The Historic American Buildings Survey was an important step toward the conservation of historic American architecture. This collection concerns District 22 of northern Ohio, composed of thirty-six of the northern most counties of Ohio. The District Officer for northern Ohio was William A. Bohnard. As the first District Officer, Bohnard served from December 1933 until January 1938, when the American Institute of Architecture nominated James W. Thomas to serve as District Officer for 1938.
The purpose of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HAVS) was to make records, photographs, blueprints, and drawings recording the exact appearance of historic architecture and its surroundings. The buildings considered fro the survey were selected for measuring and photographing in approximate order of their historic and architectural importance in each district. The recordings were made as a form of insurance against future destruction of the structures and as a contribution to the preservation of historic architecture.
Charles E. Peterson, Chief of the Eastern Division, Branch of Plans and Designs of the National Parks Service, first proposed the idea of a national survey of historic architecture. Inaugurated in the latter part of 1933, the HABS was financed with federal relief funds. The survey marked the first attempt on the part of the federal government toward the preservation and cataloging of historic structures in the United States. Technically a federal make-work project providing worked for unemployed architects, draftsmen, and photographers with funds from the Civil Work Administrations during the Great Depression, the HABS was also a progressive step toward the preservation of an historic treasure.
The original proposal, submitted to the Secretary of the Interior on November 15, 1933, was approved by the Federal Relief Administration on December 1. The appointment of a National Advisory Board and of field supervisors began immediately.
The National Advisory Board divided the country into thirty-nine districts. Each District Officer received his appointment from the Secretary of the Interior upon his nomination by the American Institute of Architecture. Upon the appointment, the District Officers contacted the local Civil Works Administration (CWA) offices to secure architects and draftsmen for the field survey teams. Office space for the survey was often furnished gratis by public organizations and private citizens. Federal control over the survey was maintained by the issuance of instructions and supplies directly from the CWA in Washington, D. C.
Survey teams began operations about the first week of January 1934. The personnel was built up daily until a general CWA order on January 18 stopped new employment. At the height of activity, the survey employed 722 people. Beginning February 15, a gradual close-down began with reductions in staff of ten percent weekly. On May 1, 1934, the CWA program officially ended after spending $196,267.63 out of a total budget of $480,000. A considerable number of men contributed their services after this date in order to complete certain projects.
The HABS was so successful that the National park Service, the American Institute of Architecture, and the Library of Congress entered into an agreement to insure a strong degree of continuity with all future enterprises of the same nature. Upon ratification of the agreement, volunteers were organized to serve as District Officers. The survey then continued, subsidized by private funds, local emergency relief funds, and school and university programs.
A number of states made use of emergency relief funds to continue the survey as a work relief program. The National Park Service continued to supervise and supply materials for state surveys. The Branch of Plans and Designs bore the increased burden of extra administrative as an increasing number of local survey administrators sought federal guidance. To provide for continuation of a separate administrative group, the Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, approved several special allotments of Public Works Administration funds during 1934 and 1935.
From 1936 until late 1941, further work was carried on with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the form of local and regional projects. In addition, a number of recordings resulted from private contributions and undertakings by various architectural schools.
The early relief nature of the project resulted in unevenness of coverage as gaps developed when the greatest amount of architectural unemployment did not always occur where the largest number of significant structures existed. In order to fill these gaps, a small Federal project financed with Public Works funds was organized and operated from the autumn of 1939 until early 1941.
The Historic American Buildings Survey, District 22 Records, 1931-1942 and undated, consist of field notebooks, correspondence, articles, project histories, financial records, administrative forms, sketches, maps, blueprints, drawings, lists of buildings, and indexes of the HABS Northern Ohio District (District 22).
This collection is a valuable source of information to the researcher interested in the historic development of architecture in the United States and northern Ohio. Individual project histories can be used in combination with the project blueprints and drawings to trace the development of architecture in Ohio, or to recreate buildings no longer in existence.
The collection is arranged by document type and then chronologically.
The researcher should also consult PG 71 Historic American Buildings Survey, District 22 Photographs; and MS 4569 Ohio Historic Preservation Office, Western Reserve Region Records.
Processed by William Becker in 1974. Finding aid revised in 1986.
None.
A map of Ohio showing the state divided into three districts and indicating the counties comprising each district; a list of projects identifying each building, its location, and the number of sheets of bluprints and drawings of the building present in the oversize collection; detailed descriptions of the structures listed in the field notebooks; and an index to the structures listed in the field notebooks by county and municipality are available at the Reference Desk of the WRHS Research Library.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3352 Historic American Buildings Survey, District 22 Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of the Works Progress Administration.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.