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SERVICES

Before You Lived Here (see below)
Historic Property Marketing Package (see below)
Section 106 compliance and reviews
Local, state, and federal historic tax credit applications
Historic designation and eligibility studies
Individual building research and documentation
Development of historic contexts
Specialized and project-based research requests
National Register of Historic Places nominations
Architectural survey and inventory
Preservation planning support
Regulatory and agency coordination (including with the State Historic Preservation Office, National Park Service, and/or local historic district commissions)
Report writing and technical documentation

BEFORE YOU LIVED HERE

Before You Lived Here is a personalized history of a house, thoughtfully researched and presented as a keepsake short story.

Using available records, old maps, newspapers, and photographs, each report uncovers the people who lived there, how the house changed over time, and how the surrounding neighborhood grew around it.

Every address has a story. This is a way to discover who walked the floors before you, what the home has witnessed, and how your house became your house, long before you arrived.

HISTORIC PROPERTY MARKETING PACKAGE

This package will provide a well-researched, polished narrative realtors can draw from for MLS copy, brochures, showings, and social media that will go beyond noting a house is historic and will explain why it matters. My research and narrative will help reach emotion-driven, architecture aware, historically curious buyers who may be comparing multiple distinctive historic homes and provide a compelling origin story, craftsmanship details buyers may miss, and documentation that supports integrity and value.

VALERIE HAGUE REISS

I am an architectural historian who has worked on projects in more than 20 states across the nonprofit, real estate, and compliance sectors. I have completed a broad range of documentation for clients including National Register nominations, Section 106 reviews, Historic Structure Reports, Cultural Landscape Reports, and historic tax credit applications. I hold a master’s degree in American Studies, with a concentration in Historic Preservation, from The George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Grand Valley State University’s Frederik Meijer Honors College. I also spent several years living in Germany, where I taught English. I was inspired by my grandmother, Marguerite Hague, who was a passionate advocate of historic preservation and adaptive reuse and ran a non-profit architectural salvage store in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s. I exceed the 36 CFR Part 61 Professional Qualifications Standards. To learn more about my experience, see my LinkedIn.

LET'S TALK

I’d love to hear from you. I’m always open to new opportunities and interesting conversations about old buildings! Please include a few details about your project and timeline so I can get back to you faster.

valerie.hague.reiss@gmail.com

Based in Detroit, MI

My grandmother (and inspiration) Marguerite Hague salvaging items at the demolition site of the Brush Street Railroad Station in Detroit.

PORTFOLIO

Below are some samples of the projects I have completed:

Before You Lived Here: 29816 Scenic Byway

Historic Resource Study: Events and Celebrations on the National Mall and President's Park South

Chicago Landmarks Designation Report: Illinois Bell Building, 225 W. Randolph Street

Rethinking I-94: Union Park District (The Midway, Merriam Park, Union Park, and Desnoyer Park)

Cultural Landscape Report Part I: Glen Echo Park Crystal Pool

Sass House and Faxon Post Office Minnesota Individual Property Phase II Inventory Form