I’ve done several related projects for the DC Historic Preservation Office over the years. I worked up a couple of map-based neighborhood histories for them: one of Brightwood and one of Tenleytown. These were developed as Powerpoint presentations and the text is not included here. I have presented the Tenleytown show to the Tenleytown Historical Society.
I made a neighborhood map which can be seen in the Ward 1 Heritage Guide and contributed several maps to the Ward 4 Heritage Guide and the Ward 5 Heritage Guide, as seen below.
My use of GIS to survey buildings proved efficient and accurate, so after we made the Building Permits Database HPO had me survey or re-survey most of the city’s historic districts and map them. Some of DC’s historic districts, like the sprawling Capitol Hill district, had never been surveyed by architectural historians. My survey work is not as thorough as an architectural historian’s, but is efficient and accurate, as far as it goes. I discuss that work in this video of my presentation at Mount Vernon in 2016.
This process brought new insights into long-existing historic districts and allowed HPO to better communicate the histories and necessities associated with these areas. Typical maps created during this process are shown above and below.
