HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY

In November, 1933, Charles E. Peterson, a historic architect on Tom Vint's staff, drafted a memorandum recommending a national project for documenting historic buildings. His suggestion was activated as the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The main purpose of the survey was to assemble measured drawings and photographs of America's rapidly disappearing historic architecture. A secondary purpose, which actually made the study possible, was to provide work for unemployed architects and draftsmen.

Charles Peterson was dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and good craftmanship. He was sometimes so insistent that he was not easy to reason with, but I do not know of anybody ever proving he was wrong. He was well received and highly respected in intellectual circles, and there was no question as to his professional qualifications. Because of the vast amount of historic sites and buildings in the National Park System, Peterson took a very important part in discharging the responsibilities assigned to Tom Vint and his organization. Tom was a canny Scotsman and a master at handling temperamental and creative people and getting everything possible out of their efforts. He and Charlie became very close friends, and the Park Service, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the country as a whole are very much indebted to both of them. Peterson not only advanced the idea of the Historic American Buildings Survey but pushed it and kept on urging and demanding perfection in its pursuit. I know because quite a few times I was on the receiving end of his pleas for funds.

Prior to the HABS program there had been small scale recording projects of a similar type successfully carried out as unemployment programs in several cities. Peterson's proposal for documenting historic buildings on a national scale won rapid approval by Secretary Ickes and by the Civil Works Administration, the agency that in the beginning was to provide the major part of the funding. In organizing the project the enthusiastic cooperation of the AIA and the Library of Congress was enlisted. Dr. Leicester B. Holland, who served both as chairman of the AIA's committee on the preservation of historic buildings and as head of the Department of Fine Arts of the Library of Congress, and Edward C. Kemper, the executive secretary of AIA, were instrumental in cementing this cooperation.

The Library of Congress was to serve as the repository for the complete records, and the AIA, through its local chapters, provided the organizational framework for conducting the survey. Administration of the project by the Washington office of the National Park Service was in the hands of a small staff under Tom Vint, including Thomas T. Waterman, John P. O'Neill, and Frederick D. Nichols. The country was divided into thirty-nine districts, each with a district officer who was nominated by the local chapter of the AIA and appointed by the secretary of the interior. These men recruited architects for field work and with the aid of an advisory committee drew up priority lists of the buildings to be recorded. They were also responsible for maintaining the high standards of quality and accuracy set by the national office.

The initial phase of HABS recording lasted from the first of January until the end of March, 1934, when all Civil Works Administration projects were terminated. During this period the program employed 772 persons and produced 5,110 measured drawings and 3,260 photographs of 882 structures. These remarkable results led the National Park Service, Library of Congress, and American Institute of Architects to enter into a formal agreement in June, 1934, to establish the Historic American Buildings Survey as the official national program for the collection and disposition of architectural records.

All through the emergency period up until World War II the National Park Service financed the program with other emergency funds that became available. Just how much was spent on this project from March, 1934, to the beginning of the war is almost impossible to determine. Much funding and help came from the CCC, and the HABS program was broad enough in scope to allow for considerable help from other emergency programs. Park Service general funds were used to a certain extent, as well as allotments of Recreational Demonstration Area funds.

During the war many projects had to be dropped, including HABS, but after the war federal funding was restored. The old agreement between the AIA, the Library of Congress, and the National Park Service again became effective with the same high standards established in 1934 but on a much smaller scale because of the limitation of regular appropriations. The Park Service appropriations had been severely cut during the war. For the years 1942 to 1956 the archives of HABS grew only through donations of records from private individuals and a few from the National Park Service.

In 1956, as part of the service's Mission 66 program, HABS was reestablished as an active recording program. The survey programs continued much as before, directed by a small national staff The field teams, however, are now composed of architectual students and historians under the direction of a professor of architecture, and a much greater emphasis is placed on documentation by photographs and written data. As of January 1, 1974, HABS archives contained records of over 16,000 buildings, including 34,000 measured drawings, 44,000 photographs, and 13,000 pages of written data. This collection provides basic reference material for architects and historians on some of our greatest historic buildings that have been lost to the bulldozers, and it continues to be, as it has been for 40 years, one of the most popular collections in the Library of Congress.