[MassHistPres] MHC State Reconnaissance Survey Reports are now available online

[Steinitz, Michael @ SEC]

The Massachusetts Historical Commission is pleased to announce that a
series of reports that have long been a key component of the
Commission's research files is now available in electronic format on the
MHC web site. 

During the 1980s the Massachusetts Historical Commission undertook a
statewide reconnaissance-level survey to establish both local and
regional contexts for historic and archaeological properties and sites
across Massachusetts.  Surveys were undertaken by an interdisciplinary
survey team and resulted in individual reports on each surveyed city and
town, a set of thematic map overlays for each city or town's USGS
topographic base map in the MHC files; and summary regional reports for
surveyed regions.  
 
Subsequent research and survey efforts have updated considerably the
levels of knowledge in many communities since the completion of these
reports two decades or more ago, and preservation planning concerns and
activities have also advanced across the state.  Yet researchers and
planners still find the thematic contexts developed in these regional
and town reports useful frameworks. Long out of print, the completed
regional reports for five regions and the town reports for seven regions
are now available as .pdf files.

Users who consult these reports should keep in mind that the information
and interpretive perspectives that they contain date to the time they
were written, and that no attempt has been made to update their content
to current levels of knowledge of the towns and regions they cover.  In
many cases, subsequent historic properties surveys, National Register
nominations and other research and documentation efforts have expanded
greatly our understanding of the both the resources and the contextual
themes discussed. 

Although this statewide reconnaissance survey was not fully completed,
Regional Reports for the Boston Area (1982), Southeast Massachusetts
(1982), Connecticut Valley (1984), Central Massachusetts (1985), and
Cape Cod and the Islands (1987) are available.  Town Reports are
available for 319 of the Commonwealth's cities and towns. 

To view these, visit the Massachusetts Historical Commission web site
(www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc).  Under "New at MHC" click on "State
Reconnaissance Survey Reports now available online".

Michael Steinitz
Director
Preservation Planning Division
Massachusetts Historical Commission
220 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02144
617-727-8470
617-727-5128 (fax)
michael.steinitz at state.ma.us