Welcome to the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
The Topeka Room has an extensive collection of Topeka city directories dating from 1870 to the present. These directories can be helpful in establishing the year a house was built, as well as the names and occupations of previous residents.
After 1924, homes are indexed by address as well as last name. Prior to 1924, the surname of the resident must be known in order to access address and occupation information.
These directories are available online:
Topeka City Directory, 1874-1875 (A complete transcription of the 1874-1875 Topeka City Directory published by F. H. Woodbury.)
Topeka City Directory, 1912 (An indexed scan of an original 1912 Topeka City Directory. Available through DistantCousin.com.)
Page 1 of 1 pages
The city directories are very helpful for many projects. They’re also fun for trips down memory lane. See how much you remember about the restaurants, stores and neighborhoods you grew up with!
Great idea Matt!
I have seen many of your city directories, and wondering if they might be online in the future. They are very helpful to me as I go through the genealogy stuff. Lets me know about years my parents were living in Topeka and where they and other relatives were located there. I have one of them saved in my computer, it is 1912. Haven’t found any others, and don’t know if they are even in the computer.
Thanks for your question Marjean. The 1874-1875 Topeka City Directory is also available online. I added the link above.
We don’t have any immediate plans to digitize the Topeka City Directories, although we have looked into the possibility of doing this. It’s not feasible for us right now for a number of reasons, but we’ll continue to investigate our options. Our goal is to have the directories that are in the public domain (pre-1923) accessible and searchable online in the future.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Add A Comment
* = Required fields
Your Email will not be displayed
Allowed HTML
Allow 1 minute between posts.
SUBMIT COMMENT:
Rate This Post





Based on 12 Ratings
Posted On:
Posted in:
Tagged With:
Comments: