History of a building

Bicycle

This is possibly the wrong location and I would appreciate it if you could steer me in the right direction please, if so.

I'm interested in the history of a residential building. The building where I work. I was looking at the 1911 census and interestingly at that time the building housed the same form of business as we are in now.

I'm wondering how to go about tracing the history.

Its not REALLY genealogical as the building was unoccupied at night in 1911 and remains unoccupied at night in 2010.

Thanks in advance.

pinkypinky

Interesting segueway if not genealogical.

There's a couple of ways to approach this.
If the building is commercial, you could go to the Valuations Office (in the Irish Life centre) and look at the records for its rates payments. This followed on from Griffith's Valuation which you can look at free on askaboutireland.com - I'm not sure you can just search by address though. Thoms directory might also show you throughout the 20th century who occupied it. The best collection (and accesible) is in Pearse St Library in Dublin. They also have the 1901 census on microfilm for Dublin, which would take you 10 years earlier.

Bicycle

Thank you so much Pinky. I really appreciate your help.

Those links are wonderful and I will follow them up.

Oops, I've just noticed you've assumed I'm in Dublin. The building is actually in Limerick City. Does Thoms have a Limerick directory for that era as well? (I know they have a modern directory for modern day Limerick)

pinkypinky

There's a lot of Limerick directories but they aren't as comprehensive as Thoms. Have a look at the Limerick city library website - they have many useful things digitised. They may also have copy cancelled valuations books for Limerick that you would otherwise have to come to Dublin to see.

Bicycle

Thanks again Pinky.

Very much appreciated.