So, I live in a small town in Western Pennsylvania. I am curious to find out when our house was built.
Would County Records have this information? The City?
We’re doing some renovations, and it’s got us curious about what all we may find.
Do you want the blueprints to your house or just the date of construction?
IME the governing agency never keeps a copy of each house’s blueprints. OTOH, many do keep up with building permit records. That might give you the date of construction if a permit was required at the time of construction.
Start with the City, and inquire at the Building Department if they have any records on your home. Even if they don’t have the original Permit, they may have a later one for improvements which gives the date of construction. Unfortunately the idea of building permits has not been around forever, and your house may have been built without one.
If it’s ancient, you may find records of it being built in old newspapers (“Dr. Beeblebrux is building a lovely Grecian Bungalow on Toulemonde Avenue”). A good group to ask would be the local octegenarians - they might at least know when the neighborhood was built. Some towns have a Ladies Quilting Society or some such which may have the scoop.
If it’s the actual blueprints, good luck, unless its a very unique/high end home. It’s been my experience that builders do not keep old house plans very long.
Good luck with the renovations, and here’s hoping you don’t find any thing too strange. 
I should also mention that a deed search might show when the house was constructed - if you look back far enough, you might find out when the land was undeveloped - then follow the trail until tax records show a house on the tax roll.
Hi. I live in Apollo. My ex and kids live in Vandergrift. Have you been to the Vandergrift library? It is in the Casino Building. I haven’t been to the library in a few years, but the librarian is a sweet little old lady who could probably help your search.
A bit of a rant:
Blueprints have a way of disappearing. Building departments don’t keep them and owners seem to very careless in keeping and preserving them. I don’t understand it. They can be very valuable for future reference. Having a blueprint doesn’t assure that the construction was done exactly according to the original design but they can be very helpful if the event of the desire for a future modification. They can also be helpful as a ready reference for dimensions. Existing blueprints can be a huge timesaver and can be useful for insurance purposes.
I would think that in the age of digitization there should be some system in place to insure the preservation of blueprints. Buildings and houses should be built with a fire resistant vault that will stores the blueprints. It would cost less than $100. Why its not done I don’t know.
Maybe I’m missing something, but what are you going to get out of the blueprints? While commercial bluprints may be fairly exact, every residential blueprint that I’ve seen if pretty vauge (my new house included). Except for getting the exact dimensions of the house, and perhaps some notations on the types of framing and support, what are you going to get? Electrical and plumbing runs go all over the house and while the places they terminate may be shown, the actual pipe or wire locations won’t be indicated. If you want an accurate layout of your house, a couple of hours work with a tape measurer will probably get you more accurate information. There are many computer programs that will help you plot all the measurments out into a blueprint-like drawing.
On a less-rant, but more useful note, the city planning office may have a copy of your plot on file…I believe they keep those much more carfully. I know that the one for our house did show the house and it’s dimensions. Not perfect, but something to start with.
Wow…
First, Hi! to vetbridge! That’s cool. If you ever show up at the Fireman’s club in Vandergrift for Kareoke night, I’m probably there. Drop me a line, if you wish!
Now then…
One of the reasons we’re looking for this stuff is there is a large triangular shaped section of my house, from the basement up through the ground floor, that appears to have been walled off. I’m hoping to find out what it is/was, and determine if I can knock down this brick wall in my basement.
I am looking forward to finding out when my house was built as well… I know it’s old, I just don’t know HOW old.
I’ll keep folks posted, and I may be headed to the library this weekend.
Never been to the Firemens’ Club, I usually head for Moondog’s or The Thunderbird Cafe. Been to Ben’s Homebrew in Tarentum?
Good luck with your old house!
Could that be a chimney with one or more fireplaces? What happens at the roof above the triangular section?
Municipal and county tax records, and city directories may be helpful in determining when the house was built. Your local library or historical society may be able to direct you to those records.
Or look up the name of the city or county in the online catalog of the LDS Family History Library. The microfilms can be rented for a small fee at your local family history center.
Another resource: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, which were published from 1867 until 1961. The firm issued and periodically updated maps for 12,000 American cities and towns, showing specific characteristics about commercial and residential buildings. Pennsylvania State University has a large collection for the state. Online list of communities.