What Business Used to Be at This Address?

Maybe you just moved into an old storefront, noticed faded "ghost sign" lettering on a brick wall, or simply got curious about the empty building on the corner. Whatever sparked it, the question is the same: what business used to be at this address? The good news is that the answer is usually discoverable — and most of the sources cost nothing. Below are eight reliable ways to trace the businesses that once occupied any address, roughly in the order most people find easiest.

1. Search Old City Directories

Before the internet — and before phone books — almost every town published an annual city directory. These books listed residents and businesses both alphabetically and, crucially, by street address. Flipping to your address in a 1940 or 1965 directory will often tell you exactly which business operated there that year, along with the owner's name. Because they were published annually, you can track how a single storefront changed hands over the decades.

Use the street section (often called the criss-cross section) at the back of 20th-century editions, not the alphabetical pages: find your street, then your house number, and copy down the occupant for every year you can find. A typical run reads like "1921 Palace Lunch; 1926 Palace Lunch; 1931 vacant; 1933 Roxy Barber Shop." The classified business section and its display ads then add the proprietor's name and what the shop sold. Our guide to old city directories explains the abbreviations and lists where scanned editions are free online.

Many directories have been digitized. Check the Library of Congress, your state library, the Internet Archive, FamilySearch's free digital book collection, and local public library websites. Larger libraries keep full runs of local directories on microfilm or in special collections, and reference librarians can often pull the exact year you need.

2. Dig Through Historical Newspaper Archives

Newspapers are a goldmine for business history. Grand-opening announcements, display advertisements, "under new management" notices, and even police-blotter mentions all tie a business to an address and a date. Searching an address or a business name in a newspaper archive frequently turns up the advertisements a shop ran years ago.

Search the exact address in quotation marks and with variants ("412 Main," "412 Main St.," "412 Main Street"), because ads printed the address in every form. Free options include Chronicling America from the Library of Congress, Google's News Archive, and the state portals in our list of free historical newspaper archives; many public libraries also give cardholders free access to paid databases like Newspapers.com. Don't overlook small community weeklies — they often covered local businesses in far more detail than big-city dailies.

3. Look at Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

From the 1860s into the mid-20th century, the Sanborn Map Company produced incredibly detailed maps of American towns for fire-insurance underwriters. Each map shows building footprints, construction materials, and — most usefully — the use of each structure ("grocery," "saloon," "auto repair," "drug store"). Comparing Sanborn maps from different years reveals how the use of a specific lot changed over time.

The Library of Congress hosts a large, free digital collection of Sanborn maps, and many state and university libraries offer their own regional sets. Each sheet uses a color code for construction (pink for brick, yellow for wood frame) and abbreviations such as "D" for dwelling and "S" for store; our guide to reading Sanborn fire insurance maps decodes them. Sanborn mapped towns and cities, not most rural areas, and updates in many places stopped by the 1960s or 1970s.

4. Check County Property and Permit Records

Your county recorder, assessor, and building department maintain records that quietly document commercial history. Deeds show ownership changes; building permits record construction, additions, and conversions (for example, a house converted to a shop); and assessor property cards sometimes include old photographs taken during inspections. Business-license and occupancy records held by the city or county clerk can pin down which company operated at an address and when.

Two more filings name the business itself. In many states, anyone trading under a name other than their own had to file an assumed name or "doing business as" (DBA) certificate with the county clerk, which gives the owner's name and business address. Corporations filed articles of incorporation with the state, and every secretary of state now offers a free online business-entity search; older filings are usually at the state archives. These records are arranged by business name, so use them once a directory or newspaper has given you a name. Our guide to finding old business records covers both in detail.

5. Find Old Telephone Directories (Yellow Pages)

Once telephones became common, the Yellow Pages took over the role city directories had played. Old phone books list businesses by category and address, and because nearly every business advertised, they're an excellent way to confirm who occupied a location in a given year. Libraries and archives keep back runs, and some have been digitized online: the Library of Congress has put part of its U.S. telephone directory collection online free, and the Internet Archive hosts scanned phone books for many cities. Phone books are especially useful from the 1960s onward, when city directories thinned out or stopped in many towns. See our guide to searching old phone books online for free.

6. Compare Historical Photographs and Street View

Sometimes a picture answers the question instantly. Local historical society photo collections, library special collections, and sites like the Library of Congress hold street and storefront photographs organized by location. For more recent decades, Google Street View's historical imagery lets you scroll back through earlier captures of the same address: on a desktop, open Street View and click "See more dates." Google's earliest Street View imagery is from 2007, so this works for businesses that closed in roughly the last twenty years. Our guide to finding old photos of a house or street lists more photo sources.

For businesses that had a website, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine stores snapshots of web pages going back to 1996; search the business's old web address, or search its name to find the URL. Reviews on map and review sites often stay up after a business closes and give the address and the approximate dates it was open.

7. Ask Your Local Historical Society

Local historical societies exist precisely to answer questions like this. Many keep address files, business records, photographs, and newspaper clippings, and their volunteers often carry decades of firsthand neighborhood knowledge that was never written down. A short email or visit can shortcut hours of searching. Use our directory of historical societies by state to find the organization that covers your address.

8. Use the When It Was App

If you'd rather skip the archives, the When It Was app is built specifically to show what existed at an address over time, mapping historical businesses, landmarks, and buildings onto an interactive timeline. It's a fast way to see how a location evolved — and to add what you discover for others.

Tips for Tracing a Tricky Address

• Watch for renumbered streets. Many cities renumbered addresses in the early 20th century. If a search comes up empty, look for a street-renumbering guide at your local library, or search by the business name and cross-streets instead.
• Work backward in time. Start with the most recent record you can find and step back year by year — it's easier to follow a chain than to jump straight to 1920.
• Note name variations. Businesses changed names, merged, and reincorporated. Track the address rather than relying on a single business name.
• Check the building, not just the business. If you want to know when the building went up and what it was designed for, see how to research the history of an old building.
• Cross-check two sources. A directory listing confirmed by a newspaper ad (or a Sanborn map) is far more reliable than any single record.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I find out what business used to be at an address for free?

Start with free, public sources: digitized city directories and Sanborn maps from the Library of Congress and state libraries, free newspaper archives like Chronicling America, your county's online property and permit records, and Google Street View's historical imagery. Your local public library and historical society can also help at no cost.

What's the single best record for finding a past business?

City directories are usually the most efficient, because they list the business at each address year by year. Pair a directory with a historical newspaper search to confirm the dates and learn more about the business.

How do I find out what a building was before it was a house or apartment?

Sanborn fire-insurance maps and building-permit records are ideal for this, because they record a structure's original use and any later conversions. A grocery or garage turned into a residence will often show up clearly in those records.

Can I find businesses from 50 or 100 years ago?

Yes. City directories, Sanborn maps, and newspapers commonly reach back a century or more, especially in long-settled areas. The further back you go, the more likely you'll rely on microfilm and archives rather than online databases, but the records frequently survive.