The survey’s purpose was to collect baseline data to be used as reference for researchers, property owners, preservationists, local planners, and town officials as a component of the Statewide Historic Resource Inventory. The survey included early 20th-century buildings dating from a period when middle class Americans began to acquire shoreline summer homes, adopting the modern norm of a beach holiday.
The Clinton survey and others in coastal municipalities along Connecticut's coast are designed to help the state better understand its historical resources along the coastline, and to assist in resiliency planning by identifying those historic properties that would qualify for assistance after future disasters.
The baseline data will help in the nomination of buildings and districts for listing in the National or State Registers of Historic Places. The actual nomination process involves the home owners, the Clinton Historic District Commission, and the State Historic Preservation Office.
This survey is federally funded through the National Park Service under Public Law 113-2 and is part of a larger initiative in Connecticut to further disaster preparedness efforts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.