SURVEY METHODOLOGY
 
PRELIMINARY STEPS

The goal of this project was to identify all the existing architecturally and historically significant historic resources that are located within the Town of Perry and to also identify those that have potential for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).  The boundaries of the project area was set by the Town prior to the hiring of a consultant.  Consequently, the first step in the reconnaissance survey consisted of a pre-survey during which the consultant undertook a series of drives through the project area.  This was done both to familiarize the consultant with the project area and to uncover any unusual aspects of it that might call for special treatment.  The first finding of this pre-survey was that the overwhelming majority of the Town's historic resources consist of historic farmsteads.  The second finding, and one of significance for the future of the project, was that although many of the Town's historic farmsteads are still extant, the integrity levels of the buildings within them have typically experienced a considerable decline since these farmsteads were first surveyed in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the overall integrity levels of the Town's historic resources is quite low. 

It was therefore decided to survey all the farmhouses and intact multi-building farmsteads within the project area that were believed to be fifty years old or older and that still retain their original appearance and exterior cladding.  Unfortunately, this decision meant that most of the older resources located on the Town's farmsteads were not surveyed due to their lack of integrity.

While the issue of deciding what to survey was being considered, the process of identifying pertinent historic resource materials was also begun.  This first involved a search of the resources held by the Wisconsin Historical Society (WSH) in Madison and, as anticipated, the WSH proved to be an especially fruitful source that produced the majority of the items listed in the bibliography that follows this report.  Along with such essential items as published and unpublished Dane County histories, Dane County plat maps and plat books, and microfilm copies of Dane County newspapers, the WSH’s Visual and Sound Archives also produced historic photos of some of the Town's buildings, and its Department of Historic Preservation added additional information that is contained in its files.  Other essential resources are historic Dane County Real Estate Tax Assessment Rolls and the other extensive history collections owned by the Dane County Historical Society, including its historic photo collection.  Especially valuable, however, were the Town's own holdings, much of which appeared in the Perry Historical Center recent publication: The Historic Perry Norwegian Settlement, published in 1995.

Another early goal of the survey was to find suitable base maps that could be used to record the locations of the resources surveyed.  Ideally, such maps would show building footprints, lot lines, and addresses, although it was not anticipated that such an ideal map or maps would be found.  Fortunately, the Dane County Department of Planning and Development was able to produce excellent large scale maps dating from 2001 that shows parcel boundaries and parcel numbers for the entire Town .  This meant that maps that show the required information were already in existence and did not have to be produced by the survey consultant; a significant savings in time and money.

Yet another task performed prior to the beginning of the field survey was the identification of all the resources in the project area that had previously been surveyed by the DHP, which uses survey projects such as this one to update information it already has on file and to identify buildings that have been demolished since earlier surveys were undertaken.  This involved searching the DHP’s Wisconsin Inventory of Historic Places for inventory cards that matched addresses in the project areas, a search that identified 36 individual buildings and groups of buildings that had been previously surveyed between 1977 and 1981 and in 2002.(1)  Four of these resources have since been demolished, but all the rest were resurveyed as part of the current project and these 32 resources make up the bulk of the buildings that are included in the current survey.  It needs to be remembered, however, that these previously surveyed resources are the products of a selection process that was governed by the knowledge and survey criteria that was in use at that time.  Consequently, the resources that were surveyed

between 1977 and 1981 tend to be examples of architectural styles that were recognized at that time and vernacular examples of these styles.  Since that time, however, the understanding of the history of our built environment as greatly increased, new styles have been identified, and a much greater appreciation of the so-called vernacular forms has also developed.  Thus, while the new survey reviewed the previously surveyed resources and resurveyed and rephotographed them as part of the current project, it was also charged with evaluating all the resources within the project area, which necessitated analyzing not only examples of the recognized architectural styles but also those resources that were left unsurveyed and unanalyzed by the earlier surveys.

Endnote:

1. The total number of surveyed resources in this Intensive Survey includes those buildings located in the unincorporated hamlets of Daleyville and Forward that were surveyed in 2002 as part of the Unincorporated Hamlets of Dane County Intensive Survey.

RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY

Once the survey criteria had been decided, the field survey itself began, which consisted of identifying all the resources within the project area that met the survey criteria, making field notes, and taking black and white photos of them.  The consultant waited until mid-November to begin this work because the best possible photos are taken when there is no foliage to obscure buildings and no snow on the ground, thereby making it possible to produce superior photos.  The resulting survey was completed late in January of 2006 and in addition to reevaluating the 32 extant resources identified in the previous surveys, all the other buildings within the project areas were evaluated as well.  The result was that 14 additional resources and groups of resources, primarily ones of architectural interest, were added to the existing inventory, for a total of 46 resources of all types.  Both the old and the newly surveyed resources are listed in the inventory at the end of this report and a smaller group of these resources was researched in greater detail as part of the intensive survey. 

Following completion of the field work, field notes were checked and organized to facilitate the site-specific research that would take place in the intensive survey phase.  Each site has a parcel identification number and an address and the latter numbers were then noted on the base maps of the project area, which help both the DHP and the Town locate surveyed resources.

