Through the years, the City of Stillwater, in cooperation with various state and federal partners, have developed reports on the history of Stillwater neighborhoods and commercial areas.  The of this kind was the Intensive National Registry Survey of Downtown which led to the ultimate creation of the Stillwater Commercial Historic District. 

In 1993 the Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) directed historian Robert Vogel to prepare a study that initiated a comprehensive historic preservation planning process for the City of Stillwater. Vogel’s report established historic contexts with the goal to designate structures and sites on the local or national historic register. The context study was divided into 16 Stillwater neighborhoods, each to be surveyed at a separate time.  Since 1993 the HPC has been conducting these surveys to gain a better understanding of Stillwater’s historic neighborhoods and the structures and sites within them.

•  Intensive National Registry Survey of Downtown Stillwater, Minnesota August, 1989
• Stillwater Historic Context July 1993
• North Hill Original Town July 1995
• South Hill Original Town July 1996
• Greeley Addition July 1997
• Dutchtown District July 1998
• Holcombe District July 1999
• Hersey Staples & Co. July 2000
• Carli & Schulenburg’s Addition (South half) July 2001
• Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter (West Half) July 2003
• Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter (East Half) July 2002
• Staples and Mays Addition July 2005