Did you know?

The Tree Streets' cross streets used to be 1st through 6th

Today's 11th through 16th Streets are labeled 1st through 6th St. W. on the 1925 Sanborn map. That map was drawn two years after Waynesboro and Basic City merged, and Basic City's own numbered streets east of the river still started at 1st St. E., so the west side was renumbered sometime after 1925.

Waynesboro and Basic City became one town in 1923

Voters in both towns approved consolidation in August 1923. The combined town was first called Waynesboro-Basic; the General Assembly renamed it Waynesboro in 1924.

Sanborn's surveyors counted the town each time

The title pages of the Waynesboro Sanborn maps give its population: 1,200 in 1886 (when the map also noted "Water facilities: Not good"), 2,500 for Waynesboro and the new Basic City together in 1891, 1,600 in 1907 (with 1,500 more in Basic City), 1,400 in 1913, 2,100 in 1920, and 4,000 in 1925, the first edition after the merger.

A school for young ladies stood at Wayne and Eleventh

In 1888 Bettie Winston opened the Valley Seminary for young ladies at Wayne Avenue and Eleventh Street. By 1907 the Sanborn map labels the two-story brick building there "Formerly Valley Seminary, now used as dwelling." The Winstons' own house still stands at 437 Walnut Avenue.

Caught mid-construction in 1907

When the Sanborn surveyors came through in 1907, the house at 324 Chestnut Avenue was only a foundation. It was apparently finished in 1910. Choose 1907 on the house's map to see it.

A doctor's house and office, half built in 1925

The 1925 Sanborn map shows only the foundation of 347 Port Republic Road. By 1930 the house was complete. Dr. Phil A. Hilton built it and used it as his office as well.

A weekend retreat for Black servicemen

Tarry's Hotel at 208 Port Republic Road, built in 1940 by Vassar Tarry, a deacon of Shiloh Baptist Church, served as a weekend retreat for African American servicemen during World War II.

Shiloh Street was once Church Street

The street east of Port Republic Road where Shiloh Baptist Church stands is labeled Church St. on the 1925 Sanborn map.

Race Avenue has moved

On the Sanborn maps Race Avenue meets 13th Street a full block east of Arch Avenue. Today the intersection is only about half that distance away, so the street has been realigned since 1925.

Oak, Cherry and Locust weren't on the 1913 map

The 1913 Sanborn map covers the Tree Streets only from Pine Avenue east. The blocks along Oak, Cherry and Locust first appear in 1920, when Sanborn extended its survey west.

Sanborn reused its drawings

The 1920 sheet 10 and the 1925 sheet 11 are the same drawing of the southern Tree Streets, renumbered for the larger 1925 atlas. Sanborn kept its plates and updated them rather than redrawing each town.

Church Street was Second Street

On the 1886 Sanborn map, the streets crossing Main on either side of Wayne Avenue are 2nd Street and 1st Street. By 1907 the map labels them "Church (Second)" and "Mill (First)": Church Street for the Methodist and Presbyterian churches on it, Mill Street for the street running down to the J. A. Patterson Jr. roller mill by the river.

Federal Street was Sycamore Alley

The street one block south of Main is Sycamore on the 1886 map. The 1920 map labels it "Federal (Sycamore Alley)", catching the new name while the old one was still in use.

Mill Street has disappeared

Mill Street ran from Main Street down past the flour mill and the Lambert planing mill on every Sanborn map from 1907 to 1925. It doesn't appear in today's street data.

Downtown's oldest building may be Waynesboro's first brick house

The Casper Coiner House at 330 West Main Street dates to about 1806, which makes it the district's oldest surviving building. According to a nineteenth-century account it was also Waynesboro's first brick dwelling. As the Coiner-Quesenbery House it was individually listed on the National Register in 1976.