The reconnaissance survey concluded with a tour of the project area.  Mr. Jim Draeger, who is the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer at the DHP and the person in charge of the NRHP program in Wisconsin, met with the consultant on May 10, 2006, in order to review the findings of the reconnaissance survey.  The result was that nine of the surveyed resources or groups of resources were found to be potentially individually eligible for listing in the NRHP.  The results are included in the summary section of this report.

INTENSIVE SURVEY

With the photographs and the list of resources inventoried by the reconnaissance survey in hand, the consultant began the task of organizing the inventoried resources into groups based on stylistic attributions.  Once this task was completed, each of these groups was further evaluated and the best examples in each group became the subject of the more intensive research process that forms the core of the intensive survey.  For example, all buildings surveyed that represent the American Foursquare style were grouped together to identify the typical stylistic subtypes and building forms found in the Town.  These were then compared and evaluated to determine which were the best examples within each subtype.  The best examples were then evaluated against National Register criteria and those which appeared to meet the criteria were designated as "potentially eligible."  The results of this evaluation process can be found in the Architectural Styles section of this report.  It needs to be noted, however, that at this stage this designation is advisory only and represents just the best judgment of the consultant.  Actual designation of "eligible" status can only be made as a result of a formal evaluation, either through the National Register nomination process or through the Determination of Eligibility process, both of which are evaluated by the staff of the DHP and the Keeper of the National Register in Washington D.C. 
 
While this evaluation process was taking place, the reconnaissance survey maps were being compared with information contained in The Historic Perry Norwegian Settlement and on the few historic rural plat maps of Dane County that show buildings in order to determine approximate construction dates for the buildings surveyed.  The information thus obtained resulted in a list of approximate (sometimes very approximate) building construction date periods for some of the buildings surveyed, which dates, though necessarily inexact, were still of value in narrowing the focus of the subsequent intensive research effort that was to follow. 

The revised farmstead list was then compared with the results of the style evaluation process described above and farmsteads with buildings that ranked high in their respective stylistic categories were included in the intensive research effort.  Also included in the intensive research effort were buildings and other resources that were considered to be potential eligible individually for listing in the National Register for reasons other than their architectural design. 

The farmsteads on the resulting list were then researched individually to try and determine dates of construction and the names of original owners, which research effort consisted mostly of carefully studying the various historic plat maps of the Town. While this research was being conducted, a parallel effort was being made to identify and research those historic themes that have been important to the history of the Town.  The basis of this research is the large group of historic themes that have already been identified by the extensive research that is embodied in the DHP's Cultural Resource Management Plan, which research is ongoing and is intended to accomplish the same goals, but on a statewide basis.  These themes cover or will eventually cover nearly every aspect of the built history of Wisconsin and it is intended that the research conducted for site-specific projects such as the Town of Perry Intensive Survey will be complimentary to this larger ongoing effort. 
 
At the Town level, the purpose of thematic research is to develop an overview of the history of a surveyed area that will facilitate the identification of those remaining resources that can be considered historically and possibly architecturally significant from the standpoint of the National Register program and local preservation efforts.  Preliminary research undertaken at the onset of the Town of Perry Survey suggested that the following themes, which are listed in alphabetical order, were important and would prove productive:

  Agriculture
  Architecture
  Education
  Religion

The research that followed the identification of these themes relied heavily on secondary sources such as the already published histories of Dane County and on The Historic Perry Norwegian Settlement, historic maps of the Town, church histories, and historic Dane County newspapers.  The information thus generated is included in this report and will be found in the historic themes section.  Site-specific information will also be found on the intensive survey inventory cards that were prepared for each inventoried resource.

Ultimately, the intensive survey researched approximately 9 of the 46 resources that were identified in the reconnaissance survey phase, although all 46 resources were photographed and evaluated using NRHP and DHP criteria.  Every property surveyed during the course of the project has had an intensive survey card prepared for it in accordance with DHP standards.  These cards consist of a dry-mounted photo of the resource on one side and a summary of the historical and architectural analysis performed on the subject resource and other required information such as an address and the photo and map codes assigned to the property on the reverse side.  These cards were made for the DHP to add to its Architectural Historic Inventory (AHI), which now includes more than 141,000 building located throughout the state.  In addition, all the written information contained on these cards plus additional historic data was copied into the DHP's electronic database using software developed by the DHP and these can be viewed by accessing the Wisconsin Historical Society's web site  Finally, copies of the survey maps were given to the Town at the conclusion of the survey. 

INTENSIVE SURVEY FINAL REPORT

Several of the historic theme chapters in this report that deal with only a few extant resources, such as Religion and Education, have been in progress since April of 2006.  Most of the other chapters, however, including especially those relating to architectural styles, had to wait until the historic research was completed before they could be written.  With the completion of this research in August of 2006, work on the final chapters of the intensive survey report commenced and was completed by mid-October of 2006 and it includes the thematic chapters, the building inventory list, and the bibliography.

PUBLIC EDUCATION
 
The consultant worked closely with members of the Town of Perry Historic Preservation Commission from the onset of the project and received valuable support and assistance from them throughout the course of the survey.  Presentations were made to the Town by the consultant and the first public meeting with the larger community took place on April 24, 2006, when a presentation by the consultant and Mr. DeRose of the DHP was made at a special meeting at the Town Hall.