Historic American Buildings Survey

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) began in 1933 now contains the written record with drawings and photographs of 35,000 historic structures. This is a digital collection managed by the Library of Congress. Many buildings we have been involved in restoring have been featured within this collection. Searching the HABS for your building or buildings in your area can give you clues to the remodeling completed on your structure. This provides a good place to begin researching your building’s history and gives you a snapshot of the time period when the HABS was recorded. You can search the collection at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/habs_haer/. This is just one of the many tools available to help you research the history of your building.