HOW THE NATIONAL REGISTER LOOKS AT A HISTORIC PROPERTY
AND EVALUATES INTEGRITY
A National Register description of a property –
the heart of a National Register nomination -- is a “word picture” of a property
that is used to evaluate the significance of a property. Since your photographs
of the property should include the information needed to write a description of
the property, you should be familiar with the National Register guidelines for
describing properties. It makes a useful checklist for insuring that you have
documented the features of a building that constitute its important features and
basis for determining integrity.
The guidelines for a National Register description of buildings, structures, and
objects begin by describing the type of building such as dwelling, church, or
commercial block. The description is organized to go from the general to the
specific starting with the setting of the property, which is the larger
environmental context of the property. This may include an agricultural
landscape, small town, or city neighborhood. The description then focuses on the
building as a whole, its general characteristics, and then architectural
features, and finally decorative elements.
In addressing the building as a whole, the guidelines describe the overall shape
and plan of the building and then move on to describe details such as the roof
shape, the number of stories, and the number of bays or vertical divisions. They
also describes construction materials such as brick, including the type of
coursing. Finally, they describe the structural system, such a balloon frame, or
post and beam construction.
Under normal circumstances for an undamaged
building, attributes such as the underlying construction system would not be
visible. Ironically, post-disaster documentation of damaged structures may
provide you with opportunities to see and document aspects of construction not
otherwise visible. It is important to photograph damage not only for purposes of
damage assessment but also to understand the historic fabric of the building.
At the next level of detail, the National
Register Guidelines ask that the property description detail specific
architectural features. These include porches, verandas, porticos, stoops, and
attached sheds. (Verandas and porticos are types of porches and a stoop is the
front steps of an urban row house.) They also include such items as windows,
doors, chimneys and dormers. At the smallest scale, the guidelines request the
description of important decorative elements, such as finials, pilasters,
bargeboards, brackets, half timbering, sculptural relief, balustrades,
corbelling, cartouches, and murals or mosaics.
(But do not worry if you do not know the names of
architectural features and details. Decorative elements are used to emphasize
certain aspects of the design of a building. Bargeboard, for example, are
decorated boards, often with a jig saw pattern, attached to the roof eaves of
Victorian buildings to emphasize the steep pitch of the roof. Corbelling is
fancy brickwork in which the bricks are laid to form shapes. The rule of thumb
would be that if something attracts your attention as an significant decorative
aspect of a building, photograph it and let the historical preservation
specialists evaluate it.)
At one level, all of these exterior features are
visible in the overall photographs. But they need to be photographed in more
detail when they are major elements of the structure or contain important
details that cannot be read from a distance and convey important information
about materials or craftsmanship. For example, while it could be determined from
a general perspective photograph that a building was constructed of brick, it
might require a close-up, detail photograph to determine the brick course as
well as the nature of the bricks themselves.
In evaluating a building for photographic
documentation, you should first define the overall distinguishing features, and
then the major architectural features, drawing on the outline used by the
National Register.
As we have said, “integrity” simply means that a
building should look much like it did when it was built or during the period for
which it is considered historically significant. The National Register defines
integrity as “the ability of a property to convey its significance.”
And again, you will be looking to record the quality
of physical integrity of a building as reflected in seven aspects: 1) location,
2) design, 3) setting, 4) materials, 5) workmanship, 6) feeling, and
7) association.5 A resource must have retained at least three of the seven
aspects to have integrity. From your photographs, a qualified historic
preservationist or architectural historian will determine whether the essential
physical features of an historic property are present and visible enough to
convey its significance, determine whether the property needs to be compared to
other properties, and determine which aspects of integrity are particularly
vital to the property’s significance.
An HP Specialist determines integrity in three
steps:
1. Defines the essential physical features that must be
present for a property to present its significance;
2. Determines whether the essential physical features
are visible, and
3. Determines which three aspects on integrity are
strong enough to meet the criteria of integrity.
