Santa Clara County
Historical Map Index (1876, 1924, 1950)
This is an index of all the maps currently available on this website. This website currently focuses on the historical areas of the City of San Jose, but will be expanded to include other Santa Clara cities in the future. You can already find some maps of other cities, but these are not as detailed as some of the San Jose maps.
If you cannot find a map here, send us an email indicating the area you are interested in. We will notify you if and when that map is available. Our efforts are prioritized by the interests of our visitors, so certainly let us know what you would like to see.
To use this index you will need to know about the four wards of San Jose, and where they are. San Jose has been organized into four regions called "wards". The wards have remained roughly the same since the 1860s. Ground zero where all four wards meet is the intersection of First Street and San Carlos in the San Jose downtown. The wards are four quadrants divided by First Street and Santa Clara/The Alameda (Ward 1 is Northwest, Ward 2 is Northeast, Ward 3 is Southeast, and Ward 4 is Southwest).
Navigating the Map Index for San Jose
Below is a set of steps which should allow you to navigate this index more efficiently.
Step 1: Determine which "ward" of San Jose that you are interested in by reading "The Four Wards of San Jose".
Step 2: Go to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (1950).
Step 3: For your ward of interest, first select the "Index" to help you locate the blocks you would like to view.
Step 4: Select the block directly from the "Index" by clicking on the block (if a map is available), or select the block by its number listed on this page.
Step 5: See the Thomas Maps (1924) to see the owner of the land in 1924, as well as the dimensions of each lot.
Navigating by Neighborhood
If you know what neighborhood, district, or zip code that you are interested in, it might be easier to navigate by neighborhood. The list of neighborhoods and their boundaries is still under development.
Santa Clara County Atlas maps (1876)
Some of the earliest maps of San Jose.
Mountain View, Cupertino, Saratoga (247 kb)
Saratoga Streets
The Thomas Maps break the city down into numbered blocks (see each ward index), which makes things easier to find. The blocks themselves show the dimensions of each lot, and the owner of the lot.
San Jose, Ward 1
Garden-Alameda - Blocks: 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91
San Jose, Ward 2
San Jose, Ward 3
San Jose, Ward 4
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (1950)
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are amazing in their historical detail. The maps show the lots, and the footprints of the structures on each lot. If a significant structure is commercial, details describing the type of business, the name of the business, and the type of construction can be found. These Sanborn maps span the period of 1915-1950. Changes to the Sanborn maps were done by pasting changes over the existing maps. In older neighborhoods, if you look carefully, you can often see the shadows of older buildings that were torn down showing through the 1950 map.
To make correlation between the 1924 and 1950 maps easier, the 1950 Sanborn maps have been reorganized to match the 1924 Thomas map block convention. The Thomas Map block convention breaks the wards into smaller pieces than the Sanborn maps, making for more precise locating of lots and structures.
More information on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps can be found at the University of California, Berkeley website.
There is also a legend available for the Sanborn maps describing the meanings of symbols and colors.
Sanborn Maps, Volume 1
Sanborn Maps, Volume 2
Sanborn Maps, Volume 3
Sanborn Maps, Volume 4
San Jose, Ward 1
Garden-Alameda - Blocks: 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91
San Jose, Ward 2
San Jose, Ward 3
San Jose, Ward 4
