Maps

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map — Dundee, Kane County, Illinois (October 1933)

A nine-sheet fire insurance map of Dundee and its adjacent villages, produced by the **Sanborn Map Company** in October 1933. The map explicitly covers **East Dundee, Illinois**, **West Dundee, Illinois**, and **Carpentersville** as noted on the original sheets. It is fully digitized and publicly available through the Library of Congress at no cost, in the public domain.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map — Dundee, Kane County, Illinois (October 1933) — scan
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map — Dundee, Kane County, Illinois (October 1933) — scan — click to zoom in

What It Shows

Sanborn maps were produced for fire insurance underwriters and capture building-level detail unavailable in any other historical source of this period:

  • Building footprints with construction material noted by color code (brick, frame, stone, etc.)
  • Building use — residential, commercial, industrial, storage, livery, etc.
  • Number of stories
  • Roof type and skylights (relevant for fire spread)
  • Locations of fire hydrants, cisterns, and hose connections
  • Street names and widths
  • Block and lot numbers
By 1933, East Dundee's commercial district along Main Street and its Fox River-adjacent industrial zone were both well established. This map should show the configuration of the village at a moment 46 years after incorporation — buildings that were new in Henry Guldan's day are now middle-aged structures, and some of the founding-era saloon locations may be visible.

Why It Matters

The 1933 Sanborn is one of only two digitized Sanborn surveys of the Dundee area held at the Library of Congress (the other is a 1940 update edition). For The Kiln's purposes, this map is the primary tool for:

  • Locating where the original five licensed saloons (1887) operated along Main Street
  • Identifying the Engine House purchased in October 1887 for $150 from Henry Edwards (used as the first civic meeting space and polling place)
  • Tracing the footprint of the Dundee Electric Light Company and other early franchise infrastructure
  • Anchoring the Board of Local Improvements street-improvement projects (Elgin Avenue, etc.) to specific block-level geography
  • Identifying any surviving structure from the 1887–1895 founding era documented in the village record books
  • Locating the millrace associated with the Chris Patsche property noted in Board of Local Improvements records
The 1940 Update Edition

A second Sanborn survey (also digitized at LOC, item `sanborn01831_007`) was produced October 1933 – May 1940, with 9–10 sheets. It represents updates to the 1933 base map and allows comparison for buildings constructed or demolished in the 1930s. Both editions should be consulted together for research.

Access

Both editions are freely available online through the Library of Congress:

High-resolution JPEG and JP2 downloads are available for each sheet. No registration required. Public domain — may be reproduced freely.

Story

The Sanborn Map Company surveyed American cities and towns continuously from 1867 into the late 20th century. Insurers used the maps to set rates and assess risk — which is why they recorded every building's material, use, and height. The result is the most detailed block-level visual record of American urban life before aerial photography became routine.

For East Dundee, the 1933 survey arrives at an interesting moment: the village is nearly 50 years old, the Fox River has long been crossed by multiple bridges rather than just the contested footbridge of 1893-1895-east-dundee-village-governance|the 1890s, and Haeger Pottery (the future anchor of the village's identity) is by this point already well established. The map likely shows the pottery works.

No physical copy is known to be held locally. The Library of Congress digital copies are the accessible version of record.

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