Hilary Wehrle

Founder & Principal Historian, Hearth & Heritage, LLC.

Hilary Wehrle is an architectural historian, researcher, and public historian with more than a decade of experience documenting, interpreting, and preserving America's historic places and cultural landscapes. As the founder of Hearth & Heritage, LLC, she is dedicated to uncovering the stories embedded within homes, farms, landscapes, and historic communities, helping property owners and organizations better understand and steward their historic resources.

Hilary's career began in the US Army museum system, where she contributed to the preservation and interpretation of military heritage and cultural resources. Over the years, she has worked on a diverse range of preservation and public history projects, including battlefield preservation initiatives, historic American canal and landscape documentation, historic marker trails, cultural resource surveys, and community heritage projects.

Throughout her work, Hilary has remained committed to bringing overlooked and marginalized histories into public view. She believes that meaningful preservation extends beyond architecture to include the lives, experiences, and stories of the people who shaped a place. Her research often combines architectural history, genealogy, archival investigation, oral histories, and landscape analysis to reveal the human connections that give historic properties their significance.

Her professional experience spans a broad range of property types, from historic farms and ranches to commercial buildings, industrial sites, transportation corridors, and mid-century modern resources. She has conducted research, site assessments, and documentation in multiple states, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, New Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and others. This breadth of expertise allows her to approach each project with a comprehensive understanding of how buildings, landscapes, and communities evolve over time.

Through Hearth & Heritage, LLC, Hilary provides historic house research, National Register of Historic Places nominations, conservation easement documentation, preservation planning, genealogical research, and heritage interpretation services. Her work is driven by a passion for connecting people to the history of the places they inhabit and ensuring that those stories are preserved for future generations.

"Every place has a story. My work is about uncovering those stories, honoring the people who lived them, and helping preserve their legacy for the future." — Hilary Wehrle