Scroll down to item 13 for definitions and illustrations of the architectural types identified for Georgia.

The Georgia Historic Resources Survey is an ongoing, statewide survey of buildings, sites, structures, and objects of historical, architectural, and cultural significance.  A goal of the Georgia Survey is to collect, as uniformly and reliably as possible, a minimum level of information needed statewide for preservation activities.  It is one of the programs administered by the Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources. 

Surveys are sponsored by local or regional organizations or government agencies under contract with Historic Preservation Division and use the services of both paid, trained surveyors and volunteers.  The survey coordinator of the Historic Preservation Division reviews and approves the work of consultants conducting surveys and edits the survey computer database to maintain as high a degree of consistency as possible.

Funding for surveys is available annually through the Historic Preservation Division.  Priority for funding is given to surveys in areas lacking a survey or underrepresented in existing surveys; surveys in areas experiencing development pressure on historic resources; surveys with direct links to district or multiple property National Register nominations, other preservation activities or to planning; and surveys that meet information needs, such as for historical contexts, thematic studies, environmental review, or tax act activity. 

Methods

Historic building surveys collect and record information about extant resources during actual fieldwork.  This information includes an architectural description of the resource and its age, history, setting, location, and significance.  The information is entered online using the Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources Geographical Information Services (NAHRGIS) data entry program.  An average of two digital photographs per property would normally be taken, depending on its complexity and importance. 

Historical research is not required.  However, the surveyor will take advantage of information provided by historical societies, local historians, property owners, tenants, county or city histories, and other readily available historical sourcebooks.

The fieldwork itself consists of systematic coverage of the project area.  The manner in which this is done depends on the nature of the area and its resources and on the judgment of the surveyor.  Surveyors need not travel every road if they have reason to believe that no historic resources will be found.  In rural areas, special attention should be paid to the spatial grouping of the buildings making up a farmstead, the specific uses of the outbuildings, and any landscape features, such as walls, fences, terracing, or plantings. 

Criteria

Because Georgia has a wide range of historic resources and because the survey data is a broad information base for many different preservation activities, the criteria for deciding which properties to include in a survey are necessarily broad.  All properties meeting National Register criteria should certainly be included, as should many of those not eligible for the National Register.  Buildings older than fifty years that have lost architectural integrity because of alterations and have no preservation potential are in most cases not surveyed.  Typically Georgia surveys document about 85% of the historic resources.  On the other hand, local needs may require documentation of all the historic resources or even empty city lots.

Surveyors should be aware of minority history and include related resources.  Sites, objects, structures, and landscape features should be recorded if they are of cultural or artistic importance.  Examples include monuments, cemeteries, fountains, boats, street signs, and city planning elements.  Buildings less than 50 years old may be surveyed if they possess distinct design characteristics or represent an important expression of mid-20th century America, such as motels, service stations, movie theaters, and drive-ins.  Archaeological sites are normally surveyed separately from historic properties.  State-owned and federally owned properties should not be surveyed.  If they are not already part of the Georgia Historic Resources Survey, include all National Register-listed properties. 

The physical condition of a building is not a major consideration in deciding whether to include the structure in a survey.  Condition deals with a buildings structural status or maintenance history and should not be confused with architectural integrity, which deals with the survival of materials, design features, or architectural character.  Integrity is the ability of a resource to convey an accurate sense of the past.

If the structure is significant for historical associations, however, integrity may be less important.  Buildings associated with persons or events should be included in a survey even if their original appearance has been considerably altered.  The integrity of a building may also be relatively unimportant if few examples of a resource type have survived.  On the other hand, integrity will be crucial in selecting one example from many. 

Buildings that are not included in a survey because they have lost integrity may nonetheless be documented by notes on the field maps.  A letter code devised by the surveyor can indicate basic information about the structure, such as building type or use.

Mapping

Although all the data entry for surveys conducted beginning in 2005 is electronic, including the mapping, the surveyor should provide himself with a set of USGS topographical maps, 7.5 minute series, to use as field maps.  This set can be given to the Historic Preservation Division or the local survey sponsor at the end of the survey.  Until the reliability of community mapping online can be confirmed, surveyors should also submit paper copies of community maps to both the local sponsor and the Historic Preservation Division.