If the purpose of architectural photographic
documentation is to preserve as much visual information about an historic
resource as possible in as few photographs as possible, when you plan your
photographs you want to try to include several aspects of integrity in each
photograph. An overall environmental photograph, for example, will show aspects
of integrity like location, setting, and feeling as the building relates to its
site and larger landscape. In the environmental photograph you see the overall
design of the building and how it is part of the landscape; it is the closer
photographs, such as an elevation, that more clearly portray the detailed design
of the structure, its architectural elements, and begin to capture materials.
As you move in closer, views document details of design, materials and
especially craftsmanship.
When FEMA assesses the integrity of damaged
buildings, the central question is often whether or not there is enough of the
building left to retain integrity. In the aftermath of natural disaster, damage
to a property’s integrity ranges from total damage to minimal damage.
Good architectural photography not only records
the objective aspects of a building, but how
people experience the building. Photographs that do the former are called
objective photographs and those that accomplish the latter are called
experiential photographs. The experience of a historic property is also an
aspect of integrity called “feeling” -- how people experience it emotionally,
and what feelings it evokes in them. Feeling can be a response to
aesthetic qualities such as the colors and textures in a Victorian house or a
sense of delight from the intricate whimsy of a Carpenter Gothic porch.
Conversely, you can be awed by the size and dignity of a monumental Classical
building. In the landscape, it can also be the sense of history one gets in the
early morning on a Civil War battlefield, feeling the place as the soldiers did
as they waited for battle.
A perspective photograph, for example, can be
considered experiential because it is “an oblique view that brings textured
surfaces close to the camera and draws the viewer into the experience of the
buildings . . .”6 The head-on elevation offers a more factual, objective view.
The point is that when you, as a FEMA photographer, approach a building or go
into it for the first time, you need to be aware of how you experience the
building, and ask yourself what are the physical aspects of the structure that
causes emotion. These are the views that will convey the integrity aspects of
feeling and association.
Other aspects of integrity such as design,
materials and workmanship are best documented in more objective photographs. The
elevation photograph is a more objective presentation of the design of a
structure than a perspective photograph. So as you plan your photographic
consider what aspects require more objective photographs and which call for a
more experiential approach.
Setting is the actual physical environment of an
historic property and includes such things as topographic features, vegetation,
manmade features, and relationships between buildings and other features.
Photographs best document setting with wide-angle views showing the historic
property as a small part of the larger landscape. If there are groups of
buildings, such as a farm complex, or a residential neighborhood, the
photographer should find a perspective that shows how the buildings are related.
It is useful to take environmental photographs from at least three compass
directions. The best setting photographs are taken from a high angle if
possible.
Location is the place where the historic property
was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred. Location,
however, is a more abstract aspect of integrity than setting since in order to
retain integrity of location the historic property must be in the same site in
which it was constructed. Since this is determined through archival research
and not in the field, it is not something that can be documented
photographically. If there is question whether an historic property has been
moved, preservationists may be able to determine the original location by
comparing a contemporary photograph of the setting to an historic one.
For photographic purposes,
design, materials, and
workmanship can be considered together because they are the aspects of integrity
that are integrated to create the physical property. Design encompasses the
property itself and is the combination of elements that create the form, plan,
space, structure, and style of a property. Materials are the physical elements
that were combined (or deposited) during a particular period of time to form a
historic property.
Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of
a particular culture or people during any given period in history or prehistory.
Design reflects the historic functions and
technologies of an historic property as well as its aesthetics. These historic
functions refer to how a building was designed to perform or fulfill its
historic function. A humble corncrib, for example, was designed with slated
walls to provide ventilation to fulfill its function to dry corn. Design also
includes the structural system of the building; the shape and massing of the
form of the building, arrangement of interior spaces; pattern of windows and
doors or fenestration. It also includes on both the exterior and interiors that
textures and colors of surface materials; the type, amount, and style of
ornamental detailing; and the arrangement and type of plantings.
Design also applies to districts and landscapes as
well as to buildings, structures, and objects. In districts, design applies to
the way in which buildings, sites, or structures are related in the geographical
relationships between major features, how a designed landscape is laid out,
visual rhythms in a streetscape, such as the intervals between houses or the
length of blocks, or landscape plantings, and the layout of walkways and roads.
