National Register of Historic Places


The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of sites, buildings, structures, districts, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic value".
The enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts.
For most of its history, the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. Its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and coordinate, identify and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred in preserving the property.
Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts and multiple property submissions. The Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, site, structure, building or object.
National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties. Some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Landmark Districts, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, national memorials, and some national monuments.

History

On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. The National Register initially consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park System. Approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. The 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation.
To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, with director George B. Hartzog Jr., established an administrative division named the Federal Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register. The division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund.
The first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but later for commercial structures as well.
In 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.S. National Park system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates". Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior.
In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate. He was described as a skilled administrator, who was sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, academia and local governments.
Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs eventually became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register. The 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register. Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups.
The National Register of Historic Places has grown considerably from its legislative origins in 1966. In 1986, citizens and groups nominated 3,623 separate properties, sites and districts for inclusion on the National Register, a total of 75,000 separate properties. Of the more than one and a half million properties on the National Register, 95,000 are listed individually. Others are listed as contributing members within historic districts.

Nomination process

Any individual can prepare a National Register nomination, although historians and historic preservation consultants often are employed for this work. The nomination consists of a standard registration form and contains basic information about a property's physical appearance and the type of significance embodied in the building, structure, object, site, or district.
The State Historic Preservation Office receives National Register nominations and provides feedback to the nominating individual or group. After preliminary review, the SHPO sends each nomination to the state's historic review commission, which then recommends whether the State Historic Preservation Officer should send the nomination to the Keeper of the National Register. For any non-Federally owned property, only the State Historic Preservation Officer may officially nominate a property for inclusion in the National Register. After the nomination is recommended for listing in the National Register by the SHPO, the nomination is sent to the National Park Service, which approves or denies the nomination.
If approved, the property is entered officially by the Keeper of the National Register into the National Register of Historic Places. Property owners are notified of the nomination during the review by the SHPO and the state's historic review commission. If an owner objects to a nomination of private property, or in the case of a historic district, a majority of owners, then the property cannot be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Criteria

For a property to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, it must meet at least one of its four main criteria. Information about architectural styles, association with various aspects of social history, and commerce and ownership are all integral parts of the nomination. Each nomination contains a narrative section that provides a detailed physical description of the property and justifies why it is significant historically with regard to either local, state, or national history. The four National Register of Historic Places criteria are the following:
  • Criterion A, "Event", the property must make a contribution to the major pattern of American history.
  • Criterion B, "Person", is associated with significant people of the American past.
  • Criterion C, "Design/Construction", concerns the distinctive characteristics of the building by its architecture and construction, including having great artistic value or being the work of a master.
  • Criterion D, "Information potential", is satisfied if the property has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to prehistory or history.
The criteria are applied differently for different types of properties; for instance, maritime properties have application guidelines different from those of buildings.

Exclusions

The National Park Service names seven categories of properties that "are not usually considered for" and "ordinarily... shall not be considered eligible for" the National Register: religious properties ; buildings that have been moved; birthplaces or graves of important persons; cemeteries; reconstructed properties; commemorative properties ; and "properties that have achieved significance within the last fifty years". However, if they meet particular "Criteria Considerations" for their category in addition to the overall criteria, they are, in fact, eligible. Hence, despite the forbidding language, these kinds of places are not actually excluded as a rule. For example, the Register lists thousands of churches.
There is a misconception that there is a strict rule that a property must be at least 50 years old to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In reality, there is no hard rule. John H. Sprinkle Jr., deputy director of the Federal Preservation Institute, stated:
The National Register evaluation procedures do not use the term "exclusions". The stricter National Historic Landmarks Criteria, upon which the National Register criteria are based, do specify exclusions, along with corresponding "exceptions to the exclusions", which are supposed to apply more narrowly.