Pyramids in desert and jungle, ancient aqueducts in modern cities, stone walls in forested spaces, and cellar holes in unoccupied areas are examples of the relics of the built environment which reflect the interaction of culture and physical environment from times past. Bridges, skyscrapers, mammoth dams, houses of worship, and airports exemplify the interaction of culture and physical environment in our own times and places.
In understanding the built environment, it is important to consider the symbiotic relationship among the professions of architect, archaeologist, and archivist through time. The architect, as designer and builder, acts to create the man-made environment, giving our expressed needs shape and form. The archaeologist, as an explorer and analyst, investigates, discovers, and interprets the meaning of the man-made environments of different times and places. The archivist, as a hunter and gatherer of information, holds the documentary desiderata of those who have shared in the creation of the man- made environment, making the same available to those who will plan and build for the future, as well as those who would better know the past.
The documents by which the built environment is known have many points of importance. Among them would be the practical uses to which they can be put in the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of our buildings, roads, bridges, and other physical facilities. Additionally, they help us as cultural analysts to interpret and understand buildings and other physical features in relation to the cultures which have created them. Records of the built environment also reveal the thought processes which have contributed to the design of these aspects of our material culture. Such materials become one of the avenues by which we can study cultures, past and present. Records of the built environment also will often have artistic merit, making them valuable for their aesthetic content.
For the purposes of this Guide, built environment is defined to include buildings, roads, bridges, monuments, man- made landscapes, docks, and other physical facilities. Excluded are records documenting the natural environment and general landscape.
This Guide is one further step in continuing efforts to bring out more information about the holdings of the Massachusetts Archives. It was prepared in conjunction with a seminar on records of the built environment held at the Massachusetts Archives on March 4, 1993. The seminar was cosponsored by the Archives and the Massachusetts Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records (MassCOPAR) and organized by Kathryn Hammond-Baker, Assistant Archivist for Acquisitions and Records Management. The Guide is the beneficiary of previous work performed during the course of the Government Records Project (see INTRODUCTION) and its aftermath. The efforts of Ms. Hammond-Baker, Nancy Richard, Curator of the Archives, and Wallace Dailey, Processing Archivist for Quality Control, have been critical to the quality and successful completion of this Guide.
Albert H. Whitaker, Jr.
Archivist of the Commonwealth
In fulfilling these responsibilities, the Archives, with the assistance of the RMU, undertakes the following activities:
The holdings of the Massachusetts Archives feature an unparalleled assortment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century materials. Prominent among these is the Massachusetts Archives Collection (otherwise known as the "Felt Collection") which consists of three hundred and twenty-eight books with approximately 350,000 primary documents. Also noteworthy is the collection of maps and plans dating from 1642 to the present. Other important records series stretching back to this period include those originating with the General Court and the Executive Council. Each of these records series contains information about the built environment as will be detailed within.
Of course, records of a more recent vintage contain even a greater volume and variety of information about the man-made environment. Examples include the records of the Department of Public Works, the Metropolitan District Commission, and the Waterways Division. Records originating with these agencies represent the growing involvement of state government, during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the development of what has loosely come to be termed infrastructure. These typify, but do not exhaust, the types of material relevant to this subject in the holdings of the Massachusetts Archives.
The Archives not only holds records containing information of relevance to the built environment, it has had a noteworthy effect on that environment. In 1986, the Archives moved to a new facility at Columbia Point created for the express purpose of housing and servicing archival materials. This move has strengthened the operations of the Archives immensely; practices relating to survey, description, acquisitions, security, and preservation have all been subject to progressive change as a result of the new facility. The building also provides a comfortable circumstance for the conduct of research. Significantly, the new Archives facility has been a part of a larger rejuvenation of the Columbia Point community.
Actually, the role played by state government in changes at Columbia Point during the 1970's and 1980's demonstrates the pervasive influence government has had on the built environment through intervention at all levels. Both as a promoter and a regulator, government profoundly affects the course of the built environment. Public works projects, capital investments, and code enforcement are characteristic of the points at which government and the built environment intersect.