The choice and combinations of materials with which
the design was executed reveal the preferences of those who created the property
and indicate the availability of particular types of materials and technologies.
To retain integrity of materials, a property must retain the key exterior
materials dating from the period of historic significance.
Workmanship is the evidence of the crafts of a
particular culture or people who created the historic property. Applied to the
both the property as a whole or its individual components, it is the evidence of
the artisans’ labor and skill in constructing or altering a building, structure,
object, or site. It can reflect vernacular traditions or innovative techniques
of the period. Examples of workmanship in historic buildings include tooling,
carving, painting, graining, turning and joinery.
Feeling is a property’s feeling of the aesthetic or
historic sense of a particular period of time. Feeling is the culmination of the
several aspects of integrity; the feeling of rationality and order of a
neoclassical building is reflected in all aspects of a building and site from
the rectilinear bricks to symmetrical façade and floor plan to the studied
precision of the woodwork and decoration. Feeling is best captured in
experiential photographs. You will get you best sense of the feeling of a
property after you are well into photographing it and then you need to trust
your instincts and photograph what evokes your feelings about a property.
Association is the direct link between an important
historic event or person and a historic property. A property retains association
if it is the place where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently
intact to convey that relationship to an observer.
Environmental Views
Environmental views document location, setting,
and design and can convey important aspects of feeling and association. Although
one environmental view showing the front of the property can be adequate, two or
three are much better. When taking environmental views it is good to get as high
a vantage point as possible. This may be a nearby hill, the upper floors in
nearby buildings – especially in a town or city setting – or even standing on
top of a truck bed or van. The high perspective can show the layout and design
of surrounding site.
The environmental view should show topographic
features, vegetation, manmade features, and the relationship between other
features and open spaces. An environmental view that shows how a property is
approached can convey feeling and design as it shows the relationship between
the building and the landscape.
If you take more than one environmental view,
however, justify each in terms of what it shows about the property and record it
in your caption notes.
Overall Views of Property
Perspective views. - Perspective views are the most
important views for determining integrity because they contain the most
information since they show the building as a three-dimensional object. Although
two perspective photographs are adequate, four perspective photographs -- one
from each corner -- should be taken if time allows. The test for the number of
perspective photographs needed is that all outside walls should be visible in at
least one photograph.
Figure 15:
Perspective and elevation views in disaster situation. While the
perspective view documents the design of and damage to the property, the
elevation view shows the relation of the house to 1st floor and the distance it
was displaced. (901 Middle Street, Sullivan's Island damage from Hurricane
Hugo, 1989)
Elevation views. - Since elevation photographs show true
proportion they are very valuable for evaluating some design aspects of a
building or structure. In addition to the required elevation of the front
façade, additional elevations should be taken of other sides that contain
significant design features or architectural decoration. Elevations are
especially important in documenting symmetrical and asymmetrical designs such as
Federal or Italianate respectively.
Views of Architectural Features and Details of the
Property. - This level
documents the important features, or subcomponents, of a building or structure
and the most detailed elements such as materials and workmanship. These views
are important in documenting the materials and workmanship aspects of integrity
in addition to smaller scale design features. Photographically, one emphasizes a
feature of property by taking a photograph of that element and isolating it.
However, it is important to show some surrounding area to demonstrate the
feature to which it relates. For example, by showing only a window, one can see
the window in detail but cannot relate it to the rest of the structure – in
short the window “floats” out of context. To correct this you should expand the
area being photographed to include the recognizable edge of an adjacent feature
such as a door, another window or a belt course.
Figure 16:
You should try to capture as many aspects of integrity as possible. This
slight perspective is close enough to evaluate the design aspect and damage to
the building, yet just wide enough to document its urban setting. (Tornado
damage, Petersburg, Va.)
Major projecting features of buildings should be
photographed and usually with a perspective view since that shows their three
dimensional form. Door and window surrounds, as well as materials can be well
documented with the head-on elevation approach. Examples of workmanship include
tooling, carving, painting, graining, turning, and joinery. They are also
evident in framing and how a structure is put together.
Continue
with
4) OPERATING POST-DISASTER
