PlaceLayers › Glossary › Foundry / iron works / metal plating
What does “FDRY.” mean on a Sanborn map?
FDRY. is one of the ways a Sanborn surveyor lettered foundry / iron works / metal plating onto a building footprint. Sanborn abbreviated hard, because the words had to fit inside the building.
How it appears on the sheet
FDRY. FOUNDRY IRON WKS. BRASS WKS. PLATING GALV.
Long shed-like buildings with cupolas or stacks marked, cranes and rail sidings.
Why people look for it
Metals and plating chemistries appear in historical use discussions. That is a reason to read the sequence of editions rather than one sheet, and to ask an environmental professional what it means for your transaction — not a finding about any property.
Reading it properly
- Note the edition year. The lettering describes that year only.
- Check the previous and next editions. A use that appears once may be a survey artefact; a use across three editions is a pattern.
- Read the neighbours. Adjacent uses matter as much as the parcel itself.
- Take the sheet, with its citation, to a qualified professional rather than a summary of it.
Browse Baltimore sheets Full decoder
A word on a map is not a finding. It records what a surveyor was
told or saw on one date. It does not establish how a site operated, or what is in the ground.
Methodology and limits.