Through the years the City of Stillwater, in cooperation with various federal and state partners, have developed reports on the history of Stillwater neighborhoods and commercial areas. In 1993 the Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) directed Robert Vogel, historian, to prepare a study that initiated a comprehensive historic preservation planning process for the City of Stillwater. Vogel’s historic context document, compiled in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for preservation planning, called for the establishment of historic contexts and the use of these contexts to develop goals and ultimately register those that quantify on national or local historic register. Listed below is the Stillwater Historic Context: A Comprehensive Planning Approach prepared by Robert C. Vogel & Associates (Historians, Archaeologists & Preservation Planners) for the Stillwater HPC.

The context study was divided into 16 Stillwater neighborhoods, each to be surveyed at a separate time. The City has received numerous grants from the Minnesota State Historical Society Certified Local Government Grant (CLG) program, with matching and in-kind funding from the City. The various studies (in PDF format) are listed below. Also listed below is a 2006 report referencing the designation of historic homes and historic districts, the National Register Survey of the Downtown Commercial Historic District as well as a 1985 report of the historical reconstruction of Stillwater's waterfront.

Neighborhood Reports:

• Carli & Schulenburg's Addition 2001
• Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter(West Half)
• Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter(East Half)
• Dutchtown District - October 1998
• Greeley Addition - 1997
• Hersey Staples & Co. - October 2000
• Holcombe District - July 1999
• North Hill Original Town - June 1995
• South Hill Original Town - August 1996
• Staples and Mays Addition - August 2005

Other Reports:

• Stillwater Historic Context - July 1993
•  Intensive National Registry Survey of Downtown Stillwater, Minnesota - August 1989
• Commercial Historic District Nomination Documentation
• Designating Historic Homes and Historic Districts - July 2006
• Historical Reconstruction of the Riverfront - Stillwater Minnesota - July 1985 - Produced for the US Army Corps of Engineers