PDF's are available at the bottom of this page which include worksheets, data-collection forms and other helpful research documents. Copies are also available at our office.

​1. What do I know (or ​think I know) about my home's history?

The first step in researching your home is detailing what you already know.

-What is the building's address? 
-Do you know if it was ever moved? (not that uncommon in Astoria)
-Do you have an idea when it was built?
-Do you know what year the house was renovated or when specific additions were added?
-Do you know what style it is?
-Can you list any of its previous owners or occupants?
-Do you know who designed the home or who built it?
-Do you have historic photographs?

If you can’t answer every one of these questions, that’s okay. The  only one you need in order to get started is the easiest -- the current address!
Picture
This house, 1556 7th Street, was moved from 21st and Franklin in 1950 due to a land slide that threatened to destroy it. Although it is tucked into a largely Craftsman neighborhood on the South Slope, it is much older than the surrounding homes and has much more in common with earlier styles of architecture found in the downtown core. There are at least three addresses associated with this home throughout its history.
 2. Search For Existing Reports
If your home is already designated as historic, you may be able to get a jump start on your research by locating the historic designation paperwork. This may be a National Register of Historic Places nomination, a local historic landmark nomination, or an information sheet from a state historic resource inventory.

To find these forms, there are several places to check. We recommend that you check all of them, as forms may have been misfiled or not uploaded to a database properly. This is true of the entire research process; always check the area around where you think the information you are looking for should be. Think of mistakes a tired administrative worker or volunteer might make. Consider likely transcription errors, misspellings and other possible typos. 

Here are the steps to obtaining historic landmark inventory sheets and nominations:

1. You can use the Oregon Historic Sites Database  http://heritagedata.prd.state.or.us/historic/ to search for your property. It is often easiest to search by street name and then locate your house among the search results, as occasionally an address was entered into the system as a slightly different address than you use for your home.

2. If you locate your home in this database, click on the address to open the basic information sheet. To the left, in the upper corner, there may be a PDF link to an inventory sheet. You will want to open that file, save it and most likely print it for your records.

3. If the results indicate that your home is within a Historic District (or is an individually listed property on the National Register) you will also want to download a copy of the district or individual resource nomination. This can be done through the Oregon Historic Sites Database or by visiting the National Register of Historic Places Database.

4. If you do not locate your home in these databases or if you found your home listed but there was not a link to an individual inventory sheet, you may still be able to access information from previous inventories. Visit Astoria City Hall (1095 Duane St.) and inquire at the front desk if your property is designated as historic. Only the City of Astoria can definitively tell you if your home is considered by them to be a historic property. It is possible that a property the city does not consider "historic" may show up as historic elsewhere. This is possible if a prior designation has been removed if a previous owner opted-out during the process of designating a historic area or district.

City staff often provide property owners with an information sheet on the history of the property--if it has been designated as historic. If they do not provide you with one or if you would like help understanding the information on the inventory sheet, stop by the LCPS office during office hours. The LCPS research library (389 12th Street), Clatsop County Historical Society Heritage Museum's Liisa Penner Research Center & Archives (corner of 16th & Exchange) and the Astoria Public Library (450 10th Street) all hold copies of Oregon Inventories of Historic Properties and can help you to locate and interpret them.

5. While you are at City Hall (finding out whether or not the city considers your house to be historic) you may also want to inquire whether or not your property is within a geological hazard/slide zone (this is interesting and informative). Also ask to see the "address file" or "geo-file" on your property. For some addresses, this file contains nothing, but for others there are old permits, plans, correspondence, photographs, etc. So, it is definitely worth taking a look.

3. Identify Old Addresses
Before moving into further primary research on the history of your home, you will need to identify whether or not your home's address has changed over time.

In 1894, Astoria street names were changed.

And in 1955, many of Astoria's address numbers were changed. Large portions of the Uniontown, Alameda and South Slope house numbers remained the same but Uppertown, Adair, Shively, McClure, Fort-Hill, Hilltop and Alderbrook numbers were changed. 

Don't forget that it is also possible that your home was moved (be it across town, down the street or across the lot). Some homes were also reoriented on the same lot and their address changed based on which street the front door faced.

