Ghost Neighborhoods of Columbus

CURA has launched the Ghost Neighborhood of Columbus project to help people understand what was destroyed by urban highway construction in the 20^th century, and support research on reconstruction of the wealth, vitality and activities that have vanished. The Ghost Neighborhoods team includes CURA Director Harvey Miller, Associate Director Ningchuan Xiao, Outreach Coordinator Gerika Logan, geography PhD candidate Yue Lin, undergraduate history majors Eva Heyer and Michael Smith, and faculty affiliates Jason Reece (Knowlton School), Joshua Sadvari (OSU Libraries). The core data we are using to reconstruct these neighborhoods are Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: these are hand-constructed maps of US cities dating back to the 19^th century, created for fire insurance purposes, containing a wealth of building level data.