NATIONAL REGISTER BULLETIN Technical information on the the National Register of Historic Places: survey, evaluation, registration, and preservation of cultural resources
U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Cultural Resources National Register, History and Education
How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation The mission of the Department of the Interior is to protect and provide access to our Nation's natural and cultural heritage and honor our trust responsibilities to tribes.
The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Park Service cooperates with partners to extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.
This material is partially based upon work conducted under a cooperative agreement with the National Conference ofState Historic Preservation Officers and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Date of publication: 1990; revised 1991, 1995, 1997. Revised for Internet 1995.
Cover
(Top Left) Criterion B - Frederick Douglass Home, Washington, D.C. From 1877- 1899, this was the home of Frederick Douglass, the former slave who rose to become a prominent author, abolitionist, editor, orator, and diplomat. (Walter Smalling, Jr.)
(Top Right) Criterion D - Francis Canyon Ruin, Blanco vicinity, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. A fortified village site composed of 40 masonry-walled rooms arranged in a cluster of four house blocks. Constructed ca. 1716-17 42 for protection against raiding Utes and Comanches, the site has information potential related to Na vajo, Pueblo, and Spanish cultures. (Jon Samuelson)
(Bottom Left) Criterion C - Bridge in Cherrytree Township, Venago County, Pennsylvania. Built in 1882, this Pratt through truss bridge is significant for engi neering as a well preserved example of a type of bridge frequently used in northwestern Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation)
(Bottom Right) Criterion A - Main Street/Market Square Historic District, Houston, Harris County, Texas. Until well into the 20th century this district marked the bounds of public and business life in Houston. Constructed between the 1870s and 1920s, the district includes Houston's municipal and county buildings, and served as the city's wholesale, retail, and financial center. (Paul Hester) PREFACE
Preserving historic properties as cant in our prehistory and history. It should be used by anyone who important reflections of our American These properties represent the major must decide if a particular property heritage became a national policy patterns of our shared local, S_tate, qualifies for the National Register of through passage of the Antiquities and national experience. To guide the Historic Places. Act of 1906, the Historic Sites Act of selection of properties included in the Listing properties in the National 1935, and the National Historic Pres National Register, the National Park Register is an important step in a na ervation Act of 1966, as amended. Service has developed the National tionwide preservation process. The The Historic Sites Act authorized the Register Criteria for Evaluation. responsibility for the identification, Secretary of the Interior to identify These criteria are standards by which initial evaluation, nomination, and and recognize properties of national every property that is nominated to treatment of historic resources lies significance (National Historic Land the National Register is judged. In with private individuals, State historic marks) in United States history and addition, the National Park Service preservation offices, and Federal pres archeology. The National Historic has developed criteria for the recogni ervation offices, local governments, Preservation Act of 1966 authorized tion of nationally significant proper and Indian tribes. The final evalua the Secretary to expand this recogni ties, which are designated National tion and listing of properties in the tion to properties of local and State Historic Landmarks and prehistoric National Register is the responsibility significance in American history, ar and historic units of the National Park of the Keeper of the National Register. chitecture, archeology, engineering, System. Both these sets of criteria This bulletin was prepared by staff and culture, and worthy of preserva were developed to be consistent with of the National Register Branch, Inter tion. The National Register of His the Secretary of the Interior's Stan agency Resources Division, National toric Places is the official list of these dards and Guidelinesfor Archeology and Park Service, with the assistance of the recognized properties, and is main Historic Preservation, which are uni History Division. It was originally is tained and expanded by the National form, national standards for preserva sued in draft form in 1982. The draft Park Service on behalf of the Secretary tion activities. 2 was revised into final form by Patrick of the Interior. 1 This publication explains how the W. Andrus, Historian, National Regis The National Register of Historic National Park Service applies these ter, and edited by Rebecca H. Places documents the appearance and criteria in evaluating the wide range Shrimpton, Consulting Historian. importance of districts, sites, build of properties that may be significant Beth L. Savage, National Register ings, structures, and objects signifi- in local, State, and national history. and Sarah Dillard Pope, National Reg ister, NCSHPO coordinated the latest revision of this bulletin. Antionette J. Lee, Tanya Gossett, and Kira Badamo coordinated earlier revisions.
1Properties listed in the National Register receive limited Federal protection and certain benefits. For more information concerning the effects of listing, and how the National Register may be used by the general public and Certified Local Governments, as well as by local, State, and Federal agencies, and for copies of National Register Bulletins, contact the National Park Service, National Register, 1849 C Street, NW, NC400, Washington, D.C., 20240. Information may also be obtained by visiting the National Register Web site at www.cr.nps.gov/nr or by contacting any of the historic preservat10n offices m the States and territories.