Survey Report

All surveys are to be accompanied by a report that gives an account of the project.  An electronic copy should be given to the Historic Preservation Division, and it should include the following information. 

1. A description of the project, including how the survey was funded, who sponsored it, the name of the surveyor, and a clear statement of the boundaries of the area surveyed.
2. Survey results, including the total number of surveyed resources, broken into categories for rural sites, towns, and cities.  Previous surveys should be named.
3. A brief developmental history of the area, including how the area reflects distinctive aspects of Georgia's history.
4. An architectural analysis, including the main building types, local architectural character, some general observations, and local eccentricities.
5. A discussion of National Register eligibility for both individual buildings and historic districts, including maps of proposed district boundaries, if appropriate.

The Data Entry Form

All survey data will be entered online using the Historic Preservation Divisions website.  The mechanics of entering the data should be self-explanatory, but suggestions are offered below for interpreting some of the choices offered.  Some of the conventions used for selecting the architectural choices and some of the architectural terminology are also explained.

1. Name of Resource

The historic name, if known, is preferred.  Generally, this is the name of the original occupant, a name given to the property by an early occupant, or the name of the most significant person or event associated with the resource.  Hyphenated names can be used if there are two or more families.  The present name may be listed in the absence of a historic name or if the use of the building has changed.

3. Address/Location

Enter the address, with number and street.  If the street number is not known, enter a phrase describing the location, such as, N side Main St btwn 2nd & 3rd sts, or for rural resources, N side Kelsey Rd, ½ m W of US 50.  Highway numbers are preferred to rural road names, but both may be listed if the name of the road is used more frequently than the number.  The abbreviations to be used for federal, state, and coundy roads are US, GA, and CO.

7. Use

Enter the most appropriate current and original uses for the resource.  If you dont see the precise use in the list, select the closest one and give the more precise use in a prominent place elsewhere in the survey form.  More than one use may be entered.

8. Date of Construction

Enter the year if known.  If the starting and completion dates are known, enter both and note the source of this information.  If the date must be estimated, use the abbreviation c for circa followed by a date or range of dates, preferably a decade estimate (examples:  c1870, 1870s, c1865-1874, c1920-1929);  4 and 9 should be entered in decade estimates rather than 5 or 0.

9. Major Changes

Enter the date or a decade estimate, as in 1870s or c1950 in the appropriate category.  One need not include minor changes such as infill between foundation piers.

12. Style

If the building does not display characteristics of a recognized style, enter no academic style.  Most of Georgia's vernacular architecture, buildings influenced more by tradition than by stylistic trends, falls into this category.  Enter the name of the appropriate architectural style(s) from the choices listed.  After selected the style, enter either high style, if the building is a formal or textbook example of the style, or elements, if the building exhibits one or more characteristics of the style. 

Residential Architectural Styles in Georgia from: Georgia's Living Places: Historic Houses in Their Landscaped Settings (1991).  This manual will be looked at by the Historic Preservation Division staff in the future for possible updating.

13. Building Type

Architectural types are defined by the floor plan and the height and in some cases by other considerations as well.  Building types should not be confused with architectural styles, the uses of buildings, or construction materials.  Building type is the overall form, the outline or envelope of the main or original part of the building, as well as the general layout of the interior rooms. 

A building type within a particular use of buildings cannot apply to other uses of buildings.  For example, house types cannot apply to barns, and school types cannot apply to churches.

When determining the type, consider only the core or main part of the building and exclude side wings, porches, rear service ells, later additions, and attached outbuildings.  A prominent front-gable porch, for instance, should not prevent the surveyor from recognizing a side-gable bungalow.  Additions may be important, however, if they change one house type into another.  For example, if a single-pen house is expanded by adding a second room on the opposite side of the chimney, the resulting house would be a saddlebag type.  In this case, two types would be entered, indicating the evolution of the house from a single-pen to a saddlebag. 

Definitions and illustrations of the architectural types identified for Georgia:
Barns
Churches
Commercial
Houses
Schools

14. Original Floor Plan

The information sought here is a description of the original ground-floor plan of the principal building.  Rear ells, lateral wings, connected subsidiary buildings, and additions should not be described in this space, even if they are an original part of the floor plan.

