Online Help System

Survey Search

Surveys provide information to SHPO reviewers and researchers about cultural resources throughout New York State. These are divided into two types:

• Building Surveys: Inventories of built resources, including buildings, structures, objects, above-ground sites, and historic districts. These typically include photographs and descriptions of each resource, as well as a contextual history of the survey area. Building surveys are available to all users of CRIS.
• Archaeological Surveys: Investigations of archaeological sites or areas that are potentially archaeologically sensitive. These are often conducted as part of a consultation project.

Note: Archaeological surveys are available only to CRIS users with archaeological data access privileges. To apply for archaeological permissions, please complete the PDF application form and email the form with supporting documentation (if applicable) to CRISHelp@parks.ny.gov with the subject “Archaeology Permission Request.”

You will need to log into CRIS with an NY.gov ID account at least once before SHPO can enable archaeological permissions for your user profile.

In the Criteria Search tools, the Survey tab provides basic search fields as shown below. You do not need to fill all of them. If you enter search terms in multiple fields, only results that exactly match all of your search terms will be returned. Letters can be upper or lower case. In text fields, partial search terms are acceptable; for example, searching the Survey Name ridge will return surveys with names like King Bridges in New York State and Phase I Archaeological Investigation for the Proposed Jenns Estates Subdivision, Ridge, Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York.

Click the Search button in the lower left corner to apply your search terms. The Results tab will display your search results. Click the View (magnifying glass) button next to a survey result to open the Survey Details module.

If you wish to search USNs by more fields, click the Advanced button to the right of the Search button to open the Advanced Survey Search module. To reset the fields to their default values in this tab only, click the Reset button to the right of the Advanced button.

• Survey Type: Select Building or Archaeology, or leave the default value, Any Type.
• Survey Number: SHPO’s identifying number for surveys. This number is in the format 17SR00157, where 17 is a 2-digit year (2017 in this example) and 00157 is a 5-digit sequence number. Survey districts, which are historic districts that were inventoried through building surveys, are stored as building survey records in CRIS with the Survey Number format 12SD00605.
• Survey Name: The name of the survey. Since spelling or naming conventions may differ, you may wish to enter only part of the name to increase the chance of finding a match.
• County: The county that contains the survey. Select the county name or leave the default, All Counties. If a survey is located in multiple counties, a search for any one of its counties will retrieve it.
• Municipality: The minor civil division (MCD) that contains the survey. MCDs may be cities, towns, villages, reservations, or boroughs. You must select a county before you can select an MCD from the list. If a survey is located in multiple MCDs, a search for any one of its MCDs will retrieve it.