City of Decatur Historic Resource Survey

Blair-Rutland Building
Blair-Rutland Building (Blair, Johnson, 1939), Decatur, Georgia

The City of Decatur, incorporated in 1823, has multiple local and National Register historic districts and sites among it more than 6600 properties.

In February 2009, the contract for a Historic Resources Survey of the entire city was awarded to Keystone Preservation Associates and Morrison Design.  At that time, Laura Drummond was a founding partner at Keystone.  Her knowledge of Geographic Information System (GIS) software enabled her to create a survey spreadsheet that permitted entry only of data in the formats prescribed by the State of Georgia’s online natural, archaeological and historic resources database (GNAHRGIS).

Laura took the lead in completing the photographic documentation of the city properties, as well as the entry of survey data.  She single-handedly created all the formatted outputs, including inventory sheets, spreadsheets, archival photographs, and a series of more than 30 GIS maps of the city, the historic districts, and city neighborhoods.  She produced a database of the surveyed properties compatible with city’s GIS files.