Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are detailed maps showing building footprints, construction materials, width of streets, house addresses, and the use of the building. The Map Room has Sanborn maps for cities in Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties from various years.

Sanborns on Colored Slides

The bulk of the Map Room's Sanborn collection is 2" x 2" color slides. The slides can be copied in black and white ($.20 with a copy card). The hardbound editions may not be copied.

Select a county below to view coverage by city and year.
Santa Cruz County

San Benito County
Monterey County

San Mateo County
Santa Clara County

Sanborn Maps on our Web Site are available for:
Ben Lomond
Boulder Creek
Felton in .jpg format

Use the slider bars to move around the image.
You may need to "slide down" to see the image.

The same slides are also available in .tif format, but the image may be too large to easily view on your screen. They are also slow to download because of the file size.

Books in Our Collection About Sanborn Maps

Fire insurance maps : their history and applications / Diane L. Oswald HG9771 .O85 1997
Union list of Sanborn fire insurance maps held by institutions in the United States and Canada / by R. Philip Hoehn ; foreword by Walter W. Ristow. Z6026.I7H63

Fire insurance maps in the Library of Congress : plans of North American cities and towns produced by the Sanborn Map Company : a checklist / compiled by the Reference and Bibliography Section, Geography and Map Division ; introd. by Walter W. Ristow. Z6026.I7U54 1981M

A catalogue of Sanborn atlases at California State University, Northridge / by Gary W. Rees & Mary Hoeber Z6028.R42

Other Resources

Union List of Sanborn and other Fire Insurance Maps

An online publication of the Western Association of Map Libraries.

UC Berkeley Sanborn Fire Insurance Map collection

Including a brief history of fire insurance maps and the Sanborn Company.

UC Davis Sanborn Fire Insurance Map collection