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Found an 1850s map of my town with a whole extra street that was never built
Was ready to dismiss it as a cartographer's error until I dug up old newspaper archives at the library that described the planned development falling through after the 1857 panic, and now I double-check every old map against local history records before saying it's wrong - has anyone else run into phantom streets on historical maps?
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sean_perry1mo ago
Read a piece about this happening in Detroit. Old maps from the 1800s had whole neighborhoods that never got built because the real estate bubble popped. Developers would print maps to sell lots, then the economy tanked. They just walked away. Your street might be one of those ghost developments. Always check the census records too, that seals the deal.
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elizabethhart1mo ago
Developers would print maps to sell lots" - holy crap, that's so shady it's almost genius. I mean, who thinks to just draw up a whole fake street and pray people buy in before anyone notices? Gotta hand it to them, 1800s scammers had some nerve.
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