City Directories

City Directories

City Directories

City directories are well-known and often used, but their potential for old building research is seldom fully exploited.  

Many buildings were occupied by more than a single tenant or household, or—if in mixed use—by more than one commercial tenant.  

City directories provide a much fuller record of the occupancy of buildings. They permit the architectural historian to gain a more three-dimensional understanding of their occupancy through a full examination of the directory and to document building occupancy in ways that the decennial U.S. censuses do not— filling in the gaps between the censuses.  

By looking carefully at directories, many family and occupational relationships can be revealed that would be difficult to find in other records.