Historic Structure Reports

The purpose of a Historic Structure Report (HSR) is to provide detailed documentary, graphic and physical information about a property's history and existing condition. HSRs are utilized to identify the most appropriate treatment of repair, rehabilitation, or restoration for a historic property.

Historic Documentation Company (HDC) prepares comprehensive Historic Structure Reports (HSR) on all types of historic resources, specializing in commercial, engineering, industrial and maritime resources. Reports follow National Park Service guidelines and state-level standards when applicable.

Our Historic Structure Reports typically include the following:

• Resource stabilization, restoration, rehabilitation and reuse  recommendations according to the Secretary of the Interior Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties. 
  
  
• Hi-resolution Digital Photography with digital files dually archived and delivered on archival CD, DVD or flash memory media.
  
  
• Field inspection and reporting by qualified preservation/restoration architects and professional structural, mechanical, and electrical engineers as the job requires.

Featured Projects

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Recently Completed Canoe Place Inn, Southampton, NY This 35,000 s.f. building was built in 1922 to replace and mimic a sprawling Colonial period inn on the site destroyed by a spectacular fire the year before. Known as the summer headquarters of Tammany Hall, its popularity with the monied and connected roared through the 20s and on through Prohibition as a speakeasy protected by wet judges and politicians. Drastically remodeled in the 50s and several times since, this study found the building ineligible for National Register listing due to lack of integrity. The NYSHPO concurred with the report findings.
Mine Falls Gatehouse, Nashua, NH This 1886 dam gatehouse structure was designed by James B. Francis, the renown canal engineer from Lowell MA and the father  of modern hydraulic engineering. The gatehouse survives as a rare example of its type, with much of the original machinery intact. Led by the Nashua's Fairgrounds Middle School Student Historic Preservation Team, the City of Nashua plans to arrest and reverse the deterioration of the Gatehouse and rehabilitate the structure into a useful historic resource of Mine Falls Park. Prepared for the Louis Berger Group for the City of Nashua, the report focused on the gatehouse's physical characteristics, preservation issues and reuse possibilities.
McMyler Coal Car Dumper, Port Reading, NJ, Historic Structure Engineering Report The McMyler car dumper is a large steam and steam-electric powered machine built in 1917 that picked up, turned over, and dumped the coal from loaded railroad cars into barges moored alongside the pier. The dumper may be the last of its type in the U.S. The purpose of this study was to identify the core elements that constitute the historic structure and assess its character-defining features, evaluate the physical and structural condition of the coal dumper and associated components, and to identify any elements that could feasibly be salvaged from the core historic structure for historic preservation purposes. For the Louis Berger Group and Catellus Commercial Development Corporation.
Stillwell Avenue Terminal Arcade, Brooklyn (Coney Island Subway Station) The Arcade Building was added to the 1919 elevated Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit station in 1930 to provide a sheltered walkway lined with concession stands between the station and the Surf Avenue exit opposite the beach. Over the Surf Avenue entrance was an elaborate glazed Terra-Cotta facade of Classical design. The project required a detailed inspection of the Arcade building with special consideration given to the Terra-Cotta facade for its potential salvage and reuse in the terminal reconstruction project.  For Louis Berger Group and New York City Transit.