in greater detail, most of which are north or south of the central city area on sheets 9, 15, 18 and 19 and a few several small segments of structures in the city that did not fit on the other sheets. As before, the businesses are sufficiently far-enough from the center city area that it’s not practical to include them in my 10,000-foot-view composites.
Marietta Square 1885 vs 2022: Before and After the Invention of the Automobile
Notable Differences: In 1885 there were no automobiles, just horses, wagons & carriages and only the well-to-do owned carriages at a time when all the streets were unpaved, likely littered with horse manure and the square was still being rebuilt following the great fire of 1854 and Civil War. So, today, perhaps the most striking change would that in 1885, when there was just the single, rebuilt Cobb County Courthouse standing on the corner of one city block, today over 15 city blocks are now occupied by government buildings east of Atlanta Street. Almost as surprising may be just how much of the land in and around the Marietta Square is consumed by vehicle parking, shown by the yellow-highlighted areas on the 2022 satellite photo at below, right.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1885 to 1890
Notable Differences:
- Between 1885 and 1890 there was clearly new commercial construction on the Marietta Square, both at the Northeast and Southeast corners and to the south of the square.
- Also on the northeast corner of the square, a small brick dwelling” was removed.
- To the north of the square is the addition of several frame residences.
- A new, large frame-structure was built on Anderson St. between Winter and Powder Springs Streets, and where a stone carpenters’ shop and small marble shop used to stand that now houses the marble shop, part of L.L. Black Planing, and a Livery. Adjacent to it is a co-undertaker’s business and armory.
- Extensive construction of brick structures was made on the Southeast corner of the Marietta Square where “old foundations” from structures likely destroyed in the 1854 fire or during the Civil War remained.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1890 to 1895
- Between 1890 and 1895, one of the changes that jumps out is Hansell Street being renamed W.McClellan Street.
- There has also been extensive new construction in the block between Dobbs and W.McClennan Streets, west of Church with two large brick (pink) structures that comprise the Marietta Chair Company and several smaller frame structures.
- You can also clearly see the addition of the Marietta Baptist Church built of stone (blue) at the corner of Dobbs and Church Streets to the north of the square along.
- At the northeast corner of the Marietta Square, the AME (colored) church was changed from frame to brick construction and there were some other changes made to frame structures on that same block.
- The large, frame-structure built on Anderson St. between Winter and Powder Springs Streets is now shown as brick (pink) marble shop, part of L.L. Black Planing, and a Livery and the former undertaker/armory structure now has lead walls, but the armory is gone and it is now shown to be an Opera House on the 2nd floor.
- The area behind the four brick buildings facing South Park Street at the Marietta Square continues to undergo many changes.
- There are also four new commercial structures made of stone near the square and miscellaneous other small changes throughout the area shown.
Yet another rabbit hole: It’s also noteworthy, as shown below, in the 1895 update and just north of the new Marietta Baptist Church at the corner of Polk and Church Streets was the Clarke Library, built in 1893. It occupied the same lot at the original site where the Root House had been located since 1845. To make room for the library, the Root House was rolled back and turned south facing what was then Polk Street (now Lemon), two blocks east of where it sits today, now west of the railway tracks on Powder Springs Street. Again, it’s the Sanborn maps are a wealth of information when doing research on such things.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1895 to 1900
- Between 1895 and 1900, the re-named W.McClellan Street being was switched back to Hansell Street.
- The Cobb County Courthouse built at the southeast corner of the Marietta Square in 1873 underwent a major renovation and expansion in 1898 that vastly changed its appearance and size.
- During the same period of time, Pauling Street was renamed Whitlock Street, likely an homage to the April 1899 fire that destroyed the Whitlock Inn & Resort.
- Note that the Baptist Church construction was revised to brick veneer (pink) on wood frame (yellow).
- The “stone” color key (blue) was removed from three businesses at or near the corner of Cherokee and Lawrence which reverted to brick (pink).
- Extensive changes occurred at the corner of Atlanta and Anderson Streets with a large frame structure (home?) being replaced by the Methodist Episcopal Church, a large brick (pink) structure.
- Across the street from the new M.E. Church to the west, several smaller brick buildings were combined or replaced with an expansion of the Black & Sons Planing Mill.
- A new brick Cotton Warehouse was erected at the corner of Anderson & Brannon Streets
- The Marietta Paper Manufacturing Company underwent significant brick-built expansion on the West side the railway tracks.
- The area behind the four brick buildings facing South Park Street at the Marietta Square continues to undergo many changes.
- Other business name/ownership changes, minor structural changes and new construction in both frame housing and brick buildings is noted.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1900 – 1905
- At the northwest intersection of Dobbs Street with the railway tracks, the Marietta Ice Company has replaced the Marietta Marble Company.
- At the same intersection as above, the Marietta Paper Company had added a frame (yellow) warehouse, and the Marietta Chair company has also expanded its business with a large, brick (pink) multi-use structure to the east and across Dobbs Street to the north.
- The Marietta Paper Company has undergone further expansion to include relocating and doubling its three steam boilers to six, all in brick construction and adding a new lead-walled, frame construction warehouse to the north.
