Before you could look up addresses on the internet, how did people find smaller locations like houses and restaurants?

Question

I know atlases and roadmaps were a lot more common, but from my understanding those give more of a broader view of a large area like major roads and stuff. If you needed to find a small subdivision or small road, how would you do that before the internet?

In: 27

Answer 1

You’d either ask the person who lives there for directions, call the business and ask for directions, or you’d find a city map. There used to be racks in all of the gas stations in my town with maps of most of the nearby cities in addition to the state, the county, etc. You don’t see those so much anymore because digital maps and/or in-car GPS navigation are more ubiquitous.