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What We Do
The goal of a historical architectural preservation company is to safeguard our cultural heritage for future generations while ensuring that historic structures and infrastructure remain vibrant and relevant in today's world.
Compliance
Preservation Company has vast experience working with clients to meet the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966. We frequently work with NHDOT and NHDES on permitting for transportation enhancements, bridge rehabilitation or replacements, utilities, cell tower or antenna installations, and other federally or state-funded or licensed projects.
For most projects, Preservation Company prepares a combination of constraints mapping and reports including NHDHR Request for Project Review and Architectural Survey Plans, resource evaluations (determinations of National Register eligibility) and analyses of impacts and effects, in compliance with 106 and 4(f) regulations, according to standards specified by the NHSHPO.
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As part of a project for planned improvements along Route 2 by NHDOT, Preservation Company updated the previously surveyed Jefferson Highlands Historic District as well as several individual properties. New survey was needed for five individual properties. Preservation Company then completed evaluations of effects for each National Register-eligible property and district within the Project Area.
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Preservation Company completed a NHDHR Project Area Form for the thirteen-mile-long, one-mile-wide corridor of a proposed transmission line in Madbury, Durham, Newington, and Portsmouth for Eversource Energy. The installation of new utility poles required an assessment of potential visual effects for the area, which was then to the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee in winter of 2016. Preservation Company prepared Inventory and Historic District Area Forms for potentially affected properties and historic districts.
Mitigation for Adverse Effects included a Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation of the Durham Cable Terminal House before the relocation and restoration of the structure. Additionally, Preservation Company worked with BaileyDonovan to design interpretive panels and exhibit displays about the Underwater Cable Line and Terminal Houses, as well a booklet about farming in Newington. The project preservation team received an award from the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance in 2021.
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Preservation Company teamed with McFarland Johnson to complete section 106 requirements for proposed I-93 upgrades between Bow Mills and downtown Concord. A total of seventeen individual NHDHR inventory forms and three historic district area forms were completed for properties in Concord, and thirteen individual inventory forms for properties in Bow.
The vast array of resources in the I-93 corridor include farmhouses, suburban residential neighborhoods, a shoe factory and electric power station, apartment building, mid-twentieth century factory, feed and grain store, automotive garage, shopping plaza, technical college campus and state liquor store.
Historic Documentation
High-level documentation, under the Heritage Documentation Programs, is often required for resources that are to be altered or demolished. The Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) guidelines for documentation of sites and structures often requires measured drawings, large-format photographs, and historical reports, which are recorded at the Library of Congress.
Non-profit organizations, public agencies, house museums, and church congregations that own historic properties often require documentation of their property and a clear path forward for restoration projects. Historic Structure Reports (HSR) and Historic Building Assessments (HBA) both contain a history of the property and changes over time, a description of the property and its current conditions, a statement of significance and character-defining features, and prioritized recommendations for treatments according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards.
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Preservation Company partnered with ARCove Architects to prepare a Historic Building Assessment Report for the Exeter Town Hall. Built in 1855 to house the Exeter Town Hall and the Rockingham County Courthouse, this two-story brick building is a locally recognized landmark in the heart of Exeter Square and a regionally noted example of the early work of the prolific Massachusetts architect Arthur D. Gilman (1821-1882).
Since its completion the building has been the site of numerous civic, social, fraternal, political, theatrical, and other events and meetings.
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Preservation Company prepared a Historic Building Assessment Report for the Newington Rail Depot for VHB as a first step in a feasibility study. The Newington Railroad Depot was built in 1873 and originally served as the rail stop in Newington for the Portsmouth and Dover Railroad.
The building combines a railroad depot and the residence for the station master/toll taker. When the General Sullivan Bridge was constructed in 1934, the depot was no longer used for transportation purposes, and the railroad line was abandoned. The building was used as a residence until 1971.
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Preservation Company prepared a Historic Building Assessment report for the Town of Salem, NH, on the Salem Old Town Hall. The historic building was constructed in 1738, serving originally as the Salem Meeting House. It served both religious and civic functions as the meetinghouse for the early inhabitants of Salem until 1838, when it was moved to its present location and used as their Town Hall.
Since then, it has undergone several other changes, most notably in 1900 when a renovation was sponsored by Edward Searles and designed by architect Henry Vaughn, giving it Tudor Revival elements.
National & State Register Nominations
Preservation Company has successfully nominated many individual resources and historic districts to the National Register of Historic Places and the NH State Register of Historic Places.
We work closely with the NH Division of Historical Resources to complete the nominations for private property owners, non-profit organizations, and municipalities.
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Kensington Town Center Historic District is an approximately one-half-mile-long linear district along Amesbury Road/NH Route 150. It includes 27 contributing resources and contains a concentration of civic, religious, and residential structures in the heart of the town. The Historic District was added to the National Register in 2024 on behalf of the Kensington Heritage Commission.
