For example I am right now sitting in an Arby’s. I’m trying to figure out what business was here before Arby’s? Which would’ve been at least 20 years ago.
Is there a website or someplace that I could easily search this information at, preferably for free.
Edit: the arbys building was built when they moved in. I’m curious what business was there before.
Depends on if the building was leased. You can see ownership records as public information. If Arbies (or their franchise peeps) owned that property and sold it, it would be viewable. If somebody else owned it and leased to Arby’s… that’s going to be a matter of finding the person and asking them- and they may (almost certainly will) tell you to take a flying leap.
You can look up current property owners by searching county property maps as a place to start. every county I know of has very detailed county maps used by surveyors and such like. just google [your county] property map and you should find it.
in any case, at 20 years, I’d assume that building (if not that property) was always an Arby’s.