The UC San Diego Library Map Collection is located on the 2nd/Main Floor of the Geisel Library Building near the Data and GIS Lab, and houses maps, atlases, and related research materials. Please refer to the How to Find a Map tab on the Maps Libguide on how to start a search in the Library catalog. Note that the maps are found in two locations: generally, flat maps are found in the large map cases, while folded maps are found in the filing cabinets (these locations are noted in the catalog record). In terms of your research, you should be interested in older street maps of San Diego, most of which are found in the filing cabinets. In the map cases you will find historical topographic sheets at various scales of the San Diego region. These can also be found online here.
In addition to the sources found under the Maps Libguide's Historical Maps tab, Fire Insurance Maps Online is a new database which is a digital collection of historical color fire insurance maps, real estate atlases, plat books, and similar land use maps for North America. The maps are very detailed to the block level and show building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information.The vast majority of the maps found here were published by the Sanborn Map Company. Dates of coverage for the city of San Diego ranges from from the 1887 to 1963.
