Wake Wednesday - Highlighting Wake County Historic Maps accessed though the Wake Register of Deeds

 Here is another great find that resulted from researching the Wake Cemetery Survey project. 

A large number of historic maps have been scanned and put on line by the Wake County Register of Deeds. The restored and peserved historic maps are available in the Online Consolidated Real Property Index. Currently available map time frame spans years 1885 to 1927

To View Preserved Historic Maps Online - Follow the Instructions Below:

• Visit: https://rodcrpi.wakegov.com/booksweb/genextsearch.aspx
• Enter one of the BM Years into the Book field one of the following years.
  In the Page field enter %

This collection is extremely useful for tracking changes to an area over time and locating buildings or landmarks that may no longer exist. Here is an example map from 1913.

Market House Site in Raleigh mapped 1913

City Market in Raleigh today

 

It is interesting to see what is the same and what has changed in the ensuing years. Notice how the original small lot sizes have been absorbed and the whole area is now large commercial eneavors.
Where the original market site covered roughly one eigth of the square, the current City market encompasses four full blocks of space. Notice that what was once Pullen Street is now Wolfe Street. 

There are so many maps to browse. Set aside a bit of time to go exploring and comparing. 

Heather Leah's article for WRAL on this map collection is very interesting. Click this link to read more about the wake county historic maps at the Register of Deeds office.