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

I used a thing called the “Thomas Guide”. You could buy them for different regions. All maps were on a grid, and so if you needed the smaller section you found it on the grid and say it was at volume D and row 5, you’d look up what page the D5 map was on and that be a whole page map of just that area.

So basically, maps. Also people were much better at giving and writing down directions. That’s about it!