Life Storage
former chain of self storage facilities headquartered in Williamsville, New York, United States
Life Storage, Inc. (formerly Sovran Self Storage and Uncle Bob's Self Storage) was a real estate investment trust headquartered in Williamsville, New York, that invested in self storage units. In July 2023, the company was acquired by Extra Space Storage.
History
The company was founded as a financial planning firm in Buffalo, New York in 1982. In 1985, the company entered the self-storage industry by opening its first facility in Florida, accumulating around 30 facilities along the East Coast of the United States over the next three years.
During the next decade, the company acquired 62 self-storage facilities in the United States, and rebranded each one to "Uncle Bob's Self Storage" under the leadership of former CEO and Executive Chairman, Robert J. Attea. In 1995, the company became a public company through an initial public offering. By the end of 1996, the company operated 111 self-storage facilities in 15 states along the East Coast and Texas. It grew to 222 facilities by 1999, all of which used "Uncle Bob's" name. Five years later, the company operated facilities in 21 states.
“Life Storage” enters the record as former chain of self storage facilities headquartered in Williamsville, New York, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Life, Storage and former can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Life Storage” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Life, Storage and former provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7882701. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 1982, 1985 and 1995.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Life Storage”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Life Storage primary sources, Life Storage archive and Life research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Life Storage”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Life Storage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.