I apparently don't have a whole house water shut off I can use.
This is an odd one. The only whole house shut off is on the city side of my meter and the person from public works I talked to said only the city could operate it and if it were to break while I operated it I could be held financially liable.
Does anyone know of a ballpark price to get a plumber to install on my side of the meter?
This. My house is a 1957 with the original box, was a pain in the ass to find. It took me like an hour of searching to find it. I mow over it without seeing it. Virtually impossible to see.
Get a poker, find the street valve and where the plumbing enters your house and poke between the two spots until you find it. Alternatively you could pull your plans from the city.
Probably on a straight line between where it comes in and the road. But there might not be anything at the surface. A friend of mine had to get the city to come fix his line due to a break on their side, and they had to go down probably five feet before they found it. But that was in New Hampshire, because they have to have it deep enough that it won't freeze. If you don't have freezes, yours might be different.
I'm in the Pacific Northwest at about a thousand feet elevation so the ground does freeze here. I have an idea where it comes into the crawl so maybe outside that area?