How To Begin

Talk with the current resident, previous owners, and neighbors (and with any other people they may suggest), in order to get as much preliminary information as possible.

In the Greene County Room, check newspaper files under the heading "Historic Structures" to see if the structure you are interested in has already been researched.

The style of the building may indicate the earliest date a structure was designed. Some area architects specialize in older buildings and may be able to do a site survey to determine the approximate age by examining the style and methods of construction. There may be a fee for this service. There a number of books available at the library about architectural style and how to date a structure.

Ohio Historical Inventory

Check the Ohio Historical Inventory survey books compiled by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, Ohio Historical Center, Columbus, Ohio. Copies of these books are in the Greene County Room. The books are arranged by township (alphabetically), then by road or street, and then by current house number. This could give you some idea of someone else's findings on the building, including, possibly, the approximate age, the type of architecture, and, sometimes, special notes about the structure. These surveys date from the late 1970s.

Ohio Historic Preservation Office
http://www.ohiohistory.org/resource/histpres/

National Register of Historic Places
http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/

Sanborn Insurance Maps
These maps are available for Xenia, Yellow Springs, Cedarville, Jamestown and Osborn from 1893 – 1931. These have the individual structures marked and contain information about the type of construction and the number of floors in the building.

Greene County Atlases
Locate a rural home on the Greene County Atlases for 1855, 1874 and 1896, available in the Greene County Room. These maps have marks showing rural structures and may assist you in finding a date as your starting point.

Recorder’s Office
Get an exact, legal description of the lot or a survey number from the Recorder's Office (69 Greene St., third floor). If the structure is in a town or city, the lot number is needed. If it is west of the Little Miami River, the range, township, and section (R.T.S.) are needed. On the east side of the river, the Virginia Military Survey (V.M.S.) number is needed. Do NOT rely on house numbers -- these are not legal, and they may have been changed. Using the legal description and the current owner's name, you can trace the chain of ownership until you get to the approximate date the structure was built.

Auditor’s Office
The Tax Duplicates located in the Greene County Auditor's Office tell the value of a parcel of land. The way to glean information from these books is to compare your parcel's value from year to year and look for a dramatic change in the overall value of the property -- this usually indicates that a structure has been added. However, properties were not always surveyed every year, so the accuracy of this data is not necessarily exact. To see this information, you must make an appointment with the Auditor's office (69 Greene St, second floor).

Other Suggested Procedures

Organize the information as you collect it, and write it down to distribute to others who may be able to help you.

Once you have completed your study, all you have to do is write down the description of the building, the information you found, and where you found the information. Please consider donating a copy of your survey to the Greene County Room for future researchers.

Use the following check list to help you keep track of the various resources to check. [Researching Historic Property Check List - PDF]