How do I take an address and figure out what ward / district / etc. for censuses prior to 1870

Jans,

The 1870 census, the second enumeration for NYC and Philadelphia, **first** used addresses on the sheet.  Your best hope is to find a ward map for 1860 with enough street resolution to solve your mystery.  On the other hand, I have a copy of E. Kay Kirkham's "A Handy Guide to Record Searching in the Larger Cities of the United States" by Everton Publishers copyright 1974... and there is an 1860 ward map and street index.  Division shows as Ward 20, and Lafayette doesn't show on the index.  There is a footnot that says "The wards are the same in 1855, 1860, and 1878".  Good luck.

Here's another source: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/186792?availability=Family%20History%20Library

"An illustrated genealogy of the counties of Maryland and the District of Columbia as a guide to locating records : including detailed maps showing the wards of the city of Baltimore in the federal censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880"

Here's another source: https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/186792?availability=Family%20History%20Library

"An illustrated genealogy of the counties of Maryland and the District of Columbia as a guide to locating records : including detailed maps showing the wards of the city of Baltimore in the federal censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870 & 1880"