by Lisa Pfueller Davidson and Martin J. Perschler

In April 1934, a Department of the Interior press release promoted “a black-and-white review of American Architecture which will divide the country into 39 units, each competing for the cherished honor of being acclaimed the home of the Nation’s most perfect development of the builders’ art.” The Smithsonian Institution hosted this exhibit of selected drawings, photographs, and historical information gathered by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) since the program’s inception the previous December. While the competitive language of the press release seems rather dramatic, the premiere exhibit by a Federal architectural documentation program was indeed a noteworthy event.(1)

The creation of HABS was a major turning point in the decades-old study of early American architecture and a reflection of the growing interest in examining American cultural patterns and the expanding role of the Federal Government in such endeavors. The program is well-known in preservation circles, but the circumstances and events surrounding its early years are not. This essay looks at the development of the program’s standards and methodology, and the immediate testing and adjustment of these policies by the various district offices, and proposes some reasons for the program’s enthusiastic reception and continued survival.

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