SLC’s redlining map from the 1930s

A redline map of Salt Lake City from the 1930s. Another interesting and important map.

Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Home Owners' Loan Corporation. 1933-7/1/1939.
From the National Archives.

Clip of the map legend. From the National Archives.

During the Great Depression, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board created residential security maps to indicate the risk of default on federally-backed mortgages.

Demographic information, such as race, was used to create these maps.

Green and blue neighborhoods were considered less risky areas to issue a mortgage and usually had majority-White populations. They were described as “best” and “still desirable” neighborhoods.

Often these neighborhoods had restrictive covenants that prohibited people of color from living in the neighborhood. The Westmoreland neighborhood of SLC is an example of this.

Yellow neighborhoods were designated as “definitely declining” and seen as places where “undesirable populations” may increase.

Red neighborhoods were “hazardous” and were associated with higher populations of people of color. Red neighborhoods were ineligible for federally backed mortgages making it difficult for residents in the neighborhood to become homeowners.

Thus, the term “redlining” refers to those red or “hazardous” neighborhoods that tended to have a higher percentage of residents that were people of color.

These maps recorded the existing conditions of the 1930s and then they were used to reinforce and perpetuate segregated neighborhoods.

This map is from the National Archives, direct link: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/85713738

I geo-referenced the redlining map and overlayed modern neighborhood boundaries using GIS. Even today, much of today's neighborhood boundaries align with the redlining map.

The 1930s SLC Redlining Map, with modern Community Council districts, overlayed. 

Detail clip of SLC's Redlining Map, showing Avenues, Downtown, Central City, East Central, University, and Liberty Wells neighborhoods.

Detail clip of SLC's Redlining Map, showing Rose Park, Fairpark, and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

Detail clip of SLC's Redlining Map, showing Poplar Grove and Glendale neighborhoods.

Detail clip of SLC's Redlining Map, showing East Central, Wasatch Hollow, and Sugar House neighborhoods.  Note that the old State Prison (Sugar House Park site) is identified as "Yellow."

Detail clip of SLC's Redlining Map, showing Yalecrest, Foothill/Sunyside, and Wasatch Hollow neighborhoods.