Historic Resource Surveys
Surveys of buildings and structures are undertaken for a variety of reasons. They can be components of CRM projects, or town- or state-wide inventory and planning efforts, which are often funded with grants.
AHS staff members have completed townwide surveys of historic resources throughout Northborough and Stow, Massachusetts, and surveys of neighborhoods in Lexington. Connecticut surveys include two dozen towns, including Hamden, Plainville, Waterford, and Killingly.
Statewide inventories of historic bridges have been undertaken in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Other historic resource surveys have covered large areas, including a 500-acre former state hospital on the National Register of Historic Places, 60-mile-long rail corridors, and extensive highway-improvement studies. Most of our survey areas involve a wide variety of historic resources, including houses, factories, commercial buildings, bridges, dams, dikes, and more.
Featured Project
Historic Resources Survey: Architectural and Rail-Related Properties in Northborough, MA
AHS inventoried 140 19th and 20th-century properties in Northborough, Massachusetts, inclusive of historic houses in all major period styles, as well as vernacular types such as worker housing for textile mills. Other resources inventoried in the survey were a gristmill and dam, a woolen mill, a comb factory, stone bridges, a former creamery, a 1926 fire station, and the town’s 1939 high school. The Assabet River provided water power for industry, and the arrival of the railroad in 1855 furthered industrial growth. This project required research at specialized archives, including the American Textile History Museum in Lowell.
Other Project Examples
Norwich State Hospital
As part of a survey of this large National Register-listed property slated for development, AHS completed a study of a wide variety of historic resources along the Thames River.
RI Historic Bridge Inventory Survey
AHS staff coauthored Rhode Island’s original statewide historic bridge survey and management plan. We also completed a comprehensive update of the survey and plan.
Canal Line Rails to Trails
AHS surveyed, photographed and prepared state-level documentation of historic features along a two-mile segment of the former Canal Line Railway in Southington, Connecticut.