Wednesday, January 03, 2007

128 North

So I did a little more digging and found the Sanborn maps which show that 108 North was formerly known as 128 North. The pdf is too large to post, so here is the piece that shows our lot with the old number 128 and the new number 108. Based on the maps, it looks like all of the numbers were changed in the 1920s. It also now shows that this was also the time when the porch was added. Now I just have to go into the library and look at the maps to figure out what all the numbers mean.
In my digging in the house, I also found some of my great-grandmas letters/post cards. One did have the 128 address - perhaps others I have seen had it as well and I just never noticed. I also found a few that were sent without a street address at all or just reference the 2 streets the house sits on. In an age where a character in a web address can mean the difference between finding the site you want or not, it is hard to think of a time (especially in this town) where your name would be enough.

One more thing - here is the "Bird's eye view of Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois 1869". It does show a house at our corner, but the style of the house is very different from ours.

Given this is a "bird's eye view" - does this mean that our house was built pre-1869? Or was there another house here before us? More research!



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great finds! You need to be on that "If Walls Could Talk" show on HGTV. :-)
Anyway, I'm really enjoying all your discoveries - thanks for sharing!