The Chicago Historic Resources Survey (CHRS), completed in 1995, was a decade-long research effort by the City of Chicago to analyze the historic and architectural importance of all buildings, objects, structures, and sites constructed in the city prior to 1940. During 12 years of field work and follow-up research that started in 1983, CHRS surveyors identified approximately 9,900 properties which were considered to have some historic or architectural importance.
Please note that this CHRS dataset is limited and does not include the entire survey:
1. A color-coded ranking system was used to identify historic and architectural significance relative to age, degree of external physical integrity, and level of possible significance. This dataset only includes buildings identified with the two highest color codes: "Red" and "Orange." Buildings and structures coded "Red" or "Orange" (unless designated as a Chicago Landmark or located within a Chicago Landmark District) are subject to the City of Chicago’s Demolition-Delay Ordinance (link to:
http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/demolition_delay.html), adopted by City Council in 2003.
2. Only buildings are included in this dataset; structures and objects such as bridges, park structures, monuments and mausoleums, generally are not represented. Likewise, garages, coach houses, and other secondary structures associated with a building may not be consistently depicted or color-coded. If an “Orange”- or “Red”-rated building was demolished after 2008, it may still appear in the map. The CHRS occasionally rated only part of a building or part of a group of joined buildings as “Orange” or “Red;” however the entire building or group of joined buildings may be incorrectly identified as “Orange” or “Red.”
To view or use these shapefiles, compression software and special GIS software, such as ESRI ArcGIS or QGIS, is required. To download this file, right-click the "Download" link above and choose "Save link as."