As government and the built environment intersect, information accumulates and records are created. Permits, licenses, drawings, plans, maps, photographs, and specifications are examples of the recorded information created and held by government agencies as they interact with activities surrounding the built environment.
In Massachusetts, this interplay is evident in the earliest period of the settlement experience of Massachusetts Bay. Colonial officials quickly became involved in building roads and bridges, promoting the creation of market centers and wharf facilities, and the regulation of building materials. This interest and activity of government in the circumstances of the built environment has only intensified in Massachusetts over the past three and one-half centuries.
Despite this evolving tradition of government interaction with the built environment, the holding and preservation of government records pertaining to the subject did not keep pace. Until recently, no jurisdiction in Massachusetts had clear and coherent practices relating to records detailing developments in the built environment. Only with the preparation and implementation of records retention/disposition schedules over the past quarter-century has some measure of regularity been extended to the planned retention of such records in local jurisdictions and state agencies. Indeed, not until the 1980's did the Massachusetts Archives take steps to comprehensively gather and describe records of this genre.
The Massachusetts Archives had long held records containing information relevant to the built environment; the records of the General Court and the Executive Council are representative of early records in which such information is scattered throughout. Similarly, one can find such information in the Felt Collection, as well. Military records of all eras contain some information about fortifications, transportation, and harbor improvements. Many other examples abound of such material in the Massachusetts Archives from which information about the built environment can be gleaned.
The operative word, however, is "glean." Until the 1980's, the interested researcher would, of necessity, have to search assiduously for such material. Before that time, neither the acquisitions policies nor the descriptive practices of the Archives would make the search easy; researchers would need to have specific knowledge of state agencies, their permutations through time, and how these factors related to the holdings of the Archives to be able to gather information successfully.
During the 1980's, these circumstances changed. First, acquisition interests were broadened both horizontally and vertically with the result that records of greater chronological and subject variety began to be added to the holdings of the Archives. In terms of this genre of information, the change was manifest most dramatically by the acquisition of a large plan file. Consisting of over 40,000 rolled plans originating with the Department of Public Safety, the sheer size and dedicated nature of this aggregation required the Archives to consider more closely the role it might play in the management of records pertaining to the built environment. At roughly the same time, records from other sources, including photographs derived from highway and water development projects, came into the Archives, adding to the base of such records.
Descriptive practice also was subject to change which brought out more fully the relevance of certain of the holdings of the Archives to the evolution of the built environment and made their discovery by researchers easier. In 1986, the Massachusetts Archives became a participant in the Government Records Project (GRP), a federally-funded project designed to improve archival descriptive conventions and to foster comparative appraisal techniques by entering descriptions of archival materials in the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN), a national bibliographic database. Outcomes of that project in the Massachusetts Archives have included the implementation of automated description and the cultivation of enhanced access to its holdings via subject entries.
This Guide is the most recent benchmark of that process. As with other finding aids, its principal purpose is to improve access to information, in this case, information relating to the built environment. Its scope extends to such records as have been created or held by state agencies and identified by records retention/disposition schedules as being of long-term value. While many of the records series detailed in this Guide are among the holdings of the Massachusetts Archives, others remain in the possession of the originating agency. In this respect, the Guide offers a source of information about state records pertinent to the built environment regardless of location. Agency records that have not yet been identified and scheduled could not be included in the Guide; these records will be described as they are scheduled in the future.
The body of the Guide consists of histories of state agencies and their predecessors, as well as the descriptions of relevant records series. Agency histories provide the user with information about the chronology, statutory basis, and functional attributes of agencies with records represented in the Guide. Series descriptions follow the USMARC (machine readable cataloging) AMC (archival and manuscripts control) format and are indexed by Library of Congress subject headings. The descriptions contain sufficient data to permit a user to determine how a particular records series may fit research needs.
