State Historic Property Documentation - HABS/HAER

Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) forms are typically required by SHPOs to document sites of national or state significance that will be significantly altered or demolished by a proposed project. Although specific requirements vary with the project, in many cases the documentation consists of measured drawings, large-format black & white photographs, and written histories, often with room-by-room descriptions. This intensive level of documentation is done to capture the significance of the resource in a clear and concise fashion for archival purposes.

In New Hampshire, in most cases the documentation is completed with the state as the ultimate repository (referred to as “New Hampshire Historic Property Documentation”). In other situations, the submission is made to the regional National Park Service office and the federal Library of Congress is the final repository.

Preservation Company has prepared HABS/HAER and State-Level documentations for a range of building types and structures. In the past thirty years documentation of this type has included scores of HABS and HAER forms. Building types have ranged from small, single-family houses to large military buildings. Structures have ranged from large multi-span bridges to small culverts and dams. We are in the process of producing seven HABS forms for buildings in Berlin as mitigation for part of the NH Route 110 rerouting in Berlin, New Hampshire.