Researching Your Home's History - Introduction

[contributed to RenovateDSM by Jennifer Irsfeld James, MAHP]

Researching houses in Des Moines is often a treasure hunt for clues. Juicy tidbits about a home’s history reside in resources such as city directories, county deeds, and old newspaper clippings.

In the course of working on restoration projects, National Register nominations, and graduate school coursework, I discovered the tremendous wealth of information available to those interested in finding out more about the history of their homes. This talk is intended to give you an overview of the tools you need to make your own discoveries.

Here are some overall tips, followed by a list of my favorite resources.

Start Slowly

Start slowly and don’t feel like you have to do it all at one time.

Look for Original Records

When possible, look for the original source. It’s not always possible – many times early handwritten documents have been disposed of.

Make Copies

Make copies of everything you find rather than taking notes, because you may find something and not understand the significance. If you have the original, you can go back over it with a practiced eye later in your research.

When a photocopy is not possible, try taking a digital photograph. Otherwise, when handwriting notes, be sure to write down the name of the book, the page number, and all details.

Expect Conflicting Info and Errors

Keep in mind that you’ll probably collect conflicting pieces of information – and part of the treasure hunt is evaluating all facts.

Street names and numbers can change, family names can be misspelled, people can get divorced and/or remarried

Ask For Help

Librarians, genealogists, other researchers, etc. - that’s how I learned.

Share Your Findings

The end result can be as simple as a vintage photograph of a house or as complex as a formal nomination to place the property on the National Register of Historic Places. In either case, pass on your findings to the next owners and donate copies to the historical society or library.

When Was My House Built and Who Lived There?

[contributed to RenovateDSM by Jennifer Irsfeld James, MAHP]

These two questions can often be answered via the same research route. An important piece of the puzzle is to determine when the house was built – what’s listed in the assessor’s database is not always accurate. A lot of the history of a home is the history of the families who have lived there.

Assessor Construction Date

Public records are key resources in any search.

Check the Polk County Assessor’s web site for the listing on your house. It should include the date it was constructed.

This date may be accurate, or it may not. I say that having studied several blocks of the Drake Neighborhood, comparing assessor dates, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (we’ll talk about this later), and other info and found errors of 20 or more years. Purging of records has resulted in the destruction/loss of original photographs and assessor’s records.

City Building Permits

Building permit records might exist that include the date of construction and price of the house, particularly for houses built in the mid 20th century. Unfortunately, the city purged its building records in the 1950s, leaving only the post-1920 building permit log and none of the actual records. If you have a post-1920 home, try this resource. Call the Community Development Center for help.

Abstract

To find out who owned your property, trace the ownership chain from the abstract of title, copying the names of previous owners from that document. The abstract lists the record of when the land was sold – it usually doesn’t list when a house was built.

Here's what I've done: look through the abstract and on a sheet of paper write down each transaction. (ex. 1848 U.S. government sells land to XX).

Abstracts sometimes include lawsuits that involve the property -- this can be helpful -- so note any info that's additional to the land sales.

And plat maps are helpful tools, too.

If you don’t have an abstract, photocopy the property deeds, which are housed at the office of the county recorder.

Note: I have found that the sale date listed in the abstract is often later than when the family moved in. It appears that the sale date indicates when they paid off their mortgage -- before the 1930s or so, mortgages were often only 5 years long -- so a family really had to save up money before buying a house. That was true for our house -- the 1909 city directory shows the Kinney family living in our house, but the deed is dated with a sale date of 1914.

City Directories

These precursors to telephone books offer a wealth of information.

Cross-reference the list of landowners from the abstract with old city directories, but keep in mind that often land was subdivided and changed hands more than once before a house was built.

When you find your first match, you’ve roughly pinpointed the year of construction. A house may have been built the year or so before the listing appeared in the city directory.

Beware of street names and numbers that have changed. (Cottage Grove Ave. was once Wood Street, for example.)

It’s possible that the owner did not live at the address. Starting in 1908, the city directories include the standard alphabetical list and also a cross-reference street address listing.

Note what occupation is listed, if any – this may be helpful for further research.

Also look to see if any other people are listed as living there. Sometimes families took in boarders -- so write that down, too.

State and Federal Census

State and federal censuses, taken every five years. Some list residents by address, although the 1895 state census does not. And the 1890 federal census was destroyed in a fire.

Look for all the residents: borders? Servants?
Occupations? (can use this for further research)
Religion (ditto)
Nationality (ditto)

Genaeology Records

See the web site ancestry.com and familytreemagazine.com for more information, plus visit State Historical Library and Iowa Genealogy Society, www.iowagenealogy.org.
Also look at Who’s Who directories, wills, birth/death/marriage certificates/records, etc.

