Historic American Buildings Survey - Georgia

David Rice January 27, 2009

The Historic American Buildings Survey was established in 1933 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program to provide work for architects and surveyors whose jobs were affected by the Great Depression. Their job was to survey, draw and photograph America’s historic structures from the grandest to the most humble.

In Georgia, Atlanta architect P. Thornton Marye was appointed district officer of the project. With photographer, Sandy Sanders he traveled statewide measuring and photographing the state’s architectural treasures.

The handsome hand-lettered volume of their collaboration has been reproduced online by the Georgia Tech Collection. Despite being made for utilitarian purposes, there is something hauntingly beautiful about the photographs showing the homes and public buildings in all states of repair.