One way to determine if your home's address number changed in 1955 is to use the Polk City Directories at the Clatsop County Historical Society Heritage Museum Archive & Research Center (corner of 16th and Exchange) or online using Clatsop County Historical Society's internet archive or through Ancestry.com (requires a paid subscription), to identify who occupied your house in 1955 or 1956. There are pastel-colored sections in many years of the directories which contain a reverse-index -- listing people by address. Take note of who lived in your home in 1955/1956 and then look these individuals up by name in the 1953-54 directory. Often, this will provide you with the proper pre-1955 address. The reverse index is also listed with cross-streets indicated, so it is usually easy to confirm that you have found the correct address number.

* Sanborn maps (See section 7) can also be useful for address research as they usually have the address numbers marked on the side that the front of the house faces. These directions can be compared over time. We have found  in our research that for structures that have been moved or are in precarious positions (at the end of a dead-end street or within a landslide area) address numbers often do not match those listed in the city directories (but they are often pretty close).

​* Remember, there were several large landslides in Astoria in the 1950s. If you cannot find your house on the Sanborn Maps or in the directory pre-1950s and you know your house is much older than that---please come see us! We can likely tell you where your house was moved from and provide you with your home's previous address
Picture
City directories are available at the CCHS Heritage Museum.
4. Compile a list of your home's past occupants
Now that you have identified older addresses associated with your home, it is time to methodically identify who occupied your home throughout its history.  To find this information, use the Polk City Directories available at Clatsop County Historical Society Heritage Museum Archive & Research Center​, their Internet Archive or through online sites such as Ancestry.com.

When looking up someone by name, the directory may show an "h" before the address, which indicates that the person lives in and owns the home. If it says "r" it indicates that the person resides at the property. An "(o)" after the name of the occupant in the reverse index indicates the the person listed was the owner of the property at the time the directory information was gathered. Including these details in your notes may help in future research, so be sure to capture all the specifics listed. 

Here is a link to a form that may help you keep your reasearch of city directories organized.

U.S. Census records can provide additional information such as children's names, relationships of people who were living together, occupations, where occupants were born and what languages were spoken. Individual census records from 1790 to 1950 are maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, not the U.S. Census Bureau. The 1950 U.S. Census is available online here. Prior years are accessible through subscription heritage sites. Accessing census information post-1950 requires you to fill out forms showing proof of your familial relationship to the person about whom you are requesting information.
5. Check Tax Assessment Records 
The County Tax Assessor's office may have additional information relevant to your research.  This may include photographs, appraisal records, floor-plans and surveys.

You can go online to Clatsop County WebMaps & Property Info to access basic property information, including:
  • legal description of the property
  • current tax appraisal Information
  • who the owner is (if not you)
  • general property boundary lines
  • surveys and plat maps
Click on Property Info and enter your home's address. Now that you have the tax account info open, you can choose "Improvements" to see a photo and floor-plan of your home, "Sales History" to view recent transaction dates and amounts, and "Documents" to access the property's most recent appraisal. 

You can open Webmaps in the right hand corner by clicking the image of the globe. Once Webmaps is open, on the right side of the window, choose Tasks and enter the home's address. This will zoom you into your tax lot on the map. Play around with different layers to access surveys and aerial views.

Now, get offline and take a trip to the physical Clatsop County Tax Assessors office, located on the second floor of the Clatsop County Service Building, (800 Exchange Street). When you get upstairs, there will be a horseshoe-shaped counter. Tax Assessor it on the left side of the horseshoe. The staff is very nice, so don't be afraid to ask questions. Bring your address and Tax Lot ID. Ask to see "the jacket" for your property. Just like at the city, there may or may not be a treasure trove of information in this file. Most likely, it will contain old property assessments and at least one small photo, usually dating from the 1970s. 
6. Check Deed Records

Clatsop County Clerk 820 Exchange Street, Suite 220, Astoria.

*Use the RECORDS RESEARCH/COPY REQUEST FORM which is available at the bottom of this page.
7. Check the Sanborn Maps

The Sanborn Map Company was a publisher of detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. These maps were originally created to allow the fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States.

