Featured Course: Historic Property Research & Documentation (Spring 2024)
Every house has its secrets. Do you know where to find them?
Join Bucks County Community College's award-winning Historic Preservation program for HIST199: Historic Property Research & Documentation.
This course could really be called "The Secret Life of Places." Every place- especially old and historic places!- has layers of history, each with a story to tell. In Historic Property Research & Documentation, we show you how to uncover it! Participants learn how to: mine property deeds and other government documents; compare current and historical maps to spot changes that shaped a place; utilize remote sensing tools and photography to piece together changes over time; examine a place up-close, reading the landscape and the building (inside and out) for clues. Armed with documentation, students have the chance to compile information about a place of their choice into a National Register of Historic Places nomination.
The course is taught by Preston Hull of Building Conservation Associates of Philadelphia and Matt Metcalf, Archival Consultant, Preservationist, and Historic Preservation Program Coordinator at Bucks.
BCCC is open admission: everyone is welcome to take our courses. Register Here!
ANYONE with a passion for preservation and history is welcome! The course may be taken “audit” or for a grade; courses successfully completed for a grade can be applied to our occupational Historic Preservation Certificate, designed to enable students to “do” the work of preservation in their communities anywhere in the country.
The Bucks HP program is a Shared program for community colleges: everyone in Pennsylvania takes our courses for in-county or non-sponsored tuition rates (based on location).