Interactive Map of the 1880 Irish Channel Neighborhood
Map Key
Purple: Dwelling Green: Business Red: Church Blue: School
HOW “IRISH” WAS THE IRISH CHANNEL IN 1880?
To map the ethnicity of each household, we combined data on the head of household from census records with insurance maps using GIS software. We plotted addresses using insurance maps of the Irish Channel neighborhood.
Analysis based on the head of household for each address allowed us to identify the ethnic makeup of the Irish Channel in 1880. The results show us that the Irish Channel, based on the historic district boundaries, was not as much of an Irish community as it was an immigrant one. Not only was the neighborhood mostly first-generation American, it was also more German than Irish.
This geocoded Sanborn insurance map shows the ethnic makeup of one block within the Irish Channel neighborhood in 1880.
Note: This map only represents data for each address that matched up with the historic records, ie. address on map matches address on census records (dwelling) or city directories (business). For example, if our map (Sanborn Fire Insurance) included street numbers for 173 and 177 but not 175, we did not include a point for 175, even if we found a census listing for that address. This is to ensure that the data we input is accurate as possible.
Irish Channel Project 