You can access some of them in physical form at the Clatsop County Historical Society. Some black and white versions are also available online through the Astoria Public Library Website using ProQuest. You will need a library card and password to gain access this way (click here to enter your access info). A few maps are also available on the Astoria Public Library Digital Archive (these are scanned in full color).

Many of these maps are also available from the Library of Congress, here.

Looking at the physical copies (or color scans) are often more rewarding than the ProQuest online versions that are in black and white. Each year that they updated the maps, they actually cut out little paper patches to add to the older maps to show the changes and it is interesting to experience the textures and ghost images underneath the patchwork.
 8. Newspaper Archives

The Astoria Public Library has card catalogs that will lead you down fascinating paths. This is one of those places where the "art" of research helps. Try to think of creative ways to find the information you are looking for and when looking at microfilms, browse the articles a little. You never know where you will end up.

​In the archives, be sure to search for any names, events or addresses that you have found associated with your house up to this point.

You can also search newspapers online at University of Oregon's Historic Oregon Newspapers. This is most useful for finding articles from the turn of the 20th Century and requires creative searching. If you are having difficulty with the search function on this website, stop by our office for tips on how to find articles relevant to your search. There are additional newspapers available online at the Library of Congress: Chronicling America site and through the paid subscription service Newspapers.com.

Also, if you search online using your standard search engine for the names of occupants of your home, use the terms "bio" or "obit" and you may bring up articles of out-of-the-area newspaper publications. Obituaries of family members often provide additional clues that can then be confirmed using historic newspaper articles, census records, etc. 
9. Photo Archives
There are very useful photo archives at the Clatsop County Historical Society Heritage Museum Archive & Research Center​ as well as Sara's Old Photos on facebook. Be sure to visit the Clatsop County Historical Society's old flickr webpage, there are some great photos available there. Also various heritage and genealogy websites have additional photographs publicly available. One website for photo research on anyone who was employed in the fishing industry in our area is historicfishing.smugmug.com.  Also, depending on the history of your home and its previous occupants, you may find relevant photos at the Oregon Historical Society online collection, the Library of Congress, or even the Providence Heath & Services Archives. Research rewards come to those who think outside the box when entering search words! Explore available information on the industry in which your subject worked, be it fishing, nursing, logging or teaching, serving, etc. Many churches, businesses and professional organizations have archives and collections, many of them online. And don't forget facebook! For example search for "Astoria Oregon 1960" and filter the results to "Photos." You will come up with dozens of vintage photos people have uploaded to share. Think creatively and always look in the backgrounds of old photographs. You never know when you might get a glimpse of your home or someone you are researching.

10. Genealogy 

There are many genealogy sites out there, and they usually require a membership, but the amount of information available at your fingertips is amazing. We use ancestry.com. Astoria's City Directories are on there, as well as many old yearbooks, U.S. Census data, obituaries and even personal photos.

Now that you have identified many different people associated with your home, you can search for each of them too. You never know when someone may have uploaded a photo of "grandma's house." We've found a lot of treasures using genealogy sites.
 11. Oral Histories

Ask around! If one of your neighbors has lived in their house for a long time, maybe they know a little bit about the history of your neighborhood. While you are at it, ask if you can record the interview. The dohistory.org website has invaluable resources for DIY historians. Here is a link to their page on oral history. We also recommend the book, Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You by David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty, available from our lending library.
12. Online Sleuthing 

A lot of the information you will be looking up requires self-motivation, traveling to different offices for information, and searching online. Taking the time to research the history of your home requires a lot of work, creative ideas on what to look up next, and patience. But it can be fun! It’s like a big puzzle and the mysteries and revelations might just have you reaching for the red yard to connect all the dots. 

And as always, if you hit a road block and need some help -- come see us! Uncovering stories from the past is one of our favorite activities and we'd be happy to have you come to the office for a one-on-one research tutorial.
Here are the PDF's we have available.
Home Research Worksheet
File Size: 30 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
City Directory Form
File Size: 30 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Property Deed Research Form
File Size: 32 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File
Records Research Copy Request
File Size: 172 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File