The Menokin HABS Drawings
The Menokin Archival Series aims to illuminate how Menokin arrived to where it is today with the Glass House Project, featuring photographs, drawings, and more over the last 100 years.
During the late 1930’s, representatives from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) came to Menokin to start documenting the home to create a set of drawings for the permanent archive of historic places for the Library of Congress.
HABS teams would sometimes start by taking photographs, measurements, and notes of a site from which draftsmen would then create very detailed drawings that were collected, archived, and used for historic preservation purposes. It was the gold standard.
The HABS program was founded during the Great Depression as a means for providing employment for architects. Its program of documenting historic buildings and structures continues. HABS records are maintained by the Library Congress and all HABS records, including Menokin's drawings and photographs, are accessible online.
Mrs. Belfield and HABS representative
The HABS drawings for Menokin published in 1940 are being used today as one of the foundations for the Glass House Project. From the locations of stones to wall dimensions and countless other tactical approaches, these drawings have been a bedrock of our journey.
These images start with one of the original HABS representatives standing with the owner of Menokin at the time, Mrs. Belfield, shortly before her death. The house was starting to decline, and we are extremely fortunate the HABS representatives made it in time.
The house was inherited by the Omohundro family, who decades later granted the house and acreage to the newly formed Menokin Foundation in 1995.
