Survey & National Register Manager
Petra Knapp is a Survey & National Register Manager in the State Historic Preservation Office. She holds a master’s degree in history, with a certificate in Applied History/Historic Preservation from Youngstown State University. Before joining the team at the OHPO, Petra served in the AmeriCorps Ohio History Service Corps as a Community Surveyor. During her service, she documented more than 150 historic resources constructed between 1940 and 1970, including a neighborhood designed and developed by an African-American contractor. Thanks in part to her survey, this neighborhood is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Following her year with AmeriCorps, Petra worked for 8 years for a private cultural resources management firm, and conducted innumerable small- and large-scale architectural field surveys for a variety of public and private entities.
Join State Historic Preservation Office staff Petra Knapp and Carrie Simmons as they walk you through the steps to conducting a historic survey and completing an Ohio Historic Inventory form for a historic building in downtown Dayton. Identifying and evaluating historic properties through survey is an important first step to knowing the historic properties in your community or neighborhood. Topics covered will include identifying the survey area, researching historic properties, getting ready to go out in the field, using the Ohio Historic Inventory form to document historic properties, preparing a survey report. Session participants will hit the street for a hands-on activity to survey a downtown Dayton building for the Ohio Historic Inventory.