WEBSITE: Handbook for Connecticut Historic District and Historic Properties Commissions

Welcome to www.historicdistrictsCT.org. 

This web site has been specifically developed for Connecticut's local historic district commissioners and certified local government officials. 

The alternate url is: www.lhdct.org.

The site is the home of the electronic version of the recently revised and updated, Handbook for Connecticut Historic District and Historic Properties Commissions.

Though the Handbook was created for historic district/properties commissions and certified local government officials it is also a valuable resource for owners of historic houses and others interested in historic designations and building and landscape preservation. 

The Handbook is available to be viewed online or downloaded in pdf form for distribution. If you would like to obtain a spiral-bound hard copy of the Handbook please contact the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation by following the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page.

www.historicdistrictsCT.org also provides a resource called the Commissioner Discussion Forum. 

Forum will serve as a means for  commissioners and certified local government officials to share ideas. Forum topics may include posts of important decisions, information about on-going  issues, and requests for peer advice. 

Forum will also act as a virtual training center in which challenges, best-practice methods, problems with applications for certificates of appropriateness and successful experiences can be shared with and critiqued by other users.  

In Ask a Question we invite members of the general public to submit inquiries about historic designations and related matters, for which answers will be supplied by the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation in association with the State Historic Preservation Office at the Commission on Culture and Tourism.

Acknowledgements

The Connecticut Historic District and Historic Property Handbook received support from the Commission on Culture & Tourism with funds from the Community Investment Act of the State of Connecticut. The Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation was the project director. In addition to producing this written Handbook, the Connecticut Trust hosts www.historicdistricts.org or www.lhdct.org where the contents of the Handbook are available and searchable.

The web site includes a Forum discussion for Historic District Commissioners and a general Ask a Question unit.

The complete Handbook is downloadable from the web site.

Special thanks to Gregory Farmer, Connecticut Circuit Rider for the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and to R. Hallock Svensk, Programs Officer at the Connecticut Trust, who did all the preliminary research and writing. Also thank you to Helen Higgins, Executive Director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Roberta Lane, Senior Program Officer and Regional Attorney, Northeast Office, National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Sara C. Bronin, Associate Professor of Law, University of Connecticut Law School.

Thank you to staff at the Commission on Culture and Tourism for their invaluable expertise and editing: Mary Donohue, Survey and Grants Administrator and Mary Dunne, Local Government Grants Coordinator. Thank you to Diana Ross McCain for copy editing and David Wolfram for graphic design.