Also available in the Archives are some records about records. Some of these will hold leads relative to information about the built environment. The most comprehensive of these is the RLIN database, in which will be found bibliographic information about the major share of records held by the Archives. Similarly, the files of the Records Conservation Board offer information about records across the spectrum of state agencies where retention/disposition schedules have been prepared and employed.
At various times, records surveys have yielded files which also provide information about records in various settings. The Historic Records Survey (HRS), undertaken by the WPA, includes data about records and organizations at the local level, some part of which involves building surveys. Of more recent vintage, the survey files of the Records Management Unit (RMU) contain considerable information about public records and the physical properties of those public buildings in which records are housed.
Users also will do well to consult other sources and organizations as well; this Guide does not exhaust all sources of information about records relating to the built environment in the hands of government. Some records series in the Archives contain such information on an incidental and fragmented basis; they are not represented here. Moreover, valuable information may be found in printed information held by other state agencies, as well as in records held by local jurisdictions.
Among its holdings of government publications are ANNUAL REPORTS of state agencies, in many cases from the agency's inception. Reports may contain illustrations of buildings, interiors, and grounds, as well as information about construction programs, purchase of equipment, and other information that may add useful detail to information found elsewhere. Of particular interest are reports issued by the State House Commission, State House Construction Commission, and the Commissioners for Enlargement of the State House. Also appropriate for research on the built environment are the library's reports and other documents from the State Board of Docks and Terminal Facilities, the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners, the Commissioners on the Back Bay, and the Board of Harbor Commissioners. Many reports included MAPS; the library has removed some of these and cataloged them individually for preservation purposes. The library maintains a complete collection of the BOUNDARY ATLASES prepared by the Topographical Survey Commission. The library continues to be the best source for annual reports, printed maps, and other publications of modern state agencies involved with the built environment, including the Metropolitan District Commission, MetroParks, and the Coastal Zone Management Office.
Also of interest is the library's collection of LEGISLATIVE DOCUMENTS from the late 1700's to the present. The documents contain all pieces of legislation considered by the legislature. Especially in the nineteenth century, reports from many sources were submitted to the General Court, resulting in over 15,000 documents on the political, economic, and social life of the Commonwealth. A detailed index, Index and Guide to Massachusetts State Legislative Documents, 1802-1882, updated through 1899, is available in the library. Reports of railroad companies, state commissions, and state agencies are often included among these documents; building plans and illustrations of state properties were frequently appended to these reports.
The library has an extensive collection of PHOTOGRAPHS, ILLUSTRATIONS, and PRINTED MATERIALS about the State House, as well as ARCHITECTURAL PLANS from the various additions and renovations to the building. This is an ongoing collection; materials are added as acquired.
The library holds an extensive collection of railroad materials, the result of nineteenth-century government regulation of the developing railroad industry. This collection includes approximately 280 manuscript MAPS and PLANS of both proposed and built railroads in Massachusetts from 1828 through the 1890's. Many maps are accompanied by ENGINEERS' REPORTS AND SURVEYS. A detailed list of maps was compiled by Peter Stott; the list is organized by name of railroad company and name of engineer/surveyor. Also included in the collection are ANNUAL REPORTS of railroad companies.
The library collects commercial and non-state publications which supplement its state government holdings. These include CITY DIRECTORIES, SANBORN COMPANY FIRE INSURANCE MAPS, ATLASES, and printed MAPS. The library's comprehensive collection of city directories begins with the first Boston directory of 1789. In addition to lists of residents, directories provide a wealth of information on businesses, public officials, and social and civic organizations within each community. The advertising sections of most directories include illustrations of local business establishments. A detailed list of the directories held by the library and a list of buildings depicted in the advertising sections of the Boston directories are available in the Special Collections Department.
