Texas Historic Sites Inventory Commercial Property
This database contains more than 250 documents, recently recorded and submitted to the THC, detailing commercial properties in the historic downtown districts of College Station, Denton, Elgin, Newton, and San Marcos. Many of the properties included are turn-of-the-century, and several churches, cemeteries, and civic buildings are covered.
Data from this survey can be located in neighborhood surveys of Bastrop, Brazos, Denton, Hays, and Newton Counties and is recognizable by the "NRSCP" prefix in the site serial number.
What will I find?
Identifying information available for each site includes serial number, county, site number, USGS quad number, UTM coordinates, and city/rural designation; factual or estimated date of construction and additions; historic name, property address, architect/builder, contractor, owner, historic use, legal description, present use; property type, subtype, and stylistic influence; notations on integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, association, and feeling.
History of property, areas of significance, and bibliography are also included as are surveyor's name and date, photo/slide information, historic designations (National Register, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, Historic Areas Building Survey, local, and other), and original/moved location.
Descriptive information includes direction building faces; number of stories; construction (stone, brick, or other); plan (open or other); exterior walls (stone, stone-type, stucco, red brick, bluff brick, polychromatic brick, wood siding, terra cotta, party wall, other); ground floor structures (no. of bays, symmetrically/asymmetrically arranged, cast iron pilasters, fixed sash display windows, aluminum sash, single door/double door/recessed central entry, stairway door, transom, canopy); rear elevation (on alley, loading dock, loading door, windows, other); upper floor (no. of bays, flat-arched, segmentally arched, round-arched, hood moldings, lintels, wood sash, aluminum sash, metal casement windows, light configuration, other); parapets (no. of parts, corbelled brickwork, decorative brick, metal letters, brick letters, pressed metal cornice, painted detailing, date and name, description); and roof (hipped, gable, flat, materials, chimneys or flues, and other).
How can I use it?
Though limited in scope to several small historic communities and somewhat daunting to interpret because of the absence of descriptive summary, this survey provides detailed architectural information and valuable historical data for those communities.