If you aren’t going door to door for candy this Halloween, you can still Trick-or-Treat down the streets of Bath as they were 100 years ago with the Confectionery Challenge! A confectionery is also known as a candy store. Yum!
Here are the rules:
*Read on to learn how to find and use the 1919 Bath Sanborn Maps.
Want more candy? Repeat with the 1890, 1891, 1896, 1903, 1909, and 1950 maps!
Sanborn Maps are a candy-colored key to the way our towns looked 100 years ago. Before they became a treat for historians, they were used by insurance agents to assess fire risk for the property they insured. They were published irregularly. For Bath, maps exist between 1890 and 1919. Plus, the Library of Congress has a 1919 copy that was updated through 1950 as the city changed.
The maps’ color code indicates what each building was made out of. Pink is cinnamon and yellow is vanilla. Wait… I mean pink is brick and yellow is wood! (Bonus points for figuring out what blue and green stand for.)
The Library of Congress has digitized Sanborn Maps for hundreds of cities and towns across the country.
The maps were originally published in books. The first page shows which part of town you’ll find on each page. There is also an index by street.
Have fun wandering around the city! Remember, there are at least four confectioneries in 1919. Let us know if you find more at history@patten.lib.me.us and enjoy your confections!
