Guide to the use of on-line building permits
Finding permit data is a two step process, involving searching two different sets of data.
The first step is to search the permit index card data set. These cards were created after the issuance of the permit as a way to find the complete permit information which was sequenced chronologically within each section of the city, first north and south and then, in addition, northwest, and southwest.
The index cards were filed by address (or at least should have been so filed). They contain besides the address (street and number), the date of the permit and the assigned permit number. These cards were microfilmed in alphabetical order by street, and then by street number for each street. Each microfilm “reel” contains several streets. To find the street you want, after you click on the arrow in the upper right hand corner of the screen that comes up (arrow in front of “view xx”, you will see a blue dot at the bottom left. To find the street you want, you will need to move the blue dot to the right until you come to the street you want, and then again to find the address number you want. It is somewhat of a guessing game, and you may have to move the blue dot to the left if you went past the address you want. You will notice that each image of an index card has a number.
To help in finding Edgewater streets, this work has been done for you. Click here for the chart that has been prepared with the first and last such numbers for each Edgewater streets, and for some north-south streets some street numbers in between, e.g 5600.
Once you find the index card for the building for which you want information, write down both the permit number and the date of the permit. In some cases the date of the permit is not clear and it could be several years, e.g. 1903 or 1909 or 1905 or 1906.
Once you do this you will have to go to the data set that has a list of permits that includes the permit you want. The “reel” are sequenced by dates, but you have to select the reel that not only the date you want but the section of the city you want. In most cases, the north and south sides for a range of dates will be on the same reel and the northwest and southwest sides for a range of dates will be on the same reel. You will use the same method as you did for the street index card data set. You will find the permit info by moving the blue dot on the bottom to the right until you find the date and permit info you are looking for, except that in this case there is no chart to help you.