Guide
How to find the history of a building
Start with the address. Search it with the building's name to see whether it's a listed landmark: if it is, its nomination file for the National Register of Historic Places or its local landmark report usually tells the whole story in one document. If it isn't, the history is spread across records that exist for almost every US building: the county's property and deed records, the city's building permits, fire insurance maps and old photos, city directories and census records, and old newspapers.
1. Check the landmark registers
The National Register of Historic Places has listed more than 95,000 properties since 1966. Each listing has a registration form that describes the building, its history and significance, with a bibliography, photographs and maps. The National Park Service's National Register database and research page links to them; forms for listings up to 2012 are scanned in the National Archives catalog, and newer ones are in the NPGallery database.
States keep their own inventories, which often include buildings that aren't on the National Register; ask the State Historic Preservation Office, or search its online inventory, such as Massachusetts's MACRIS. Cities with a landmarks commission publish a designation report for each landmark: New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission is one.
Archie's building database combines landmarks from Wikidata, the historic-building registers of New York City and 102 other US cities, and the statewide inventories of Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Maryland and Washington.
2. Look up the property record and the deeds
The county assessor's or property appraiser's record, usually searchable by address, gives the lot, the current owner and a year built (an estimate for many older buildings). The deeds, kept by the county recorder or, in some states, the town clerk, let you trace the owners back one sale at a time. Owners' names are what you'll search for in directories and newspapers.
3. Find the building permits
The city or county building department keeps permits for new buildings and alterations. An original permit often gives the date, the owner, the architect or builder and the estimated cost. Older permits may have moved to the city archives.
4. Look at old maps and photos
Sanborn fire insurance maps, drawn for thousands of US cities and towns from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, show each building's outline, number of stories, construction material and use. Comparing editions shows when a building appeared or grew. The Library of Congress has tens of thousands of sheets online for free, and many state libraries and universities have more.
For photos, try the local historical society and the public library. In New York City, the Municipal Archives' 1940s tax photographs, taken between 1939 and 1941, cover nearly every building in the five boroughs; the 720,000 scans are searchable online by block and lot or by address.
5. Find out who lived and worked there
City directories list residents and businesses by name, often with an address and an occupation, and some editions add a street-by-street section. US census population schedules become public 72 years after each count, so the 1950 census, released in 2022, is the latest that lists everyone at an address.
6. Search old newspapers
Search the address, the owners' names and the architect's name. Construction, sales and fires were all news. The Library of Congress's Chronicling America has digitized historic American newspapers for free, and many public libraries give card holders free access to paid newspaper archives.
7. Ask the people who keep the records
Local historical societies, the library's local history librarian and the staff of the State Historic Preservation Office answer these questions every day, and often have files that aren't online.
If you don't know the building's name
The style dates a building when nothing else does: a Queen Anne house went up between about 1875 and 1905, an Art Deco tower between about 1925 and 1940. See how to identify a building's architectural style, or photograph it with Archie, which names the style and, when it can check the match, the building.
Questions
Is there an app that tells you the history of a building?
Archie, an iPhone app, names a building from a photo when it can check the match against 1,755,352 buildings, then writes its history from the building's Wikipedia article or, when there's none, from web pages about it and its register record, with links to what it used. It also names the style, which dates the building when nothing else does.
How can I find out who designed or built my house?
Try the original building permit first: permits often name the architect or builder. Then the house's National Register or local landmark file if it has one, the deeds, which name the first owner, and newspaper real estate columns from the year it was built.
Where can I find old photos of a building?
Ask the local historical society and the public library's local history room. City archives sometimes hold whole photo surveys: New York's Municipal Archives photographed nearly every building in the five boroughs between 1939 and 1941 for tax assessment. For recent decades, Google Street View keeps earlier imagery for many streets.