SANBORN MAPS, produced to serve the fire underwriting industry, contain information on the physical design and construction of buildings and streets, including size, shape, and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories, width and names of streets, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. The library's collection of maps covers over 100 communities in Massachusetts from 1867 to 1985.
Commercial ATLASES contain information on building location and use and can be used to establish a building's owner of record. The library holds approximately 400 atlases from the 1870's through the 1930's. Coverage includes atlases of the state, counties, and individual communities. Most of these atlases indicate property holders, structures existing on property sites, public buildings, railroads, etc. Many city and town atlases also have sketches of significant public and private buildings within the community. Noted publishers include George W. and Walter S. Bromley, George H. Walker & Co., G.M. Hopkins, and D.G. Beers.
The library holds approximately 2600 printed MAPS of Massachusetts, its counties, and communities, eighteenth century to date. Maps in this collection have been gathered from many publishers and sources, with comprehensive coverage for Massachusetts as a goal. Of particular interest are the county land ownership maps, done in the 1850's and 1860's; these give detailed coverage of political boundaries, roads, railroads, industrial sites, houses and names of residents, as well as physical features. Very detailed plans of the communities within a specific county often appear as insets on these maps, as well as views of important public and private buildings.
Since its inception in 1826, the library has collected extensively in the area of Massachusetts local history. In addition to published histories about Massachusetts communities, the collection also includes CITY AND TOWN ANNUAL REPORTS, BROCHURES and PAMPHLETS commemorating anniversaries and other significant events in the community's history, NEWSLETTERS and REPORTS of local historical societies, etc.
The library is open to the public. For more information contact the Special Collections Department of the State Library at (617) 727-2595.
While sometimes co-located with county Registries of Deeds, Land Courts are a part of the court system. Land Court records may be helpful in establishing property ownership, boundaries, and zoning requirements. REGISTRATION CASES include papers, plans, and title abstracts. Copies of decrees and plans are recorded in the county Registry of Deeds land records. Prior to the establishment of the Land Court in 1898, disputes about ownership, boundaries, partition, and probate appeals were heard by the Supreme Judicial Court.
For more information about court records, contact the division at (617) 725-8045.
Two county offices maintain records relevant to the built environment. The requirement to register and protect property ownership information was first required by law in 1697. Since that time, the major series created by county Registries of Deeds is LAND RECORDS, a diverse series that includes all filings made to the registry, including deeds, liens, executions, depositions, as well as plans, death certificates, and other records. This series is indexed in GRANTOR/GRANTEE INDEXES. PLANS of property have more recently been filed separately as an independent, indexed series.
In their MEETING MINUTES, County Commissioners may discuss and make decisions about county buildings and roads, as well as hear appeals from the local boards of health relating to septage and other issues. Commissioners receive municipal HIGHWAY PETITIONS for opening, closing, or modification of county roads. They may serve as custodians for engineering records such as BUILDING PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS of county buildings; COUNTY MAPS; SURVEY NOTEBOOKS, COMPUTATION SHEETS and HIGHWAY PROJECT PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS of county highways; ROAD LAYOUTS; STATE HIGHWAY LAYOUTS; and RAILROAD PLANS. Alternatively, these records may be held by a separate Engineering Department.
At the municipal level, nearly a dozen offices create and maintain records that relate to the built environment. The Clerk's Office has a central record-keeping role in the town, retaining the ANNUAL REPORTS; recording births, deaths, and marriages; managing elections; and often holding records that relate to or replace those maintained by other offices. For example, the clerk may retain the record copy of Planning Board and Board of Appeals records (see below). The clerk also records licenses issued under local by-laws or state statute and those issued by the Selectmen or other offices. Some LICENSES and PERMITS contain information about structures or properties that might have been used for a special purpose, such as billiard saloons, bowling alleys, gasoline storage, picnic groves, etc. Such records are arranged chronologically by the date of issuance. The clerk shares responsibility for retaining information about roads, utilities, and other infrastructure with the Public Works Department. The clerk maintains records of public ways, including RECORDS OF LAYOUTS/ALTERATIONS/DISCONTINUATIONS and PLANS SUBMITTED TO THE BOARD OF SURVEY. Other records, such as CONNECTING LOCATIONS FOR GAS MAINS and TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICITY RECORDS (also called POLE LOCATIONS) document the location of utility services in the community.
