This 1896 set of eight fire insurance maps was published by the Sanborn - Perris Map Company Limited in July 1896.  Sanborn fire insurance maps, most of them produced between 1876 and 1961, are a treasure house of information about the Three Towns (and 12,000 other communities in the United States).  

   There are eight sets of Sanborn fire insurance maps showing Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville.  They were produced in 1886, 1891, 1896, 1901, 1907, 1913, 1921 and 1924.  As years passed, the number of maps in each year's set grew.  The 1896 set has eight maps.  The final set, produced in 1924, has 22 maps in it.

   In addition to showing the towns' streets, they show the individual lots, property owners' names, shape and structural type and details about each building on each lot, and much more information.  The purpose of the Sanborn maps, which are no longer published, was to furnish detailed information so as to enable a fire insurance company to determine fire insurance rates, etc. 

   In order to comply with all copyright regulations, the method by which users of this Brownsville HISTORIC MAPS ARCHIVE may view the Sanborn maps is as follows: 

   The link below, in red, will take you to the digital online map collection of the Pennsylvania State University.  The link will take you directly to Page 1 of the 1896 Sanborn maps of Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville.    

   The first page of each set, an example of which is shown below, is the "master" map.  On the master map, the community is divided into colored numbered sections.  Each of the other maps in the set focuses on one of those sections in great detail.

   And please don't forget to take advantage of the ability to zoom in to study the details on these wonderfully informative maps!

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    To view the 1896 Sanborn maps of Brownsville, Bridgeport and West Brownsville, click here.

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To Zoom in on the map below for a closer look:

Click/tap on a part of the map of interest to you, wait for up to 10-12 seconds, and a clear zoomed image will appear.

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