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The Scammon Farm Historic District in Stratham holds a collection of residential and farm buildings owned and occupied by eight generations of the Scamman family. The farm includes over 150 acres of fields, wetlands, and woodlands, and 90 acres are under a conservation easement held by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Scamman Farm (owned by a separate branch of the family), located across Portsmouth Avenue from the Scammon Farm Historic District, was nominated to the National Register in 2019 with the help of Preservation Company.
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The Plains Cemetery, or Village Cemetery, in the Town of Kingston was established in ca. 1725 and is notable for both its occupants and its gravestone art and monuments. It is the resting place of Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and includes an elaborate monument to Major Edward S. Sanborn, who funded the Sanborn Seminary in Kingston.
Historic Survey
Preservation Company has prepared hundreds of NH survey forms for properties and resources throughout the state for determination of National Register eligibility. These range from individual inventory forms for buildings, farms, and bridges to historic district area forms for villages, town and city centers, twentieth century subdivisions and agricultural areas.
We have surveyed transportation corridors, such as railroads and highways, and historic cemeteries.
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Preservation Company completed an individual inventory form for the early twentieth-century collection of farm buildings on the shore of Great Bay in Greenland. The property was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places for significance in agriculture.
Preservation Company also assisted the owner, NH Fish & Game, with identifying the character-defining features of the farm previous to rehabilitation and renovation.
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Before the demolition of the Spaulding Turnpike Toll Plazas by the NHDOT, Preservation Company completed survey of both 1956 toll plazas (in Dover and in Rochester) to determine their eligibility for the National Register.
The plazas, designed by husband and wife team E.H. and M.K. Hunter of Hanover, NH, were determined significant as the last historic toll stations of the “Turnpike Era.”
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Preservation Company, subcontracted to Quantum Construction Consultants, completed a cultural landscape survey of the Great Brook Industrial District in Antrim, which included a number of industrial archaeological sites along the length of Great Brook in Antrim, NH.
This included a brief history of the many industries and companies based along the river and a table identifying both sites and existing features within the district.
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Preservation Company worked with the Town of Amherst to update the Amherst Village Historic District to facilitate local regulatory review as part of a CLG grant. The project included a survey and evaluation of the additional 147 properties in the local district and an update of the documentation of the 167 resources from the 1982 National Register district nomination.
Preservation Company photographed each of the 314 resources and compiled a database that was incorporated in the Town’s GIS mapping.
The report included a summary of the survey and a current statement of significance and period of significance for the locally designated Historic District. In addition, Preservation Company prepared a Guide to Architectural Forms and Styles, which defined the various building forms and styles common in the historic district, listed character-defining features and provided illustrative and representative examples as a standalone document.
Tax Credits
The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit offers property owners a 20% income tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Preservation Company assists with ensuring the changes must meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and with completing the three stages of applications for the program.
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Preservation Company has teamed with M&S Development, LLC to prepare a Historic Tax Credit application for the rehabilitation of the historic Blake House, formerly part of Keene State College, for reuse by Antioch University.
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Preservation Company prepared Part 1 of the Historic Tax Credit application for the rehabilitation of the Colonial Theater in Laconia. The 1914 theater closed in 2002, and restoration/rehabilitation work from 2016-2021 has resulted in an award-winning project bringing arts and theater to the heart of Laconia.
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Preservation Company assisted the City of Berlin Housing Authority with the rehabilitation of the historic St. Regis Academy. Built in 1910, the former school was converted to affordable housing in 1981. The rehabilitation included upgrades to meet life and safety codes as well as building repairs and materials restoration.
Interpretive Products
Preservation Company has collaborated with graphic designers BaileyDonovan to provide interpretive panels, exhibits, and books for educational purposes.
Most of these products are the result of project mitigation in an attempt to provide public information about a lost or compromised resource.
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The four panels in this park interpret the history of Portsmouth Harbor on the Piscataqua River, the Portsmouth shipbuilding industry, the USS Albacore submarine, and shoreline rehabilitation. Preservation Company teamed with BaileyDonovan for the design. The panel on USS Albacore satisfied mitigation for the removal of the historic Sarah Mildred Long Bridge.
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Preservation Company and BaileyDonovan design collaborated to produce an interpretive panel on the historic Wentworth Village Road Bridge as mitigation for the removal of the historic 1909 structure, a steel Warren thru-truss bridge with distinctive railings.
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As mitigation for the Seacoast Reliability Project through Eversource, Preservation Company and BaileyDonovan composed text and historic photographs and designed a book about the historic farms of Newington, NH.
Richard Moe
“There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here or there, but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they embody.”
National Trust for Historic Preservation
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