 In most cases an interior inspection is not required, because a trained architectural observer can usually deduce the floor plan from the exterior based on an understanding of the development of American architecture and knowledge of common building types.  Occasionally, however, an interior inspection will be required, if, for example, the interior might reveal information helpful in dating the building, the significance of the resource warrants it, or informants have indicated that the interior is particularly significant, unique, or intact.  In many cases local informants can provide information about the floor plan.  An educated guess about the plan is preferable to unknown.

 The first entry category describes the plan across the front of the building, while the second category refers to the depth.  If a plan has a central hallway, enter central hallway, not two equal rooms, and if a plan has a side hallway, enter side hallway rather than two unequal rooms.  Use irregular to describe only the most complex or unpredictable plan.

 Gabled wing cottages would be described as having either a central hallway or two unequal rooms across the front, depending on the situation, but as a convention, they should be referred to as two rooms deep, not one.  Another convention simplifies most bungalow floor plans:  two unequal rooms across the front, and two rooms or more than two rooms deep. 

15. Plan Shape

Enter the shape of the perimeter outline or footprint of the main section of the building.  Do not include rear ells, wings, or post-1950 additions.  Simplify the plan shape where necessary, recording the basic overall shape of the core of the house:  a pyramidal-roofed house with projecting gables is called square, an I-house with projecting gables and a rear ell is termed rectangular, and a hall-parlor house with an ell and an end addition would be recorded as rectangular.  Although squares are in fact rectangles, enter square if the plan shape approximates a square.  A gabled wing cottage or house may be either L- or T-shaped, depending on whether there is a room projecting in the rear of the building.

16. Number of Stories

Do not mistake half stories for full stories.  A  half story has an external wall less than full height but above the roofline of the floor below.  An attic is the space within the slope of the roof and should not be counted as a half story, even if dormers light the attic space.  Do not count basements, even if the basement is raised. 

17. Façade Symmetry & Front Doors

If the façade is asymmetrical, enter A.  Enter S if the façade is symmetrical.  Also give the number of front doors on the ground floor.

18. Roof Type & Material

Enter the configuration of the main roof of the principal building of the resource, discounting dormers and minor projections.  More than one roof type may be listed.  Indicate the orientation of gabled roofs, that is, whether they are front-gabled, pointing toward the street, or side-gabled, parallel with the street.  Ignore porch roofs, although listing conical or octagonal roofs on elaborate Victorian porches can be useful.  Avoid confusing steeply pitched hipped roofs and pyramidal roofs:  to be pyramidal, the roof must come to a point; all roofs topped with a ridge rather than a point should be called hipped.  Use complex only if the roof cannot be simplified to one of the other roof types. 

19. Chimney Placement & Materials

Enter the location of the chimney or chimneys in relation to the roof of the building.  Also give the materials used.  More than one choice may be made in each category.  Lateral refers to the sides of a front-gabled building. 

20. Type of Construction

Enter the structural system or systems used in the principal building of the resource.  More than one choice may be entered.  Making an educated guess is preferred to entering unknown.

21. Exterior Materials

List the major materials used in the walls of the principal building.  If the corner timbering of a log building is visible, note the type of notching as well as the treatment of the logs. 

22. Foundation Materials

Enter the material used in the foundation and indicate whether the foundation consists of piers, piers with infill, or continuous support.

23. Porches

Enter the type or configuration of porches and their location, width, height, major materials, and roof type.  For the main porch material, enter the material of the supports, not the material of the porch floor or roof.

24. Windows

Enter descriptions of the various windows of the principal building (not just the front windows).  Use the terms segmental, round, or pointed if those shapes are present above the window, regardless of whether the actual window glass fills the shapes.

25. Additional Physical Description

This space should be used to present the reader with a clear idea of the nature and character of the resource without a photograph.  It should also be used to clarify elements not visible in the photos or insufficiently described elsewhere on the form.  Include both general impressions and specific, detailed architectural observations.

 Include any important architectural information that is not already mentioned in the form.  Where applicable, enter the following information.

