PlaceLayers › Glossary › Printing / lithography
What does “PRINTING” mean on a Sanborn map?
PRINTING is one of the ways a Sanborn surveyor lettered printing / lithography onto a building footprint. Sanborn abbreviated hard, because the words had to fit inside the building.
How it appears on the sheet
PRINTING PRESS RM. LITHO. BINDERY
Multi-storey loft building with press room noted on the ground floor.
Why people look for it
Inks and cleaning solvents are noted in historical reviews. 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.
Other terms
- Filling station / gasoline
- Auto repair / garage
- Dry cleaning / dyeing
- Coal gas works / gas holders
- Foundry / iron works / metal plating
- Blacksmith / wagon works
- Paint, varnish, oil and chemical storage
- Laundry
- Planing mill / lumber / saw mill
- Tannery
- Ice plant / cold storage
- Coal yard / fuel oil
- Railroad yard / roundhouse