HomeMy WebLinkAbout02122021 Historic Preservation Work Session Laydown - Benoit 210212 HPS WS Laydown-
Benoit
H PC Work Session-2-12-21
Information Needs, Research and Photo Tips
M.Benoit
TO DO
Please find out from all your property owners what size sign they will want and get their email. I need to
send a list to Andy Bacon for him to send them sign permits. I set up a tab in the spreadsheet called sign
permits for you to enter that information.
Research Tips
To find history of a property(not a house, only the land)you can do the following:
1. Go to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Recording Office at
http://dnr.alaska.gov/ssd/recoff/
2. Look for Searches and then RO search menu in the drop down.
3. Select Historic Book Search http://dnr.alaska.gov/ssd/recoff/search/histbookmenu for anything
older than 1970.
4. Select Seward as the district and click historic search.
5. Select Seward as the subdistrict
• Select General Index to search names under Book and click historic search. Select the first
letter of the last name of the seller or buyer of the land. You will have to download the
document and then search visually for what you are looking for. Then you can look at each
page. Note that if you selected "A", the first page will list the grantors or people with last name
starting with A in the first column and who they sold to (granted) in the second column.The
next page will show the grantee names starting in A in the first column with the grantor in the
second column. You need to look through them all to find the name and can also narrow down
a bit looking at the dates. Look for the Book and Page number to get more details of the
transaction. You will need the Block number and Lot numbers to make sure it is the right
property.
a. You can get block and lot numbers off the Kenai Peninsula Parcel Viewer website at
https://gis.kpb.us/map/index.html?viewer=express, Find your property by zooming in,
clicking, then you can see owner, address and parcel ID.Then click on view additional
details and legal description to find block number and parcel id.
• After you find the Book and Page numbers of the transaction, you can back out and look under
Deed Books(instead of General Index)with the book and page number to find the transaction.
This all works if you have a name such as "Keating" in the Keating House. Otherwise, you just need to
search through the General Index looking for notes on the Block and Lots to find something. I have tried
working backwards. For example, get the current owner from the Kenai Peninsula Parcel viewer.Then I
get the Block and Parcel numbers. I then look at the recorder's office for the transaction where that sale
happened by looking in the non-historic records under their name. Once you find the seller to them, you
can keep working backwards until you get into the historic books and keep going back as far as you can.
So far, I am unaware of a way to search on the house on the property, only the land. The title company
also only searches on properties (land) and has all the records if you get stuck but they charge a sizable
fee to do this.They may do a limited amount without charge only if they have time.
The city may have some files on buildings but it is very limited for anything before the 1980's They have
some historic files they are going to check on and let me know what is available.
Research Help
Doug Capra is available to anyone who wants to call and brainstorm your sign ideas with him to make
sure you are on the right track and offer his insights on the importance of the property to the bigger
picture of Seward and Alaska.
Photos
• You may need 4-5 pictures at 300 dpi for your sign.
• You may be able to get photos you can take high quality pictures of or scan from the owners.
• If you see a photo in a research book, note the photo credit (number, collection, who has it etc., and
the book it came from and page number). Also take a picture of the whole page of the book with the
photo in it.
• A great source is the Seward Community Library Association website at
https://www.friendsofsclm.org/historic-photos-art-and-archives. When you find a photo, you want
note the photo number and collection, date, who took it etc. so we can request it and credit it on the
sign.There are more available that are not online, so if you see it in a book credited to Seward
Community Library Association but can't find it, if you note where you saw it with a good description,
we can ask about it.
• Mary Ann will submit photo request forms for what you need to Resurrection Bay Historical Society and
the Seward Community Library Association. Please submit your photo needs info in our working
spreadsheet on the photo requests tab.