Historic Inventory

The Preservation Board is obliged to conduct and maintain a comprehensive inventory of historic resources within the boundaries of the City of Anacortes which is known as the City of Anacortes Historic Inventory.

Prior to the creation of the AHPB in 2000, surveys were conducted in 1974, 1976, and 1987 under the authority of the Anacortes Museum.

The 1974 and 1976 survey records are all hand-written and were created to a very different standard than has been in use since. These can be viewed on-line in DAHP's WISAARD tool even though they are not considered to be part of the official inventory.

The Ancortes Historic Inventory, itself, is now maintained in the WISAARD system. You can find all of these properties by a search for properties in the City: Anacortes. Click the Search tab, then start typing in the City field. Also enter the street name (e.g. 8th) if you are only interested in properties on a particular street in town. WISAARD will subsequently tell you the number of properties meeting your search criterion. If you are wondering whether your house is in the inventory, enter your street number and street name (e.g. 1305 8th) for the Location Address. You may find this help for WISAARD to be useful.

All of the properties officially included in the inventory are represented in this pdf map. You can zoom and pan to any area you wish using the standard Adobe Reader menu tools.

The 1987 Survey Final Report (large pdf) includes an historical context statement for the downtown commercial core, the central and eastern-most portions of Old Town, the waterfront encompassing these two areas, and the Cap Sante neighborhood that were surveyed.
The 2005 Cap Sante Survey Report (pdf) completed the reconnaissance survey of Cap Sante properties constructed before 1945. Initiation of the HIdb was also part of the grant-funded project.
The Old Town 2007 Survey Report (pdf) presents the findings of a reconnaissance-level survey of historic residential properties in the Old Town neighborhood, north of 12^th Street.
The Final Report of the 2009 Surveys (pdf) documents the comprehensive survery of structures built prior to 1940 south to 24^th St. This work notes that there are clusters of homes in Old Town that, as a group convey strong historic character and should be given priority for preservation. These "ensembles" are listed in the report and are represented in this pdf map.
Connie Walker Gray of Gray Lane Preservation and Planning LLC has been retained to complete our reconnaissance survey of properties south of 24^th Street built prior to 1940 and to review 35 previously surveyed, non-residential buildings in the Central Business District. Her work is scheduled to be done by Aug 2011.