And
stumble onto it we did.
Check
out Figure 1. There on the east side of Saunders Avenue, two doors south of
Bender’s, just past the harness shop, is (was) a Chinese laundry. Show of
hands. Who knew?
Figure 1. This map from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps shows the north end of downtown Sutton in 1889. Cool, isn't it? |
And
look catty-corner from Bender’s where the four-story Oakland Hotel is depicted
in a crude floor plan showing where the kitchen, dining room and stairs were in
the building.
Key to the map codes |
What
are we looking at?
We are looking at maps of downtown Sutton in 1889! The
Sanborn Map Publishing Co., Ltd. developed Fire Insurance Maps of towns
across the country. The maps were targeted at insurance underwriters who needed
to know something about their markets.
These
maps are color coded – yellow are wood frame buildings, red are brick and
others are identified on the key. The cryptic identification on each building
tells how many stories there were, the type of business and other special
features of interest of insurance people.
There
is a photo of a livery stable on the south wall at Astra Bank. We’ve made
guesses where it was. No more guessing. There it is on the south bank of School
Creek, just east of Sutton’s famous early Iron Bridge – the Lewis and Jarrett
Livery stable. (Leonard Jarrett was the father of librarian Sibyl, and he was a
Confederate cavalryman from Virginia.)
Figure
1 shows the north half of the north end of 1889 downtown Sutton to mid-block.
Figure 2 picks up at a hardware store and tin shop on the west side and a
confectionary and cigar store on the east. That would have been the Carney
hardware store and the tin shop would be of interest to the insurance folks –
fire is involved.
Smokehouses
at meat markets are also marked including a blue one, stone.
Street
names as well as block and lot numbers help locate the buildings. Most
locations only list the type of business but lumber yards, elevators, livery
stables and meeting halls are more fully identified. The red (pink) buildings
on the west in lot 1 of block 5 and lot 10 of block 23 shows the Opera House to
be upstairs over a grocery store. Neat, huh?
How
did we find these?
We
didn’t. Credit goes to my cousin Ken Nelson of Manassas, Virginia. Ken grew up
on a farm near Clay Center though began life near Sutton. He worked for the
Dept. of Ag in Washington, D. C. He is a champion of the Library of Congress.
These maps are on the library’s web site.
Follow this link: Sanborn maps for Sutton
A big shoutout to Sanborn Maps for these priceless looks at Sutton 128 years ago. |
Or a search for “sanborn fire insurance maps sutton Nebraska” will return several
links within www.loc.gov. You should see
“Sutton” in a few of the urls – look around.
There
are seven entries, those for 1884, 1889 and 1897 are online with links. We’re
looking at 1889 here. Maps for ’02, ’12 and ’24 are not online. Could you bring
back a copy of those next time you’re in D. C.?
Figure
4 shows the south end of downtown. Note the Central Block. Remember the date on
the building? 1887. The building was two years old when his map was drawn. The
businesses were a hardware store (with tin shop), a grocery and bakery, a
gentleman’s store and a saloon with a “Hall” on the 2nd floor. The
building is red (brick) and is two-stories. The id near the back of the
grocery/bakery seems to read “IR OVEN BST” which sounds like an oven in the
basement, another good item for insurance folks.
The
abbreviations can be challenging. You’ll find lots of “Dwg” which are houses,
residences, “dwellings”. Milly is a millinery shop. You’re on your own for the
rest.
Figures
1, 2 and 4 are on Sheet 1 of the web site. Sheet 2 is a composite of other
locations. Be careful, north isn’t always on top.
Figure 6. Site of today's Sutton Museum. |
Figure
6 is of interest to the historical society. It depicts the location of our
museum. Note that the little creek in mid-block is labeled “School Creek”. And
the J. M. Gray Lumber Yard is shown in detail. The office was on Maple across
the street from the railroad tracks. Note the “Dwg” on Cedar. That is the
current middle museum building, once the Schinzel House. The drawing is a crude
floor plan quite unlike today’s structure in the rear.
Figure
7 across from today’s Post Office with a vacant building where the American
Legion now is. The Occidental Hotel stood there within the memory of many mature
Sutton residents. It is identified on both the 1884 and 1897 maps suggesting
the Occidental Hotel may have had a false start.
In
the northeast corner of Figure 7 is “Wind Mill & Well, w. Tank on Trestles”
– another piece of information of interest to underwriters.
