Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1888Sheet 1 of 1
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Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Summerville was platted on September 20, 1873, along Ruckle Road by William H. Patten. Patten had a freight depot along Ruckles Road, only the second road over the Blue Mountains, which was a popular route over the Blue Mountains until it washed out in 1884. Speculators and investors then moved to Elgin, Oregon. An 1888 Sanborn map, the first of four of the city, shows an opera hall, bank, livery, drugstore, as well as other stores. In 1888, half of the main street buildings were destroyed in a fire, but were rebuilt soon after. As the town was already in a sharp commercial decline by 1910, buildings that were destroyed after then were not replaced. In 1890, the population was 280 people.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2012