What Did My House Used To Look Like?

[contributed to RenovateDSM by Jennifer Irsfeld James, MAHP]

Architect-designed houses rare. More commonly built by builders – and may have evolved over time. Especially for 19th-century houses, may have started with a cottage that was expanded over time.

Sanborn Maps

Look for the footprint of your house on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, available online to Des Moines Public Library card holders.

The Sanborn company produced these detailed plans for use by fire insurance companies and fire departments during a time when fires were a common hazard.

Fire insurance maps of the neighborhood, commonly called “Sanborn maps”, will show the outline of the house and any outbuildings, number of stories, and any outbuildings. Since new maps were often produced every 10 to 20 years, comparing maps may yield clues to additions and other alterations made to structures on the property, as well as changes to street names and numbers.

Savvy homeowners use these maps to help date construction and aid in reconstruction of original porches and carriage houses/garages, plus inappropriate additions best to be removed.

Maps of Des Moines were drawn in 1884, 1891, 1901, and 1920, with updates made through 1956.

Each map shows the most developed areas of the city, where the threat of fire was greatest. It's possible you may not find your address on every map.

Be aware that some street names and numbers (addresses) have changed over the years. In addition, construction of I-235 and university expansion have destroyed many houses, so it can be a bit disorienting to look at pre-1950 maps.

Also keep in mind that these maps were drawn by hand -- so even though they are highly accurate, some minor errors were made. Those caveats aside, the Sanborn maps are a key resource for unlocking the history of your house.

Talk With Neighbors and Locate Previous Residents

A neighbor (or former neighbor) may have a cache of photos that show your house.

Photos, letters, ephemera, oral history from previous neighbors/residents/owners and relatives of the same are best and perhaps most overlooked resources!

Learn About Your Neighborhood

Many resources categorized by historic names of neighborhoods and one-time suburbs now part of the city.

State Historical Society Of Iowa Historical Research Library, DMPL,
Drake University’s Cowles Library, etc.

Study Maps

Study maps of Des Moines and plat maps over time – neighborhood and plats defined.

Architectural Surveys and National Register Research

Some excellent resources:

Jacobsen, James E. and Zeller, John Patrick, “Building a City of Homes: Des Moines, Iowa, 1900-1951” (National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Listing, 2001)

Jacobsen, James E. and Zeller, John Patrick, “Historical Residential Architecture in Des Moines, 1905-1940: A Study of Two House Types, the Bungalow and the Square House.” (1997)

Long, Barbara Beving, “Drake University and Related Properties in Des Moines, Iowa, 1881-1918” (National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Listing, 1988)

Page, William C. and Walroth, Joanne R., “Toward a Greater Des Moines: Development and Early Suburbanization Circa 1880-Circa 1920,” Vol. I – V (National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Listing, 1992-1998)

Photographs

Look for photographs taken of events (a parade passing by your house), public works projects, etc, as well as photos of past owners/residents and the house itself.

Local History Books and Record Books

Sometimes information about houses, neighborhoods, and people are included in books. For example,

Johnson Brigham’s 1911 Des Moines, the Pioneer of Municipal Progress and Reform of the Middle West Together with the History of Polk County, Iowa, the Largest, Most Populous and Most Prosperous County in the State of Iowa (1911).

Will Porter’s 1898 Annals of Polk County, Iowa, and the City of Des Moines

Institutional histories (Nearby Church, College, Hospital, Government, etc)

Old Newspapers

City had several newspapers – and include a wealth of information. However, not indexed. If you have a construction year – or extra time on your hands – fascinating to read. Photographs and writeups about construction in the business section, society section, and want ads – plus advertisements for plats and new construction homes when first built.

Des Moines Public Library newspapers indexes and clipping files

Specialty newspapers:
Drake Delphic (Drake U. student newspaper), 1884-present. Card catalog exists for early citations.

The Bystander (excellent source for news about the African-American community)

Period Books, Yearbooks, Magazines

Old yearbooks, such as Drake University Quax yearbooks, show buildings.

The Builder Magazine showed house plans and photographs; Better Homes and Gardens has featured many Des Moines homes over the years; more recently, The Iowan has done a lot of reporting.

Postcards

Antique stores and eBay

Internet Searches

Use search engines such as Google.com, to find documents about previous owners and the house. The Library of Congress (loc.gov) has a powerful search engine that connects library collections around the country.

For More Information

Betsy Green’s Discovering the History of Your House: And Your Neighborhood