- At the northeast corner of the square, a carriage business has greatly expanded its structures to the east with new brick construction, razing a small wooden structure and now abutting the AME (Colored) Church.
- Cobb County has replaced the small brick jail with a new brick sheriff’s building and jail behind the courthouse.
- The area behind the four brick buildings facing South Park Street at the Marietta Square continues to undergo many changes as does the Black and Son’s Planing Company across the street.
- Other business name/ownership changes, minor structural changes and new construction in both frame housing and brick buildings is noted.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1905 – 1911
- While what was called Dobbs Street still continues to the east at Church Street, the name of the street to the east of Church Street is now Lemon Street.
- At the northwest intersection of Dobbs Street with the railway tracks, the Marietta Paper Company reduced the size of its frame (yellow) warehouse, lined the walls with lead and added a rail spur for coal delivery.
- The block with the Marietta Chair Company’s multi-use structure looking south onto Dobbs Street has changed from partial residential to all business structures and two of its 3 major brick buildings are now showing lead-lined walls.
- There is new construction behind five of the nine blocks that border the Marietta Square, which major changes at the intersection of Atlanta and Anderson Streets on the southeast corner of the Marietta Square many of the Black & Son’s Planing business structures replaced by a new Post Office and a new brick structure housing the armory and what appear to be elements of the Black & Sons Planing business.
- Note that Marietta Fire Station No. 1 on east side Atlanta Street where it abuts the southeast corner of the Marietta Square has been expanded.
- Other business name/ownership changes, minor structural changes and new construction in both frame housing and brick buildings is noted.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1911 – 1923
- At the northwest corner of Dobbs and Church Streets and continuing to the railway tracks, the W.P. Phillips Planing Mill has now constructed several framed structures on half of the city block share with what is now the Marietta Cotton Company — former part of the Marietta Chair Company — and several other businesses in both new frame and brick construction.
- The Marietta First Baptist Church structure has doubled in-size.
- There was significant redevelopment to the north of the square along the west side of Church Street and larger businesses and structures were replaced by smaller ones and the like.
- Many businesses that were listed in 1911 occupying structures are now different business, with automotive services being quite prevalent for the first time.
- The southwest corner blocks of the Marietta Square reflect the construction of several new brick structures displacing older, existing ones with the brick building to the south of the post office that housed an armory and other business offices now reflecting it’s occupants as City Hall and the Fire Department.
- The former Marietta Fire Station No. 1 on east side Atlanta Street has been modified and now appears to be a business or business offices.
- Other business name/ownership changes, minor structural changes and new construction in both frame housing and brick buildings is noted.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1885 – 1923
The development and evolution of businesses in the center city area surrounding the Marietta Square over nearly 40-years following near devastation in November 1864 during the Civil War has been more-or-less what you’d expect to see. The dramatic changes are in areas outside of the land represented in what I’ve isolated here. But, what you begin to see, aside from the turn-over in business and building occupants, is the types of businesses needed as greater numbers of citizens and consumers lived in and around the Marietta area and also regained their financial security. As an example, the expansion of carriage and equestrian-related transportation services from 1885 through the turn of the century followed by the appearance in 1911 and growth by 1923 of auto repair and related businesses now occupied commercial spaces in the central city area. The Cobb County Courthouse rebuilt after the civil war in 1873 was completely changed and expanded after the turn of the century, as various other government offices began to require additional space keeping pace with the growing population and need for services in Cobb County as well as the city of Marietta.
Marietta Square Through Time: 1923 – 2022
While much has changed in Marietta in the nearly 100 years that has passed since the last Sanborn Insurance Map I could find was produced, it’s somewhat amazing how many old structures are still standing.
While businesses that created jobs and produced goods and services have been “pushed-out-of-town” gradually over time and been replaced by retail, restaurants, the finance-insurance-real estate (aka, F.I.R.E.) and government office space, the lion’s share of redevelopment has been driven by government (taxpayer) vs. private investment. And, the automobile has probably had the most profound influence on the changes that can be seen in just looking at how land is used and major changes made around the city to resolve transportation issues. The most dramatic was likely the creation of the GA-120 Loop, aka, the North and South Marietta Parkways, that was created to more-directly allow traffic to reach the city-center after the “4-Lane Highway” U.S. 41, and then Interstate I-75 threatened to make the city of Marietta a by-gone center of commerce in much the same way as the interstate systems did to small towns and businesses along U.S. highways, like Routes 41, 66 and the like.
However, in the process, many homes, small grocery stores and acres of privately-owned land were consumed by the government in the name of progress. But, in looking at some of the old photos from just the 1940’s and shown below, it’s clear many of the older homes and neighborhood around Marietta were not all in good repair and likely in need of “redevelopment.” To assume that will happen again when “deemed necessary” for the benefit of good government and supporting commerce is somewhat naive and these maps clearly show that type of progression, hence their value to historians.
Again, the most significant growth in greater Marietta and Cobb County is well beyond what is shown in the Sanborn Map collections, e.g., the massive urban sprawl and growth in suburban areas, residential, commercial and public service-related school campuses, fire, police and other structures and, of course, roads, utilities infrastructure, parks, shopping centers and parking, lots of land consumed for merely parking cars.
A History Trip to Cobb County Georgia 
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