Louisiana- Division of Historic Preservation

National Register ProgramNational Register Meetings AgendaNational Register Database Section 106 Environmenal ReviewFederal Tax Credit Incentive Program Restoration Tax AbatementGrant InformationRenovation and Restoration Advice Historic American Buildings Survey Certified Local GovernmentMain Street Program Heritage Education Staff Directory

Main Street

What with fires, natural disasters, and neglect, we know that not every historic building is going to survive. But even if an important historic building no longer exists, it should not be lost to history. Historic buildings form a record of our past that can be very valuable to future scholars. And, if good images exist of a vanished historic property, it can still be enjoyed and studied.

 

HABS documentation from 1936 preserves this original view of Pointe Coupee Parish's Fannie Riche House. The building looks very different today, for its brick lower story was demolished and not rebuilt when the home was moved back from the levee. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Reproduction Number: HABS, LA, 39-NEWRO.V, 2-1.)

In the depths of the Depression, the federal government initiated a program to commission measured architectural drawings of important or endangered American historic buildings. Created as part of the Historic Sites Act of 1935, the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) was originally intended to provide employment for architects forced out of work by the onset of hard economic times. But since then, the program has evolved into a unique architectural archive including drawings, photographs, written histories and other material. Housed in the Library of Congress, this is the nation's permanent architectural record.

Once the largest house in Louisiana, Iberville Parish's Belle Grove was already abandoned and deteriorated when this HABS photograph was made. The House later suffered a major fire and was razed. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Reproduction Number:
HABS, LA, 24-WHICA.V, 1-2.)
But though the Great Depression is long past, the U.S. Government is still commissioning sets of architectural drawings for important properties, primarily because the importance of this unique archive for our heritage has been widely recognized. Also recognizing this importance, in 1984 the State of Louisiana initiated its own state-sponsored Historic American Buildings Survey. Working through university schools of architecture, the Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation commissions sets of measured drawings and photographs of some of our state's most important properties. These are deposited not only in the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but also in a special collection at the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge. Commissioning these drawings not only preserves our heritage but it also provides valuable training for architecture students (and future architects) in important aspects of Louisiana's unique building heritage.
West Feliciana Parish's Afton Villa was one of only a handful of fully developed Gothic Revival style residences in Louisiana. It was lost to fire in 1960. Today the HABS documentation is the best record of this rare and important property. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Reproduction Number:
HABS, LA, 63-SAIFR.V, 1-4.)
Related Web Sites:
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HABS/HAER SITE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HABS SITE: BUILT IN AMERICA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: HABS/HAER GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION INDEX
Back to Historic Preservation Home
Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism
Office of Cultural Development
Back to Top