While doing research to update the city's traffic control maps recently, Pottsville City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar turned to a reference room near his office called "the map vault."
"Traffic control maps show stop signs and speed limit signs and so forth. The city hasn't updated its traffic control maps since, probably, the 1970s. I was trying to do a little history on it. So we started looking for the older maps in there. It really is like a treasure trove in there. When we do pull things out, we're always intrigued," Palamar said Monday.
And he said he'll offer the curious a tour.
Located on the third floor of City Hall at 401 N. Centre St., it's in the "drafting room" in an insulated vault made by the Diebold Safe & Lock Co., Canton, Ohio.
"Say we're researching a project, like a new development or a project that we're working on or somebody wants to find out if a street was abandoned or not, we will come in here and try to find the old maps to see if there's any record of things. We're not in here every single day, but we do come in quite a bit to see if something we're looking for is reflected on these maps," Palamar said.
On the north side of the room is a wood shelving unit 10 feet high and 8 feet wide, on which are more than 500 scrolled maps, including some older than City Hall, which was built in 1936.
For example, the scrolls include the "plan and profile showing proposed grades for curbs along both sides of Union Street between Centre and Second Streets, Pottsville, Pa." It was approved by John H. Strauch, former city engineer, in May 1916.
There's an index to this section of the map vault, a listing which was started in March 1952, according to Mary Quirk, Palamar's administrative secretary.
"First, they were typed in. Then somebody started handwriting them in," Quirk said as she examined the book.
"It's alphabetical. So you have to sort of know what you're looking for," Palamar said.
He opened the book to a random page and a listing caught his eye, Map No. 234
It's a "map showing site of proposed public library situate on the South East Corner of Market and Third Streets in the City of Pottsville, Pa." It was approved by Strauch in April 1920.
"That's interesting. This is the first time I've ever looked at that," Palamar said as he unrolled it Monday out of curiosity.
The Pottsville Free Public Library was established in 1911. Its headquarters at 217 W. Market St., Pottsville, was built in 1921. There was an addition put on in 2000.
"There's the stone arch that's underneath it," Palamar said, pointing to a section identifying the stone arch sewer roughly 6 feet in diameter, which runs under the library.
After handling a few scrolls, Palamar noticed the tips of his fingers were turning black.
"Some of them are cleaner than others," Palamar said.
In the middle of the vault is a table city officials use to roll out and examine maps.
Just inside the vault door to the left is a book shelf containing stacks of engineering notes on city and neighboring projects. For example, "Engineers' Field Book #287" written in 1949 by the "Engineering Department" of the City of Pottsville, is a "survey for proposed airfield near Llewellyn."
Leaning on the shelf is an antique map tube, which is made of aluminum, according to Palamar.
On the south side of the vault is a flat filing cabinet for more recent maps of city streets.
"They're relatively current. Here's North Centre Street," Palamar said as he pulled out a map showing the intersection of North Centre and Nichols streets.
"What's really interesting about this is it shows you the sidewalks and the right-of-way. And here it's saying that Centre Street at this particular point is 37.51 feet wide. And over here, Nichols Street is 32.10 feet wide," Palamar said.
Sitting atop the cabinet is a framed poster commemorating the Pottsville Parking Authority's Mahantongo Parking Center at Mahantongo and Second streets. The authority built it in 1969, on the site of the former Warne Hospital. Next to that is a pair of antiquated ice skates once owned by former Mayor John D.W. Reiley.
"He brought those in about four or five years ago. They were in his basement. There's a little bit of everything in here," Palamar said.
Also on the left side of the room is a filing cabinet filled with "old deeds," Palamar said.
"Sometimes we have a reason to come in here and do some research. But we have a filing cabinet with newer deeds in the other room," Palamar said.
Alfred Benesch & Co., Pottsville, the engineering firm the city employs, is in the process of updating the city's traffic control map.
"We found a traffic map from the 1970s. They're scanning it in. We're doing it because we should just keep them updated," Palamar said.