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Unreal City

Unreal City, Whipple's Fire Insurance Map of St. Louis, MO, 1892.

Unreal City: Historic St. Louis Maps

The 19th century St. Louis fire insurance maps in Unreal City: Historic St. Louis Maps are an important source of historical information to study the growth and development of post-Civil War St. Louis.

Originally created for the fire insurance industry, these maps provide the most complete visual record of the evolving built environment in St. Louis, covering commercial, industrial, and residential neighborhoods.

The two page spread on the Standard Distillery shows details of the Distillery on the left with architectural schematics of the building and land plat on the right page. The maps indicate that the Standard Distillery was located at N. Second Street between Spring and Wright Streets.
Fire insurance maps were produced in St. Louis by Alphonso Whipple. The above is part of the Special Risks Maps from 1872 (V3) and displays Plat 146 detailing the Standard Distillery.

The Unreal City digital project was created in collaboration with the Missouri Historical Society with funding from the Missouri State Library (2008-2009). Work began in 2022 to digitally migrate the contents to a new platform and add greater GIS capabilities.

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Contact

Department
Special Collections, Special Collections, Preservation, and Digital Strategies
Name
Miranda Rectenwald
she/her/hers
Job Title
Curator of Local History
Phone Number
(314) 935-5444