Our History
JRP Founders, 1979
JRP has its beginnings in the late 1970s with the research and consulting work of University of California, Davis, history professor Dr. W. Turrentine Jackson. “Turpie” Jackson (1915-2000) was a renowned scholar of the American West and was the first history professor at UC Davis when it became a general campus in the 1950s. Rand F. Herbert and Stephen R. Wee began working with Dr. Jackson as graduate students, and as equal partners formed Jackson Research Projects in 1981. JRP’s early focus was historical research projects related to water rights, land use histories, and other specialized research tasks, often related to legal issues. It earned a reputation for high quality historical research and analysis.
By the late 1980s, JRP had established itself in the burgeoning field of cultural resources management, conducting historic resource inventory and evaluation projects and other historic preservation studies. Following Professor Jackson’s retirement in 1990, fellow UC Davis graduate and historian Steven Mikesell joined the firm as a partner in 1991, following previous positions at the California Office of Historic Preservation and Caltrans. The company became JRP Historical Consulting Services, and throughout the 1990s grew from the partners working with a handful of research assistants to a staff of twenty well trained and highly qualified historians / architectural historians and support staff. The business continued to conduct water rights and expert services projects, and other historical research projects, while also expanding its work in the field of cultural resources – specializing in evaluation and analysis of the built environment under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and the California Environmental Quality Act. JRP continues this dual focus today.
In the early 2000s, JRP’s leadership underwent several transitions. Steve Mikesell left in 2001 to become California Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, and long-time employee R. Meta Bunse joined Rand Herbert and Stephen Wee as a partner in 2002. The firm changed its name to JRP Historical Consulting at this time. Four years later another long-time employee, architectural historian Christopher McMorris, also became a partner and the firm reorganized as JRP Historical Consulting, LLC.
JRP – under the direction of Stephen Wee, Rand Herbert, Meta Bunse, and Chris McMorris – has a long-standing excellent reputation for high quality work and service, and maintains an expert staff of fifteen to twenty historians, architectural historians, research assistants, graphics technicians, and administrative staff. Always located in Davis, California, JRP moved to new offices at 2850 Spafford Street in early 2010.
JRP name changes:
1981-1990 Jackson Research Projects
1991-2001 JRP Historical Consulting Services
2002-2006 JRP Historical Consulting
2006-Present JRP Historical Consulting, LLC