Architectural Survey Records & Reports

Architectural Survey Records
Survey files, containing written materials and photographs and organized by county, are maintained at the Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office, in Raleigh and at the Western Office of the Office of Archives and History, along with survey project reports and detailed maps showing the location of every recorded property. The survey database is organized by county, property name, and site number. The extensive collection of survey files, maps, photographs, and reports constitutes a research and reference source on the state's architecture and history, as well as providing private citizens, preservation organizations, and government agencies with a guide to the historic places that merit recognition and protection. All designated properties and districts and most surveyed properties have been mapped in a Geographic Information System (GIS) which is available to the public online at http://gis.ncdcr.gov/hpoweb. Survey records are also available in local repositories.

The HPO is systematically posting architectural survey reports that have not been edited for survey publication manuscripts. All survey reports that have been submitted digitally (those written since ca. 2004) are posted. Earlier reports for surveys that have not been published, some prepared as a National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, are being scanned and posted as time permits. Some of the reports prepared as MPDFs have not been submitted to the National Register; most of those that have been accepted by the National Register were submitted at least a year after the survey was completed and thus have dates on the MPDF that are different from the end date of the survey shown below.

Architectural Survey Reports
An important component of every architectural survey is the report that is prepared at the end of the project. The survey report describes and analyzes the historic architecture of the survey area within relevant historic contexts. Over the many years of the State Historic Preservation Office’s survey program, the reports have taken a number of forms. Some of the reports have separate sections on the survey area’s architecture and history while other blend the discussions of the area’s historical and architectural development. From the mid-1980s into the first decade of the twenty-first century, most of the reports were prepared as a Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF), a National Park Service “cover” report that presents an area’s historic contexts and property types in a manner that simplifies the future preparation of National Register of Historic Places nominations for properties identified by the survey as potentially eligible for National Register listing. All of the reports are on file at the State Historic Preservation Office. Reports that were prepared in a digital format (from ca. 2004 to the present) and have not been published are posted on this web site; earlier reports for unpublished surveys, including those prepared as MPDFs, are being scanned and posted as time permits.(Click here to access PDFs of survey reports posted thus far; click here to access PDFs of MPDFs posted thus far.)

Reports for county and municipal surveys are listed alphabetically by county and survey area. A report for a thematic study confined to a single county is also included with the list for that county. All thematic and multi-county reports are listed as thematic projects after the county and municipal surveys.

See also the Multiple Property Documentation Form list for those counties for which MPDFs have been prepared and are posted online.

*** December 2020 update: the HPO has entered an agreement with the State Archives to make these reports available through the North Carolina Digital Collections. Until all of the reports are scanned and added to the collection, we will maintain the list and links found below. ***

ALAMANCE COUNTY
Alamance County Architectural Heritage (1980 Survey)
Alamance County Survey Update (Historic Contexts), 2002
Alamance County Survey Update (Property Types), 2002
Alamance County Architectural Inventory, 2014, posted by the Alamance County Historic Properties Commission
West Burlington Architectural Survey Update, 2021

ALEXANDER COUNTY
Alexander County Survey, 1987

ASHE COUNTY
Ashe County Survey, 2008

BEAUFORT COUNTY
Beaufort County Municipalities Survey, 2009
Comprehensive Architectural Survey of Beaufort County: Phases II and III (Rural) FinalReport

BERTIE COUNTY
Bertie County Survey, 2010

BRUNSWICK COUNTY
Brunswick County Survey, 2010

BUNCOMBE COUNTY
Asheville Architectural Survey Update, Phase I, 2011
Asheville Architectural Survey Update, Phase II, 2011
Black Mountain Survey, 2007

CALDWELL COUNTY
Caldwell County Survey, 1987
City of Lenoir Survey, 2018

CARTERET COUNTY
Carteret County Survey, 2012

CATAWBA COUNTY
Hickory Survey Update, 2015

CLEVELAND COUNTY
Cleveland County Architectural Survey Update of Historic Resources from 1945 to 1975, 2019

COLUMBUS COUNTY
Columbus County Reconnaissance Survey, 1998