History will repeat itself in Logansport as experts take to the town to add to a report on old properties started more than 30 years ago.
The Logansport Board of Public Works and Safety recently approved a contract for up to $22,000 with Gray & Pape Heritage Management, which has offices across the country.
The firm will survey up to 400 resources to provide an inventory of Logansport's historic structures and districts while also determining their eligibility in the National Register of Historic Places.
"It makes it a lot easier to understand the history of some of these buildings," said Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell, who serves on the board of public works and safety.
Kitchell said the report will update the one done in 1984 in conjunction with communities across the state. Because resources have to be at least 50 years old to be considered historic, that report addressed those that were developed before 1934.
The new one will fill in the gap by addressing resources developed between 1934 and 1966.
"They'll be updating those 32 years in there to make it more current," Kitchell said.
The city's contract with Gray & Pape states the firm will apply guidelines to their evaluations established by the U.S. National Park Service's Secretary of the Interior for Identification — Reconnaissance Field Survey and the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology's Survey Manual for Architectural and Historic Resources.
The firm will rely on architectural historians, local mapping and property material, historic research on the area and GPS-integrated cameras, according to the contract.
All of the information and photographs will be compiled in a digital format. Kitchell said he's looking forward to making that available on the city's website, which remains under renovation.
The contract states Gray & Pape will begin within two weeks of executing the agreement and estimates completion within 150 days.
The 1984 report includes more than 1,600 resources, according to the Gray & Pape contract.
Bankers Row on Eel River Avenue between Third and East Market streets; the area between Third and Sixth streets and East Melbourne Avenue and High Street; and the area between Eel River Avenue, Third Street and East Melbourne Avenue are all listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Eleven Logansport homes are also in the register.