· Orientation of the façade to the street
· Window and door arrangement of the façade
· Compositional devices used in the design
· Further explanation of the major changes
· Overall impressions of the surveyor

In most cases, this item may be adequately completed in a short paragraph or several sentences.  For more complex or especially significant resources, however, this item may contain extensive information.  Additional photos of significant details may reduce the amount of description required.

26. Photographs

Take digital photographs of important views, usually showing the façade and one side, or three-fourths angle views, of the building.  If the building is particularly large or complex, additional photos of details, materials, or additional elevations may be necessary.  An effort should be made to photographically document the features discussed in item 25.  Significant outbuildings or secondary buildings as well as important structures and landscape features should also be photographed.

27. Description of Outbuildings

Identify and briefly describe each historic outbuilding on the property, both domestic and agricultural.  Pay special attention to barn types and historic uses of the outbuildings.  Because the type of barn depends on the spatial configuration, an interior inspection may be required. 

 If one or more buildings are clearly secondary in importance to the principal structure, as in the case of a farmhouse and its outbuildings, a single survey form may represent all buildings.  If two or more buildings on the same property are roughly equivalent, however, for example two churches or two schools of different dates of construction, each of them should have a separate survey form. 

29. Description of Landscape Features

Identify and briefly describe any significant landscape features, including those beyond the property boundaries within a town or city, especially the streetscape. 

30. Counting the Components of the Resource

Enter the number of the constituent components of the resource according to the categories listed.  Although outbuildings are in fact buildings, please distinguish between the two for the purposes of counting.  Consider outbuildings to be utilitarian buildings, both domestic and agricultural, not constructed for human occupancy; consider buildings to be all other buildings constructed primarily for human occupancy.  Count cemeteries as sites. 

31. Description of the Environment

Select the category that best describes the environment of the resource.  Also briefly describe the setting if additional information is appropriate.  Multiple choices may be entered.  The term dispersed community is intended to mean a group of resources linked socially or economically but that are not next to one another; it is not meant to be simply a sparse settlement pattern.

32. Archaeological Potential
  
Although archaeological sites are recorded separately from the Georgia Historic Resources Survey, surveyors may document the archaeological potential of a resource surveyed for reasons other than archaeology.  Enter the category of archaeological potential and indicate whether the information was learned by observation or from a property owner or other informant.

33. History
  
Enter historical information pertaining to the resource or events associated with it.  Always indicate the sources of the information in item 36.

34. Historical Themes
  
Enter one or more historical theme for each resource.  Historical themes do not always coincide with the use of the property. 

If the resource is directly associated with or clearly reflects any of the 12 distinctive aspects of Georgias history, enter them.

35. Significance

If the resource is significant, select one or more of the categories of significance and pair each category with the phrase that further explains that significance.  If the resource is thought to possess no particular significance, leave the space blank. 

36. Sources of Information

If an outside person or group was the source of information entered in any other item number on the survey form, enter the category of that source and key the source to the item number in which the information appears.  It is important to provide all sources of information, especially when citing a specific date, architect, builder, or significant person or event. 

37. Prepared by

Enter the name of the surveyor, the organization that sponsored the survey, and the mailing address of that organization. 

38. Date of Survey

If no previous survey of the area has been conducted or if the particular resource has not been previously documented in an earlier survey, enter the year or years of your survey.  If the particular resource has been previously documented in a survey, enter the year of that survey and the year or your resurvey. 

39. Government Preservation Activity

This item may be left blank if the information is not known or readily available.  The information in this item pertains to the property documented on the survey form.

40. SHPO Evaluation

Evaluate each resource individually against National Register criteria.  This is not an official determination of eligibility but rather the surveyors opinion of eligibility.  This entry may be changed by the state historic preservation office.

41. USGS Quadrangle Name and UTM Reference

Enter the name of the USGS quadrangle map for each resource, even if a community map was used to locate the resource.  Fill in the UTM reference for each surveyed property.  For instructions on how to calculate the UTMs, contact the survey coordinator.

42. Tax Map Number

If tax map numbers are known, they may be entered in this space. 

43. Recognition and Date

If information pertaining to local, state, or national recognition of the surveyed property is known, it may be entered here.  Enter the appropriate information and give the year of the recognition.  The names of historic districts may be entered in item 31. 

HPD version August 2005