This is an updated and augmented reprint of a “From the Local History Room” article that was first published in January 2014 before the launch of this blog
The resources available in the Pekin Public Library’s Local History Room include an array of vintage maps and atlases of Pekin and other communities in Tazewell County reaching back to the 1860s. Among those maps are three bound collections of Pekin maps that are noticeably different from most other kinds of maps, and that can provide details and information not usually found on a map.
These are the historic insurance or fire maps of Pekin that were prepared by the Sanborn Map Company. The Local History Room’s collection includes three sets of Sanborn maps, from Nov. 1903, Dec. 1909, and Sept. 1925.
The value and usefulness of these historic maps of Pekin are explained by the description included on the maps cataloguing label, which characterizes the Sanborn maps as showing “The Grid of Daily Life.” The label says:
“Sanborn maps are primary sources essential to researchers in history, urban studies, genealogy, architecture, engineering, and countless other disciplines. Originally created for fire departments and risk assessors, they show details such as the outline of each building, construction materials, windows and doors, street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, water mains, and more.”
The Sanborn Map Company produced this particular sort of map in order to help insurance companies conduct risk assessments on buildings, so fire insurance policies could be suitably crafted. That’s why Sanborn maps include the above listed details. What was originally intended to be useful for risk assessors also proved to be very helpful for municipal fire departments – the information on the maps was often of great help to firemen battling fires, because the maps could tell them what buildings were made out of, or where windows and entrances were located.
With the passing of time, and the construction and demolition of structures in Pekin, the old Sanborn maps now help historians and genealogists to discover the locations of old buildings, or to find out how long a particular structure has been standing, or to learn what a building was used for in the past.
Here are a few details from our old Pekin Sanborn maps:
Regarding the third image above, the Nov. 1903 Sanborn map of Pekin shows the old Zerwekh Building at the corner of Fourth and Elizabeth streets. In those days, as the map indicates, it was the location of a confectionary and bakery as well as a Masonic Lodge. Among the fascinating details about the Zerwekh Building that one can learn from this map are that there used to be two bakery ovens beneath the sidewalks along Elizabeth Street, built into the basement foundation on the north of the structure.
Later, the Zerwekh Building became the location of the Pekin Daily Times, once so very central to Pekin’s community but now, like most of Illinois’ remaining newspapers, only a “ghost” paper prepared and printed elsewhere in Illinois. The newspaper vacated its building in Aug. 2012, and the former Times Building was demolished in the fall of 2013. In the process of demolition, several bricked-up passages were noticed in the basement foundation on the north side. Thanks to the Sanborn maps, we know what those “passages” were before they were bricked up by F. F. McNaughton: They were the ovens where Albert Zerwekh and his sons baked their breads, cakes, cookies and pastries.
Although the library has only three Sanborn maps of Pekin in its Local History collection, a very extensive database of historic Sanborn maps of cities and towns across the country is available online through The Library of Congress website. Regularly readers of “From the History Room” will know that I have frequently drawn upon the old Sanborn maps of Pekin to illustrate and explain the history of Pekin businesses and homes. The Library of Congress database includes Sanborn maps for Pekin as well as 10 other Tazewell County communities: Deer Creek, Delavan, East Peoria, Green Valley, Hopedale, Mackinaw, Minier, Morton, Tremont, and Washington.
The Library of Congress’ collection of Tazewell County Sanborn maps may be accessed here, and the collection of Pekin Sanborn maps is available here. The Sanborn company published a total of nine Pekin maps, and The Library of Congress has digitized seven of them, while two of their Pekin maps have not yet been digitized and published online. Their Pekin Sanborn maps now available online are those of May 1885, Jan. 1892, March 1898, Nov. 1903, Dec. 1909, Oct. 1916, and Sept. 1925. The Pekin maps that have yet to be digitized are those of May 1931 and March 1948 — and these last two also include the Village of South Pekin.
