Why Survey?
As a Certified Local Government (CLG), Lakewood follows guidelines from the State Historic Preservation Office for preservation, including initiating or continuing a process for surveying and keeping an inventory of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts within the local jurisdiction.
Surveys are used to document historic resources within the community and evaluate the eligibility of individual resources and historic districts for the National Register, State Register, and local registers like Lakewood.
There are many benefits to surveying, including:
- Locate potential historic resources
- Document historic resources
- Document change over time
- Inform Section 106 processes
- Document threatened resources
Types of Surveys
The National Park Service establishes the guidelines for documenting and conducting surveys in the Guidelines for Local Surveys and CLG’s are required to follow these guidelines. There are several types of surveys that differ by level of detail, cost, amount of data collected and how the data is reported:
- Windshield surveys are the least intensive survey approach, where researchers drive the streets and roads of the community or survey area and make notes on the buildings, structures and landscape characteristics seen and the general character areas. This survey type was used in the recent 2020 Morse Park Survey Plan.
- Reconnaissance surveys are a step above windshield surveys and are observational, visual or predictive surveys that identify the general location and nature or culture of individual historic resources in a historic area. Documentation at this level is assessed from the public right of way and typically contains basic information such as property address, number of buildings/resources on each property, architectural styles, construction dates, any noticeable alterations/changes, photographic information and recommendations for further survey activity. The HPC will be conducting these surveys in this current research effort.
- Intensive surveys are visual and research-oriented surveys that fully record each property by including detailed architectural and historical information about the historic buildings/resources, with additional construction, property and ownership history included. An intensive level survey will include multiple photographs, a site plan and location map, and will contain an assessment of individual eligibility for local landmark designation and State and National Register designation. After conducting reconnaissance surveys, the HPC will recommend a few properties for these intensive surveys when resources become available.