1941 Sanborn Map

Daniel Sanborn started producing maps for the use of the fire insurance industry back in 1866. The maps show buildings and how they were constructed, which helped the industry estimate risk. The Sanborn Company continued producing maps until about 1950, and they offer fascinating, extremely detailed historical documents for the limited areas they covered.

You can find this map and many others at the Library of Congress Sanborn Collection.

Notes

This is the only portion of Roton Hill covered by Sanborn. The dates are hard to pin down; this map says that this sheet was added in 1935, but the book this is from has updates in 1946 and 1950. Some of the names on the map would be valid only before 1941, which is why I've given it that date. The Library of Congress has older maps for Norwalk going back to 1891, but they only cover densely built downtown areas, since those are the areas of fire risk.

The colors and markings on the map very specifically indicate the building materials and other details that may relate to fire-risk. The Library of Congress has a legend for making sense of the markings.

Note that on this map, Soundview and Devil's Garden are shown as essentially one continuous road. Also note that Rampart is also listed as Raymond Road. There would have been plenty of Raymonds in the area to name the road after, similar to Keeler and Scribner. I don't know where the name Rampart came from, by the way.