St. Louis City Building Department House Numbering Certificates

42 half-size legal record storage boxes, 10 folio volumes, 10

newspaper boxes; 65.2 cubic feet.

The collection was at the St. Louis City Building Division. After

scanning the atlas volumes the Building Division planned to throw

away the collection. Patron Nini Harris suggested donating them

to SLPL instead. The Building Division did so in 2010.

Certificate volumes re-housed in boxes. Later set of unbound

Building Department Atlases rehoused in newspaper boxes. Street

index and the block number index photocopied for reference use.

These are certificates assigning street numbers to new buildings

(mostly homes) in St. Louis city ca. 1880 – 1976. There are

@112,000 certificates arranged chronologically by reference

number. Reference numbers are found on the Building

Department Atlases. If there is a reference number on a property

there is a certificate for the property. The certificate includes the

block number, lot number, house number, owner and contractor.

Certificates also have a rough sketch of the property in relation to

the street and a dated stamp of approval from the Street

Department.

Certificates are arranged chronologically.

There are two 10-volume sets of Building Department atlases.

One, bound (dated 11/1943) and one unbound which covers later

years. There is one index to the atlases arranged by street and

another arranged by block number.

Some certificates and atlas pages are in fragile condition.

Scanned images from the Building Department Atlases are on the Geo St. Louis website.

https://dynamic.stlouis-mo.gov/citydata/newdesign/index.cfm