The 'Sanborn® Fire Insurance Company Maps of Florida' comprise a collection of more than 300 bibliographic units in more than 3,000 map sheets.

The maps were mainly designed to help fire insurance agents determine the degree of damage to a property and show accurate information to help them determine risks and establish premiums. They showed the size (including color-coding), shape and construction of buildings (brick, adobe, frame, etc), dwellings (including hotels and churches), and other structures such as bridges, docks and barns. Along with fire stations, you could also find water facilities, sprinklers, hydrants, cisterns, and alarm boxes as well as firewalls, windows, doors, elevators and chimneys and roof types. The maps included street names, property boundaries and lot lines, and house and block numbers. Other information such as the latest census figures, prevailing winds; railroad lines and Indian reservations and topography were included. Today, the maps are an invaluable guide to inner-city history, land use, and historic preservation.

This collection of public domain maps was digitized from the printed maps held in the collections of the Smathers Libraries' Map & Imagery Library, on the campus of the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL).

For more information see the Map & Imagery Library's information page on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps https://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/maps/collections/sanborn.