The Public Works Department maintains other utility records including HYDRANT LOCATIONS, FIRE PIPE CONNECTION BOOKS, sewer CATCH BASIN LOCATION FILES, SEWER CONNECTION RECORD CARD INDEX, and water SHUT-OFF LOCATIONS. Records relating to individual structures and properties are WATER HISTORY BOOKS (also called COMMITMENTS) containing billing information, PETITIONS for driveways, new streets, and sidewalks, and ASSESSMENT CARDS for sewer, sidewalks, and water. Cards are arranged by geographical location and describe the services each property receives. The department maintains a variety of PLANS, including those of main drains and common sewers belonging to the town. If the town assumes responsibility for an abandoned or neglected burial ground, the CEMETERY RECORDS will be found in the Public Works Department.
Planning Boards regulate citizens' ability to take actions on their own property; because this is an area where the rights of citizens and the good of the community sometimes conflict, thorough documentation is created and retained. BOARD MINUTES contain information about policy development and decisions.The board is responsible for creating a MASTER PLAN for the town and may create an OFFICIAL MAP. The MASTER PLAN shows existing and proposed public ways, street grades, public places, bridges and tunnels, building and zoning districts, water conduits and other public utilities, and other features. The OFFICIAL MAP includes the public ways and parks and the private ways used in common by more than two owners. The board may serve as a Design Review Board, approving building designs in certain zones of the community. Planning boards create SUBDIVISION RULES AND REGULATIONS which govern their decisions on applications for subdivisions and a variety of records relating to their DECISIONS on the SUBDIVISION PLANS submitted for their approval. In some municipalities local by-laws permit the Town or City Clerk to hold the permanent record copy of these records, an arrangement designed to increase public access to records.
The Board of Appeals may hear appeals of planning and zoning board decisions. The board creates RULES AND REGULATIONS to guide its actions and MINUTES of all public meetings. DECISIONS and PLANS are maintained permanently by the board unless a by- law requires the municipal clerk to retain the record copy.
Subdivision, zoning, and building regulations are enforced through the issuance of building, wiring, and plumbing permits by the Building Department (sometimes called "Inspectional Services"). This function was established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in most municipalities. The Building Inspector (and/or Wiring and Plumbing Inspectors) insures that proposed construction complies with regulations and the building code. For this reason the inspector's PERMIT LOG, which contains summary information about the applications and plans submitted, is retained permanently. BUILDING PERMITS list the owner, builder, architect, a description of the structure, and related information; these records are retained for the life of the building. The department retains the PLANS AND SPECIFICATIONS submitted for inspection and approval permanently (in the case of buildings to which the public has access) or for the life of the building (for private dwellings).
Construction or other alteration of the natural landscape is also, under certain circumstances, regulated by the Conservation Commission. The commission's primary responsibility is to implement locally the provisions of the Wetlands Protection Act, regulating the removal, fill, dredging, or altering of land bordering waters. Commissions may also establish conservation lands and open space by-laws. Decisions of the commission are documented in MEETING MINUTES; ENGINEERING DRAWINGS (also called PLANS) on which they have rendered decisions are retained permanently. Most key documents relating to the property and construction project are recorded at the Registry of Deeds, including the CERTIFICATES OF COMPLIANCE and ORDERS OF CONDITION.
The Board of Health may control development through the setting of percolation rates, septic system design rules, and other requirements contained in its RULES AND REGULATIONS. The board's decisions are recorded in MEETING RECORDS. The board is responsible for insuring the health and well-being of the community and among its tasks are the inspection and approval of SUBSURFACE SEWER DISPOSAL SYSTEM PLANS, SANITARY LANDFILL PLANS, and PLANS FOR THE ASSIGNMENT OF PLACE FOR NOISOME TRADES.
