Using MACRIS

(This post is part of a series about my research of Fitchburg architect H.M. Francis)

A great resource to use on the Massachusetts Historical Commission's website is MACRIS.

MACRIS stands for the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System.

It is a very large inventory comprised of information on historic properties and areas in Massachusetts.

New information is added daily and many entries also have photographs of the historic property.

I've been going through this resource as I work on updates to my own H.M. Francis inventory.

I did a simple search for buildings and structures in Fitchburg with "Francis" entered as the architect and got 100 results.

(If you're looking for information in more than one city or town you can select them together or choose "All Towns" and it will search across the entire inventory.)

Fig. 1: Searching by Resource Type

Fig. 2: Results for Search

Fig. 3: Entry for Fitchburg Historical Society

There may be some discrepancies you find along the way of your research, but remember that MACRIS is constantly being revised and updated. For me, this resource is being used to cross-reference information I gathered last year, as well as to fill any "gaps", e.g. addresses, architectural styles, and construction years.