How to Research a Kirksville Address When Street Names or Numbers Changed

An old Kirksville address that does not exist today is not necessarily wrong.

The street may have been renamed.

The house may have been renumbered.

The property may have been readdressed after development or annexation.

The only bad shortcut is translating it by intuition.

Preserve the old address exactly

Before modernizing anything, record:

• house number;
• directional prefix;
• street spelling;
• suffix;
• intersection wording;
• source;
• date.

"Franklin," "S. Franklin" and "corner of Franklin and McPherson" are three different pieces of evidence.

Keep the original wording before creating an alias.

Compare directories across time

Truman State University's current digital collection contains nine Kirksville city directories:

• 1892;
• 1899–1900;
• 1906;
• 1908–1909;
• 1913;
• 1921;
• 1924;
• 1927;
• 1930.

That sequence makes before-and-after comparison possible.

Look for the same:

• person;
• business;
• occupation;
• neighboring residents;
• block position.

If the same people remain in the same order while the numbers change, renumbering becomes a strong possibility.

It is not proof by itself.

Use neighbor sequence

Neighbors are underrated evidence.

Suppose three households appear in the same sequence in two directories but all have different numbers.

That is stronger evidence of a block renumbering than one person simply appearing at a different address.

Check Sanborn maps

Sanborn maps can show:

• house numbers;
• street names;
• building footprints;
• blocks;
• alleys.

If the building stays in the same physical position while the number changes between sources, you have spatial evidence for the address transition.

Use legal descriptions when available

Lot and block descriptions can survive address changes.

Assessor and recorder records can therefore connect a historic address to the same land even when street wording has changed.

Search City records for formal changes

Street renaming and readdressing may appear in:

• ordinances;
• resolutions;
• City Council minutes;
• planning records.

The City Clerk is the custodian for many of these records and accepts public-record requests.

Modern Kirksville still readdresses properties

A 2024 City Council study document described modern readdressing work intended to fix confusing or nonstandard addresses.

That proves address changes remain an active municipal process.

It does not prove how a 1900 address changed.

Historical change still requires historical evidence.

Build an address alias table

Use a table such as:

Historic form	Date range	Later form	Modern form	Evidence	Confidence

If the exact change date is unknown, say "changed between the 1913 and 1921 directories" rather than inventing a year.

Do not assume numbering logic

Modern odd/even patterns or block-number rules may not have applied in the same form historically.

Use records, not arithmetic.

For the next step—placing the reconciled address on modern ground—see How to Match a Historic Kirksville Address to Its Modern Location.

Historical address research is basically archaeology with fewer pottery shards and more people deciding that 120 should suddenly become 240.