“The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Program at the NPS” webinar, presented by Catherine Lavoie

On Thursday, July 11, at noon, the State Historic Preservation Office will host a free webinar with Catherine Lavoie, chief of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) with the National Park Service (NPS). She will discuss the program, how and why it was started, its mission, and its value, with a focus on HABS’s work in Oklahoma.

HABS was established in 1933 as a unique public-private partnership between NPS, the Library of Congress (LOC), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA) aimed at creating an archive of America’s architectural heritage. Under NPS management, AIA “district officers” in various states across the nation heeded the call to action, selecting and recording sites they deemed worthy of recognition through measured drawings, historical reports, and photographs. The documentation was housed at the LOC and made available to the public. The standards developed by the HABS program continue to be used to systematically record historic architecture while field testing new technologies to determine best practices and training the next generation of preservationists. HABS documentation is extremely valuable for rehabilitation and restoration of historic properties. The collection now spans about 45,000 sites and can be viewed online through the LOC website.

Catherine Lavoie has a master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Maryland with an emphasis in historic preservation and material culture. She worked briefly in state and local preservation before coming to HABS as a historian intern, rising to senior historian and finally chief in 2008. Most recently, she co-authored Buildings of Maryland, the latest in the Society of Architectural Historians Buildings of the United States series. Registration for the webinar is required. For more information, contact Kristina Wyckoff, Section 106 coordinator and historic archaeologist, at 405-521-6381 or kristina.wyckoff@history.ok.gov.

Register for the webinar.

East elevation – State Capitol Company Building, 301 West Harrison Avenue, Guthrie, Logan County, OK Drawings from Survey HABS OK-17 (HABS OKLA,42-GUTH,1G-, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division).