Statewide and Regional Architectural Survey Publications

A hallmark of North Carolina's statewide preservation program is the publication of local architectural surveys. The survey report and the written summary on each surveyed property are edited and sometimes expanded with additional research, illustrated with survey and documentary photographs, and augmented with “front and back material” including a preface and glossary to produce the manuscripts for these publications. Because of the lasting public value of survey publications as popular, accessible sources of knowledge about each community's unique heritage, the statewide survey program emphasizes publication as a primary goal of any survey project. To date, 53 county surveys and 37 municipal surveys have been published.(Click here to see a list of publications)

Most of these are books of several hundred pages offering a fully illustrated overview of local history an architectural development plus a catalog depicting and describing significant individual properties and neighborhoods. Thematic studies of courthouses, industrial complexes, truss bridges, early twentieth- century suburbs, and other topics have been published.  In addition, several major books by HPO staff have grown out of the statewide survey, including North Carolina Architecture (1990), A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996), A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Western North Carolina (1999), and A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Piedmont North Carolina (2003). A number of these publications have won national prizes for excellence.