Historic American Building Survey (HABS) Papers

Collection

Identifier: MG HABS-(Offsite)

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 3 boxes and 3 file drawers of material related to historic buildings in New Jersey, including completed survey forms (1934-1942) and completed worksheets (1961); 1 volume: "Descriptive Narrative Report of the Historic American Buildings Survey in New Jersey"; and a small amount of correspondence, clippings, notebooks, and photographs.

The three file cabinet drawers contain photocopies of architectural drawings of historic New Jersey buildings. The drawings consist of elevations, floor plans, and sketches of decorative elements including moldings, doors, mantels, etc.

Newark-related material can be found in Box 1, and in the file cabinet.

Box 1:

Copies of completed worksheets for the New Jersey Historical Sites Evaluation (1961) for the following Newark buildings: South Park Presbyterian Church, Lyons Farm School House, Stephen Crane birthplace, Wickliffe Street School, First Methodist Church, Trinity Cathedral, Rectory of House of Prayer (Plume House), House of Prayer Episcopal Church, First Presbyterian Church (Old First), St. John's Church, Sydenham House, and Grace Episcopal Church. Information on the worksheets includes original and present owners, original and present use, period, style, architect, construction, notable features, historical significance and description, physical condition, possible use, neighborhood, available files (drawings, photographs, reports, research files), references, and name and occupation of the recorder who completed the worksheet, which in every case was either Miriam V. Studley or Gertrude Cahalan.

A copy of the completed National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Trinity Church (1971), and a history of the House of Prayer's Rectory (the Plume House) by Douglas Eldridge

A diagram, or "plot plan," and a history (but no survey) of the Rectory of the House of Prayer Church and Chancellor Avenue School; background information regarding the "Descriptive Narrative Report of the Historic American Buildings Survey in New Jersey," including an overview of the New Jersey HABS project by Herbert N. Moffett, and a list of personnel, by county, and those who were based in the HABS headquarters in Newark (1939); and a "Working List" of buildings to be surveyed in New Jersey, by county, including the Sydenham House, Old First Presbyterian, the Rectory of the House of Prayer, Lyons Farm School House, Kearny House, Old Wallace House, Johnson's Mill, and the Elisha Boudinot House in Newark

File Cabinet:

Includes 10 files of HABS architectural drawings of Newark buildings: Old First Presbyterian Church;

Trinity Church; the Alling House, the Carter House, the Lloyd House, the Nichols House, the Pierson House, the Plume House, and the Sydenham House; and Lyons Farm School House [an empty file].

Dates

1934 - 1971

Creator

Historic American Buildings Survey (Organization)

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff. Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.

Biographical / Historical

The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) was begun in 1933 by the National Parks Service in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects and the Library of Congress. The purpose of the HABS was to assemble a national archive of historic American architecture. The survey continued throughout the 1930s, and a great quantity of photographs, measured drawings, and written data was collected and stored at the Library of Congress. The program was discontinued at the start of World War II, but was begun again in 1957. It is still in existence, and has become one of the largest national collections on historic architecture ever assembled.

From 1934 through 1942 approximately 700 Historic American Buildings Surveys (HABS) were completed in New Jersey. Initially the survey program was funded by the State of New Jersey Relief Administration, located on 20 Washington Place, but in 1936 the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) took over the survey. The state headquarters for HABS was 744 Broad Street. Seymour Williams, A.I.A., was the state supervisor for the project; among the personnel employed in the Newark office in 1939 were 2 county supervisors, 1 historian (C.M. Reinhardt), 15 architects, 17 draftsmen, and 1 clerk.

Each survey notes the current owner, current occupants, date of erection, architect, builder, present condition, number of stories, materials of construction, historical data (derived from title searches, probate records, histories, etc.), and references or a bibliography; correspondence or building plans are attached to a few of the surveys. Each survey is signed by a supervising historian, and completed surveys were filed with the Library of Congress. The surveys are numbered in the order in which they were conducted, but are filed, roughly alphabetically, by town or municipality.

NOTE: In 1961 Miriam V. Studley and Gertrude Cahalan, both members of the Newark Historic Sites and Buildings Committee and librarians at Newark Public Library, completed worksheets regarding Newark buildings for the New Jersey Historical Sites Evaluation (NJHSE). Their worksheets, and a few later items, are included in the HABS collection (Box 1).