About This Site

The development of this web component, focusing on the Berlin Heights Addition neighborhood, was prepared under contract with the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT).  It is intended to serve as mitigation for the relocation of NH Route 110 through the historic neighborhood which resulted in the state acquiring and demolishing more than thirty structures along the route.

 

The neighborhood of Berlin Heights Addition, also known as “The Avenues” was designed and platted in a grid pattern in 1892-3 to accommodate the growing need for workforce housing.  It was largely built out by 1920 with a mix of single family homes, duplexes, and triple deckers.  Among those who settled in the ethnically diverse neighborhood were a large number of French Canadians, as well as Russians, Poles, Irish and Italians.

 

Over the years, the Berlin Heights Addition/Avenues neighborhood has been the subject of considerable research and study.  A complete historic/architectural analysis of the Berlin Heights Addition Project Area was conducted in the fall of 2002 by the Preservation Company of Kensington, New Hampshire and subsequently updated by them in October 2008.  As a result, it was determined that demolitions in the Avenues area between First Avenue and Wight Street would have an adverse effect and significantly change the character of the historic neighborhood. 

 

Before their demolition, twenty-six of the residences and three of the garages were documented with photographs and drawings.   Seven of the most intact and/or significant properties were recorded to Historic American Buildings Survey Level 1 Standards by Preservation Company.  An additional twenty-one properties were documented at a less-detailed Level 3 standard by Lisa Mausolf, Preservation Consultant, of Reading, Massachusetts.  Accompanying the report were large format photographs taken by Charley Freiberg of Elkins, New Hampshire.  In 2015, Preservation Company prepared an impressive cover document, Berlin:  The City That Trees Built – Turning Land and Lumber into Neighborhoods, that provides an overall context for the properties documented, the Avenues as a whole, and Berlin’s other neighborhoods as well.

 

This website also includes the final report of another element of the mitigation requirements, a design charrette held in Berlin in April 2011, led by Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates, Inc. of Concord, New Hampshire. 

 

Project Area Forms

This section is comprised of the Project Area Forms prepared for NHDOT by Preservation Company in 2002 and 2008 for the Berlin Heights Addition Historic Area.  The web pages have been styled to closely resemble the original forms they were created from while providing easier movement for the web user.

 

They include BERHA Project Area text (2002), BERHA Project Area photos (2002) and BERHA Project Area updated photos (2008).  Each has its own table of contents page.

 

Level 1 Documentation Reports & Cover Document

This section contains the Level 1 Documentation Reports prepared by Preservation Company for the seven demolished properties which were considered the most intact or significant.   Each report includes text, measured drawings and photographs.  The other document, Berlin:  The City that Trees Built – Turning Land and Lumber into Neighborhoods was prepared by Preservation Company and provides research on and comparative analysis of Berlin’s residential building types and neighborhoods with a special emphasis on the Avenues.  Due to the size of the documents (50+ pages for the documentation reports and 150+ for the final report), the files may take some time to load.

 

Level 3 Documentation Reports

These reports were prepared by Preservation Consultant Lisa Mausolf for an additional twenty-one historic properties in the neighborhood that were also razed as part of the project.   The documentation requirements for Level 3 reports are less detailed than those of the Level 1 reports due to the buildings’ higher degrees of alteration.  The photographs for these properties are found in the photo tour section.

 

Photos of Buildings

These large format photos were taken by Charley Freiberg of Ekins, New Hampshire to document the selected Level 3 historic properties prior to demolition.  The images are presented, by street or avenue, as collections of thumbnails.  Clicking on any of these thumbnail images opens a larger copy of that image in a viewer capable of displaying them one at a time or as a self-running slide show.  Note:  the photos for the Level 1 properties are located within each respective report. 

 

Aerial Photos & Map

These aerial photos were taken in April 2010 by Preservation Company, prior to the beginning of building demolition, to document the landscape/neighborhood setting in the Berlin Heights Addition Historic District.   The “photo map” is a PDF map with locations linked to associated aerial photos.  The linked locations are shown by numbers within red boxes.  Clicking on any of these boxes will open the associated neighborhood aerial photograph.

 

Design Charrette Booklet

In April 2011 a two-day design charrette/brainstorming session was held in Berlin led by Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates of Concord, bringing together design professionals, local citizens and officials, and representatives from NHDOT, the NH Division of Historical Resources and NH Preservation Alliance to address project issues.  This booklet includes the sketches, concepts, and strategies generated by the charrette.