Selected “Field Guides” and Architectural Dictionaries
America’s Architectural Roots; Ethnic Groups that Built America. ed. Dell
Upton. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. \ Preservation Press, 1986.
American Landscape Architecture; Designers and Places. ed. William H.
Tishler. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1989.
Brownstone, Douglass. A Field Guide to America’s History. New
York: Facts on File, 1984.
Carter, Thomas and Elizabeth Collins Cromley. Invitation to Vernacular
Architecture; A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes. Knoxville: The University
of Tennessee Press, 2005.
Dictionary of Building Preservation. ed. Ward Bucher, AIA. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. \ Preservation Press, 1996.
Foster, Gerald L. American Houses: A Field Guide to the Architecture of the
Home. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Howe, Barbara J., Delores A. Fleming, Emory L. Kemp, and Ruth Ann Overbeck. Houses
and Homes; Exploring Their History. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press in cooperation with
the American Association for State and Local History, 1997.
An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape. ed.
Carl R. Lounsbury. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
McAlester, Virginia and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. New
York: Knopf, 1984.
McVarish, Douglas C. American Industrial Archaeology; A Field Guide. Walnut
Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2008.
Pillsbury, Richard and Andrew Kardos. A Field Guide to the Folk Architecture of
the Northeastern United States. [Hanover, NH]: Geography Publications at Dartmouth
No. 8; Special Edition on Geographical Lore, [1970].
Common Sources of Information about Historic Places
Historic maps and aerial photographs
Maps and aerial photographs provide valuable information about construction dates, land use, property
ownership, and change over time. At a minimum, the map collections of the MHT library and a local
library or historical society should be consulted in the preparation of a DOE form.
Land records
Land records provide information about changes to a property over time, the names of a property’s
owners, and a variety of other information. Information from land records is often necessary to
evaluate a property under National Register Criteria A and B. Deeds from all Maryland counties are
available online at www.mdlandrec.net. Plats from all Maryland
counties are available online at www.plats.net.
People
In preparing a DOE form, the owners, users, and neighbors of a property should be consulted
regarding its history.
The buildings and landscape
The preparer of the DOE form should consider the age, arrangement, method of construction,
and other visible factors of the buildings and landscape as historical sources. Professional
judgments and assumptions should be noted and explained, and relevant citations should be provided
whenever possible.
Other primary sources
Agricultural and tax records, pattern books and builders guides, newspapers,
and “vertical files” may provide necessary information about the subject
property or provide relevant context. For many properties, relevant information is
available at MHT, the Maryland Archives, and local libraries or historical
societies. An increasing number of historic documents related to design and construction
are publically available online from sources that include: Google
Books (books.google.com), Making of
America (moa.umdl.umich.edu),
archive.org, Project
Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org), and
Chronicling America (www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica).
Selected Publications about Local and Regional Architectural History
Architecture in Annapolis: A Field Guide; Second Edition. ed. Marcia M. Miller
and Orlando Ridout V. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Historical Trust Press, 2001.
Architecture and Change in the Chesapeake: A Field Tour on the Eastern and Western
Shores. ed. Michael Bourne. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Historical Trust Press, 1998.
Between the Nanticoke and the Choptank: An Architectural History of Dorchester County,
Maryland. ed. Christopher Weeks. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Blumgart, Pamela James. At the Head of the Bay: A Cultural and Architectural History of
Cecil County, Maryland. Crownsville, MD: Maryland Historical Trust, 1996.
Bourne, Michael Owen. Historic Houses of Kent County: An Architectural History,
1642-1860. Chestertown, MD: The Historical Society of Kent County, 1998.
Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont. ed. Richard Guy Wilson. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
Getty, Joe. Carroll's Heritage: Essays on the Architecture of a Piedmont Maryland
County. Westminster, MD: Carroll County Commissioners and Historical Society of
Carroll County, 1987.
Hayward, Mary Ellen and Frank R. Shivers. The Architecture of Baltimore; An
Illustrated History. ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004.
Hayward, Mary E. and Charles Belfoure. The Baltimore Rowhouse. Princeton: Princeton
Architectural Press, 1999.
Haryward, Mary Ellen. “Rowhouse: A Baltimore Style of Living.” 3 Centuries
of Maryland Architecture. Maryland Historical Trust, 1982. pgs 65-79.
Herman, Bernard L. Architecture and Rural Life in Central Delaware 1700-1900. Knoxville,
TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
National Register Criteria for Evaluation (36 CFR 60.4)
The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and
culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess
integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association,
and:
Criterion A
That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad
patterns of our history; or
Criterion B
That are associated with the lives of significant persons in or past; or
Criterion C
That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction,
or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that
represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual
distinction (architecture or engineering); or
Criterion D
That have yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in history or
prehistory. (This criterion is used primarily for archaeological resources.)
The above is adapted from National Register Bulletin 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for
Evaluation, a technical bulletin published by the National Park Service and available
online.
National Register Criteria Considerations (36 CFR 60.4)
Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, graves of historical figures, properties owned by
religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from
their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, properties primarily commemorative
in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years shall
not be considered eligible for the National Register. However, such properties will qualify
if they are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria or if they fall within
the following categories:
A. A religious property deriving primary significance from architectural or
artistic distinction or historical importance; or
B. A building or structure removed from its original location but which is
primarily significant for architectural value, or which is the surviving structure most
importantly associated with a historic person or event; or
C. A birthplace or grave of a historical figure of outstanding importance if
there is no appropriate site or building associated with his or her productive life; or
D. A cemetery that derives its primary importance from graves of persons of
transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design features, or from association
with historic events; or
E. A reconstructed building when accurately executed in a suitable
environment and presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan, and
when no other building or structure with the same association has survived; or
F. A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition,
or symbolic value has invested it with its own exceptional significance; or
G. A property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it is of
exceptional importance
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