Top of page

Collection Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

Nevada to New Mexico

Liberty Fire House, Gold Hill, Nevada.

Exterior view. Photograph by Robert W. Kerrigan, March 1937. (Reproduction Number: HABS NEV,15-GOLD,1-1)

This weathered firehouse once served the now-abandoned town of Gold Hill, the frontier mining community associated with the discovery of the Comstock Lode of silver ore in 1859. Gold Hill and neighboring Virginia City profited greatly from the rich lode through the 1860s and 1870s until the mines gave out around 1880. The Liberty Fire House is typical of the early wooden fire houses that protected many Western mining towns. It featured a false parapet front, a simple belfry, and rustic siding. It collapsed not long after this 1937 photo was taken. The belfry alone was retained as a monument.

Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge across Connecticut River between Cornish, New Hampshire, and Windsor, Vermont, New Hampshire.

General 3/4 elevation view, looking northwest, from New Hampshire side of river. Photograph by Jet Lowe, 1984. (Reproduction Number: HAER NH,10-CORN,2-2)

This former toll bridge linking the towns of Cornish, New Hampshire, and Windsor, Vermont, is one of the largest covered wooden bridges in the U.S. Built in 1866, the bridge stretches more than four hundred feet, making it much longer than a modern-day football field. The bridge spans the Connecticut River at a point where the French military general and American Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette is said to have crossed on his way to Vermont in 1825.

Samuel des Marest House, New Milford, New Jersey.

Hardware fragments. Measured drawing delineated by Frederic Lansing, 1936. (Reproduction Number: HABS NJ,2-NEMIL,2, sheet 27 of 27)

The wrought-iron hardware depicted in this HABS drawing comes from a Dutch Colonial house built sometime between 1677 and 1720 by David des Marest, a French Huguenot and immigrant to the American Colonies from the Netherlands. The hinges may have been part of the original building or may have been added later as part of an improvement project during the colonial period. The stone pestle for grinding and the wrought-iron fire tongs and horse's bit were also found around the house.

View of Acoma Pueblo (Sky City), Block Number 3 from the southeast, Casa Blanca vic., New Mexico.

Detail of [Photograph by M. James Slack, April 1934.] (Reproduction Number: HABS NM,31-ACOMP,1-32)

Visited for the first time by Europeans in 1540, Acoma Pueblo is one of the oldest inhabited villages in the U.S. Located on top of a 357-foot rock mesa, the pueblo was the setting for many confrontations between European colonizers and the Acoma people, including a horrible massacre in 1599 by the Spanish soldiers who controlled the area. These flat-roofed houses made of adobe brick—a Spanish technique—show the Spanish influence on local building traditions.