Historic buildings

[Tom R]

I have been asked to see if there is any way we could use our GIS to identify old, large buildings. Someone is looking for them for the historic preservation tax credit I guess. Has anyone ever done this type of thing?

[Cardinal]

Depending on the quality of your assessors records, they may contain information on when the building was constructed. You could create a map of parcels by decade the structure was built. On top of this, there is the obvious approach of looking at designated historic properties and districts.

[RandomPlanner]

... On top of this, there is the obvious approach of looking at designated historic properties and districts.

which is what I've just been tasked with doing. It shouldn't take too long to add the field of Preservation Status to my attribute table and go from there.

I'm interested to know what else people do for historic properties to be mapped...

[JMo]

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps can help identify historic buildings and their construction dates - just be aware that - if you are using microfilm versions - to look at the dates of the updates to the maps. You may have a 1926 Sanborn with 1942 updates on microfilm- so the building footprints will date from 1942. There's the update info in the title block around the front of the map set. If you have the paper maps - you can actually see the updates pasted on the original maps. Throw those on a light table and you can even observe the changes between the two years.

In my town - tax records aren't accurate at all for construction dates.

Also - consider visiting the State Historic Preservation Office - any work that required Section 106 should have survey forms (usually with UTM's) for the buildings in the project area... also - they will have maps of the National Register Districts and Individual Listings. The Districts should have maps with contributing (historic) and non-contributing buildings. There are lists of these designations at http://www.nationalregisterofhistori...districts.html