Historic Preservation Glossary

Historic Properties

The National Register of Historic Places includes historically significant properties, classified as buildings, sites, districts, structures, or objects. The following are definitions for these classifications.

Building
A building, such as a house, barn, church, hotel or similar construction, is created principally to shelter any form of human activity. Examples of buildings include: administration building, house, dormitory garage, library, office building, social hall, student union, classroom building, bookstore, etc.

Site
A site is the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure, whether standing, ruined or vanished, where the location itself possesses historic, cultural, or archaeological value regardless of the value of any existing structure.

Examples of sites include:

designed landscape
natural feature having cultural significance
ruins of a building or structure, trail, village or habitation site

District
A district possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings, structures or objects united historically or aesthetically by plan or physical development. A district derives its importance from being a unified entity, even though it is often comprised of a wide variety of resources. The identity of a district results from the interrelationship of its resources, which can convey a visual sense of the overall historic environment or be an arrangement of historically or functionally related properties.

Structure
The term “structure” is used to distinguish from buildings those functional constructions made usually for purposes other than creating human shelter. Examples of structures include: bridge, canal, fence, street, tunnel, etc.

Object
The term “object” is used to distinguish from buildings and structures those constructions that are primarily artistic in nature or are relatively small in scale and simply constructed. Although it may be, by nature or design, movable, an object is associated with a specific setting or environment. Examples of objects include: boundary marker, fountain, milepost, monument, sculpture, statuary.

National Register of Historic Places

Preservation of historic properties became a national policy through the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906, the Historic Site Act of 1935, and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. The Historic Sites Act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to identify and recognize properties of national significance (National Historic Landmarks) in United State history and archaeology. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 authorized the Secretary to expand this recognition to properties of local and State significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture, and worthy of preservation. The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of these recognized properties, and is maintained and expanded by the National Park Service on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior. The National Register of Historic Places documents the appearance and importance of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in our prehistory and history.

National Register Eligibility and Listing
Historic properties are determined “eligible” for the The National Register of Historic Places through assessment based on the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. These criteria are standards by which every property nominated to the National Register is judged. These criteria were developed to be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guideline for Archaeology and Historic Preservation. Listing properties in the National Register is an important step in a nationwide preservation process. Nominations may be submitted by private individuals, State historic preservation offices, Federal preservation offices, local governments and Indian tribes. The final evaluation and listing of properties in the National Register is the responsibility of the Keeper of the National Register.

Properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places generally must be fifty years or older and must meet the following criteria of significance and integrity:

Criteria for Evaluating Significance
Properties are evaluated in relationship to major historic and prehistoric themes in a community, state, or the nation. A property may be significant if it relates to any one or more of the following four aspects of American history:

Association with historic events or activities,
Association with an important person in history,
Distinctive design or physical character, or
Potential to provide important information about prehistory or history.

Criteria for Evaluating Integrity
A property must also maintain enough of the original qualities that make it significant. These qualities of integrity include: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.

Secretary of the Interior's Standards

Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards are intended to promote responsible preservation practices. For example, they cannot, in and of themselves, be used to make essential decisions about which features of the historic building should be saved and which can be changed. But once a treatment is selected, the Standards provide philosophical consistency to the work. The four treatment approaches are Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Reconstruction, outlined below in hierarchical order and explained:

Preservation places a premium on the retention of all historic fabric through conservation, maintenance and repair. It reflects a building's continuum over time, through successive occupancies, and the respectful changes and alterations that are made.

Rehabilitation emphasizes the retention and repair of historic materials, but more latitude is provided for replacement because it is assumed the property is more deteriorated prior to work. (Both Preservation and Rehabilitation standards focus attention on the preservation of those materials, features, finishes, spaces, and spatial relationships that, together, give a property its historic character.)

Restoration focuses on the retention of materials from the most significant time in a property's history, while permitting the removal of materials from other periods.

Reconstruction establishes limited opportunities to re-create a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object in all new materials.