The Cradle of Forestry in America (CFA) is located twelve miles from Brevard, North Carolina. Today the site is part of the Pisgah National Forest. It was originally part of a 2,000 acre holding purchased by George Vanderbilt in 1888. Vanderbilt hired Dr. Carl A. Schenck in 1895 as the second manager of Vanderbilt’s vast forest holdings. The German-born Schenck was to manage the restoration of the Biltmore Estate’s forests after years of misuse by previous owners. Schenck, with the assistance of Vanderbilt, established the Biltmore Forest School in 1898, emphasizing a practical, hands-on teaching method. By the time the school closed in 1913, the Biltmore Forest School had over 400 graduates. Consisting of 6,500 acres, the Cradle of Forestry in America has seven structures that relate to its significance as the first school of forestry in the United States. In 1914 the Forest Service purchased the Pisgah Forest from the Vanderbilt holdings. In 1968, the CFA was designated a National Historic Site.
CRA and Fitzsimons Office of Architecture were contracted by the United States Department of Agriculture, Southern Research Station, Eastern Administrative Zone to complete a historic buildings condition and assessment report for seven historic buildings located at the Cradle of Forestry in America. An integral part of this assessment report was the completion of architectural drawings and photographs meeting Historic American Building Survey (HABS) standards.