Figure 7. The American Legion is now in the southeast corner of this map. |
Having
fun yet?
Figure
8 should spark a discussion. We’re looking just north of School Creek and west
of Saunders Avenue. The Federated Church would be at the north edge of the
image. Text may be fuzzy here, but check the web site. That is a U. P. R. R.
depot with a platform and supposedly railroad tracks heading east into … well,
…. into the park???
What
do we make of this? I found instances in the Harvard maps where a building was
marked “to be…” something indicating that the map drawer was indicating a
planned building at that location.
Research into Nebraska railroads led to a House of Representative’s document about railroad incorporation filings for the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad (today through Glenvil, Fairfield, Edgar, Davenport, etc.) for a spur through Sutton to York.
And,
as part of the Jim Griess estate, the Sutton Museum received several pre-1900
Sutton Register newspapers. The October 11, 1888 issue had a small item that
read, in part: “Union Pacific Route – The new line between Alma, Wilcox,
Minden, Fairfield, Sutton, York, David City, Lincoln and Omaha. Trains No. 11
and 12, mail and express, run solid between Alma and Lincoln…”
I’d
have put those trains on the tracks that ran from Fairfield through Clay
Center, Verona, Sutton, Lushton and on to McCool, tracks that carried the
little grain-mover we called “The Pook-Eye” back in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, the
one that dragged box cars of grain from Lushton and Verona into Sutton to ship
out on the Burlington.
But
in these Sanborn maps we have a suggestion of railroad tracks and a second
Sutton depot where I never suspected there might have been. Where was that
track’s bridge over School Creek? And other questions. Or, never mind.
Anyhow,
moving on.
Figure 9. Sutton businessmen signed off on these maps. |
Figure
9 is the certification signatures for the map. Several “undersigned agents” of
Sutton certified these maps as “…correct as far as they can see…” The names are
Martin Clark, I. N. Clark, Bemis & Hairgrove attorneys, (unk), Theo Miller,
E. W. Woodruff, J. B. Dinsmore, E. P. B??? and Thurlow Weed. That is, these
distinguished early Sutton businessmen were fine with a map showing a railroad
and depot north of School Creek.
Anyone
else surprised? Or is it just me?
Our
initial intent for this article was to plow through 1888 newspaper ads and
other business information and identify the specific businesses in each
downtown storefront. Clearly, that would have been (will be?) a much longer
article.
So,
did Sutton really have a Chinese laundry in 1889? There was also one in Harvard
on Oak Street. Maybe laundries were just called “Chinese” because… Or there
really were Chinese entrepreneurs following the railroad locating new markets.
And
back to the north end of downtown to the Oakland Hotel. We have pictures of
that building before it burned in 1902. It was a serious hotel, lots of rooms,
a restaurant, a landmark well-known along the Burlington from Lincoln west to
Denver. But we lost it.
Consider
these downtown buildings, especially the Central Block, listed here at
two-years-old in 1889 and still standing today, still in productive use and
still on the shortlist of Sutton’s main attractions. Our downtown buildings
are our primary distinctive community treasures.
There
is positive movement by the city and several concerned citizens to
once-and-for-all get behind a plan and action to take small steps to spruce up
the downtown, then to stop the deterioration of these treasures, then to do more.
Restoration? Revitalization? Prevent the buildings from falling down around our
heads and shoulders – call it what you will.
But
if you agree that downtown Sutton is worth saving and sprucing up, then
consider joining in and supporting this action. Take another look at these
Sanborn maps from 1884, 1889 and 1897. Sutton has a history. Sutton has a
heritage. Both deserve a future.
And what the heck is it with that U. P. depot and tracks???
Addendum in February 2020:
Our research for the weekly column in the county newspaper uncovered this item in The Harvard Courier newspaper on March 6, 1895:
This item confirms that there were Chinese businessmen operating laundries in Harvard and likely also in Sutton in the 1890s. Want. To. Know. More.
3 comments:
Great Thanks for posting...
quickbooks enterprise support phone number
I remember Sybil Jarrett...she was the town librarian....she always tried to get me to read the book The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew....I wanted no part of it!!!
I also remember the Occidental Hotel...it was really creepy!
Barb Maser Helwig
It was gobsmacked blog! my friends must see this. I will tell it when we have time for upholstery cleaning services.
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