State- and Federal-Level Historic Documentation
PAST is well known for its documentation of a wide variety of buildings and structures. We perform state-level documentations of buildings, bridges and other structures, and also prepare Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation of diverse resources. HABS documentations prepared by PAST personnel include a turn-of-the-century public school, mill tenements, a convent, a rectory, and several houses of various periods. Dozens of HAER documentations have been completed for bridges and other engineering structures in Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts. The National Park Service has used our HABS and HAER recordations as institutional examples.
This simple 18th-century center-chimney farmhouse was recorded to the standards of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) by PAST in 1992 at the request of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which was reconstructing a nearby highway interchange. In addition to black-and-white photographs by CONNDOT photographer Rob Moore, the package included floor plans, historical photographs, and the detailed Outline Format written documentation.
As part of a Memorandum of Agreement with the Connecticut Historical Commission and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Connecticut Department of Transportation asked PAST to record this bridge to the standards of the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). In addition to black and white photographs by CONNDOT photographer Rob Moore, the documentation package includes extensive descriptive and historical information regarding the bridge type and the circumstances of its construction. It was one of the largest of the numerous bridges built to replace those destroyed in the disastrous Hurricane of 1938. The HAER report documents the appearance of the bridge prior to work that required upgrading the railings to current safety standards.
Prior to construction work on the passenger platform at the Green Farms railroad station in Westport, the Connecticut Department of Transportation asked PAST to prepare state-level historical and photographic documentation of a stone-arch bridge that carries a brook under the tracks. The bridge, part of the original construction of the New York to New Haven Shoreline Route, is one of the few remaining structures of that period along Connecticut's busiest rail line.
The New York and New Haven Railroad constructed an extensive shop complex in 1868-1870 that included a 360-degree roundhouse for the storage and repair of locomotives. The roundhouse was reduced in size ca. 1900 and completely demolished in the 1930s. PAST's monitoring and documentation of the site included exposure and recording of the roundhouse turntable pit and repair bays from three different periods, as well as photodocumentation of architectural items (such as stone pintle blocks) recovered from the fill.
A detailed view of other services we offer:
Archaeological Reconnaissance Surveys
Intensive Archaeological and Historical Studies
Data Recovery and Excavation Projects
Geoarchaeology
Impact Assessment and Mitigation Strategies
National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark Documentation
Artifact Conservation
Public Outreach Programs
Educational Outreach and Curriculum Development
