State Reconnaissance Survey Reports

The MHC’s Reconnaissance Survey Regional and Town Reports are available online. These reports are more than two decades old, and they haven’t been updated since publication.

Regional Reports

View regional survey reports for the Boston Area (1982), Southeast Massachusetts (1982), Connecticut Valley (1984), Central Massachusetts (1985), and Cape Cod and the Islands (1987).

Regional reports for Eastern Massachusetts, Essex, and the Berkshires were never completed.

Town Reports

View town survey reports for 319 of the Commonwealth's cities and towns.

Background of the Surveys

In the late 1970s, the MHC published a statewide preservation plan: Cultural Resources in Massachusetts: A Model for Management. The plan provided an interdisciplinary approach to the assessment and management of the Commonwealth's cultural resources. It measured the significance of properties and sites through broad, anthropological patterns of historical development within the state’s regions and communities. The recommendations of the Model for Management led the MHC to conduct a region-by-region reconnaissance survey in the 1980s, resulting in both town and regional survey reports.