Epic Map Collection Saved From Mt. Washington House Slated For Demolition

Real estate Matthew Greenberg stumbled across an important and unexpected discovery when he was charged with cleaning out a Mount Washington home was slated for demolition: an epic map collection that may be as large as a million maps.

Fortunately for the Los Angeles Public Library, Greenberg, the son of a library science professor, hesitated before tossing it all away into a dumpster. Now the library will inherit the entire collection, making it one of the largest map collections in the country, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The former resident John Feathers, a hospital dietician, had passed away at the age of 56 this February. He wasn't so much a map collector as a map hoarder, who seemed to hold on to whatever map or globe or guide that came his way.

"John was a quiet, shy guy. But looking at all of this, I'd say the job at the hospital was clearly not his passion," Feathers' neighbor Michelle Litchfield told the Times.

Whatever his reasons were for hanging on to so many maps, the city's map librarian was only too happy that this map avoided the landfill: "I think there are at least a million maps here. This dwarfs our collection — and we've been collecting for 100 years."

Some of them are common, some are rare and in great condition, he said: "He has every type of map imaginable. There's a 1956 pictorial map of Lubbock, Texas. He's got a 1942 Jack Renie Street Guide of Los Angeles. He has four of the first Thomas Bros. guides from 1946. Those are very hard to find. The one copy we have is falling apart because it's been so heavily used. We had to photocopy it."

Going through this map collection could take as long as a year, and the library might have to apply for grant money and ask for help from the Library of Congress.