The Assessors' Office appraises the value of property for taxation. Ownership of property and division is indicated on ASSESSORS' TAX MAPS. Information about specific structures is contained in PROPERTY HISTORY CARDS (also called STREET or LEGAL CARDS) which contain the ownership history of property, and in PROPERTY RECORD CARDS. Arranged by geographical unit, these cards may contain references to the land records of the county Registry of Deeds, photographs and/or diagrams of structures, description of structures, materials of construction, condition, and related information. VALUATION LISTS (also called VALUATION BOOKS) are arranged alphabetically by assessed owner and contain information about the assessed value of real property. This information is often quite detailed (containing information about poll taxes, personal and real property) up until the middle years of this century when records become less elaborate. It should be noted that the Treasurer/Collector's Office holds COMMITMENT BOOKS which contain the amounts of taxes actually paid.
Municipalities may establish Historical Commissions and Historic District Commissions for the preservation and protection of historical or archeological assets of the city or town. Commissions can provide information about specific structures and communities that have been deemed to be of particular historical significance. Among their records are HISTORIC RESOURCES SURVEY FORMS that contain photographs and detailed information about individual structures and sites, MAPS, and HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLANS. District commissions may also create REVIEW STANDARDS to guide them in decisions about the alteration of structures included in the district and HISTORIC DISTRICT MAPS. Both commissions document decisions in MINUTES.
Page references in the CONTENTS LIST are to the RLIN BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORDS, specifically to the location of the agency history at the head of each agency file. Each history gives, at a minimum, statutory basis for establishment, statement of predecessor agencies, and agency function. Except for a few instances of agencies appearing in the guide only as cocreators of other agencies' series, each history is followed by a set of series descriptions with the following elements: agency name; series title; inclusive dates and physical description (volume and number of items or file containers)-- when series holdings are divided between the Archives and the creating agency, only Archives dates and volume are given; organization and arrangement; other formats available; brief historical note if there are predecessor agency creators; summary--with agency function, activity or legislative mandate leading to series creation, types of file materials or data elements, special topics, references to closely related series; notes as appropriate regarding provenance, restrictions, indexes and finding aids, variant titles; citations of agency histories for main, predecessor, and other creating agencies (for quick reference to histories see INDEX under MASV...., the RLIN record ID appearing in the citation and at the end of the agency history record along with the agency code; location--Archives and/or current creating agency; index access points; series number (by which series descriptions are arranged in the guide; those followed by X are no longer being created); agency code; and RLIN record ID.
The INDEX includes entries for the agency at the head of each agency history or series description and for terms listed at the end of each series description: (in order as they appear there) associated personal and agency names; topics; geographic names; form (e.g., photographs) and genre (e.g., minutes) terms; predecessor, creating, and cocreating agencies; also for predecessor agencies and variant agency names listed at the end of the agency histories. Omitted are function terms (e.g., monitoring environment), Massachusetts--Politics and government, State government records, and scheduling terms. Note that for multipage records, page references are to the index terms as listed-- related content may be on the previous page.
Note also that these RLIN records were chosen for, not created for or even edited for, this Guide, with the exception of six series (see: GC3, GO1,and SC1/45) where very general descriptions were supplemented with special guide notes and special index terms substituted for existing ones. There are variations in style over the four-year period in which records were created, a few references to series not included in the Guide, and index terms without the same relevance or level of consistency or refinement for specialists in the built environment field to be expected in a specially formulated guide. Finally, any printed guide of this kind can only be a snapshot of constantly evolving series. The most current version of a bibliographic record is available through the agency code and series number to any researcher at the Massachusetts Archives, and through the RLIN record ID to any user of RLIN online, nationwide.