'The Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation are found in the Federal Register, Vol. 48, No. 190 (Thursday, September 29, 1983). A copy can be obtained by writing the National Park Service, Heritage Preservation Services (at the address above). TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ...... i
I. Introduction ...... 1
II. National Register Criteria for Evaluation ...... 2
III. How to Use this Bulletin to Evaluate a Property ...... 3
IV. How to Define Categories of Historic Properties ...... 4
Building ...... 4 Structure ...... 4 Object ...... 5 Site ...... 5 District ...... 5 Concentration, Linkage, & Continuity of Features ...... 5 Significance ...... 5 Types of Features ...... 5 g~;~~{i;~~~s8~¥s~~~;!~~::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: V. How to Evaluate a Property Within its Historfc Context ...... 7
Understanding Historic Contexts ...... 7 How to Evaluate a Property Within Its Historic Context ...... 7 Properties Significant Within More Than on Historic Context ...... 9 Comparing Related Properties ...... 9 Local, State, and National Historic Contexts ...... 9
VI. How to Identify the Type of Significance of a Property ...... 11
Introduction ...... 11 Criterion A: Event ...... 12 Understanding Criterion A ...... 12
Jy~! ~~t:!~~s~.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Association of the Property with the Events ...... 12 Significance of the Association ...... 12 Traditional Cultural Values ...... 13
Criterion B: Person ...... 14
Comparison to Related Properties ...... 15 Association with Groups ...... 15 Association with Living Persons ...... 16 Association with Architects/ Artisans ...... 16 Native American Sites ...... 16
ii Distinctive Characteristics of Type, Period, and Method of Construction ...... 18 Historic Adaptation of the Original Property ...... 19 Works of a Master ...... 20 Properties Possessing High Artistic Values ...... 20
Criterion D: Information Potential ...... 21 Understanding Criterion D ...... 21 Applying Criterion D ...... 21 Archeological Sites ...... 21 Buildings, Structures, and Objects ...... 21 Association with Human Activity ...... 22 Establishing a Historic Context ...... 22 Developing Research Questions ...... 22 Establishing the Presence of Adequate Data ...... 23 Integrity ...... 23 Partly Excavated or Disturbed Properties ...... 23 Completely Excavated Sites ...... 24
VII. How to Apply the Criteria Considerations ...... 25
Introduction ...... 25 Criteria Consideration A: Religious Properties ...... 26 Understanding Criteria Consideration A ...... 26 Applying Criteria Consideration A ...... 26 Eligibility for Historic Events ...... 26 Eligibility for Historic Persons ...... 27 Eligibility for Architectural or Artistic Distinction ...... 28 Eligibility for Information Potential ...... 28 Ability to Reflect Historic Associations ...... 28
Criteria Consideration B: Moved Properties ...... 29 Understanding Criteria Consideration B ...... 29 Applying Criteria Consideration B ...... 29 Eligibility for Architectural Value ...... 29 Eligibility for Historic Associations ...... 30 Setting and Environment ...... 30 Association Dependent on the Site ...... 30 Properties Designed to Be Moved ...... 31 Artificially Created Groupings ...... 31 Portions of Properties ...... 31
Criteria Consideration C: Birthplaces and Graves ...... 32 Understanding Criteria Consideration C ...... 32 Applying Criteria Consideration C ...... 32 Persons of Outstanding Importance ...... 32 Last Surviving Property Associated with a Person ...... 32 Eligibility for Other Associations ...... 33
Criteria Consideration D: Cemeteries ...... 34 Understanding Criteria Consideration D ...... 34 Applying Criteria Consideration D ...... 34 Persons of Transcendent Importance ...... 34 Eligibility on the Basis of Age ...... 35 Eligibility for Design ...... 35 Eligibility for Association with Events ...... 35 Eligibility for Information Potential ...... 35 Integrity ...... 36 National Cemeteries ...... 36
Criteria Consideration E: Reconstructed Properties ...... 37 Understanding Criteria Consideration E ...... 37 Applying Criteria Consideration E ...... 37 Accuracy of the Reconstruction ...... 37 Suitable Environment ...... 37 Restoration Master Plans ...... 38
111 Last Surviving Property of a Type ...... 38 Reconstructions Older than Fifty Years ...... 38
Criteria Consideration F: Commemorative Properties ...... 39 Understanding Criteria Consideration F ...... 39 Applying Criteria Consideration F ...... 39 Eligibility for Design ...... 39 Eligibility for Age, Tradition, or Symbolic Value ...... 40 Ineligibility as the Last Representative of an Event or Person ...... 40
Criteria Consideration G: Properties that Have Achieved Significance Within the Past Fifty Years ...... 41 Understanding Criteria Consideration G ...... 41 Applying Criteria Consideration G ...... 42 Eligibility for Exceptional Importance ...... 42 Historical Perspective ...... 42 National Park Service Rustic Architecture ...... 42 Veterans Administration Hospitals ...... 42 Comparison with Related Properties ...... 42 World War II Properties ...... 42 Eligibility for Information Potential ...... 43 Historic Districts ...... 43 Properties Over Fifty Years in Age, Under Fifty Years in Significance ...... 43 Requirement to Meet the Criteria, Regardless of Age ...... 43
VIII. How to Evaluate the Integrity of a Property ...... 44
Introduction ...... 44 Understanding the Aspects of Integrity ...... 44 Location ...... 44 Design ...... 44 Setting ...... 44 Materials ...... 45 Workmanship ...... 45 Feeling ...... 45 Association ...... 45 Assessing Integrity in Properties ...... 45 Defining the Essential Physical Features ...... 46 Visibility of the Physical Features ...... 46 Comparing Similar Properties ...... 47 Determining the Relevant Aspects of Integrity ...... 48
IX. Summary of the National Historic Landmarks Criteria for Evaluation ...... 50
X. Glossary ...... 53
XI. List of National Register Bulletins ...... 54
iv I. INTRODUCTION
The National Register is the historic contexts. Detailed guidance • Expecting to nominate a property nation's inventory of historic places for developing and applying historic as a National Historic Landmark and the national repository of docu contexts is contained in National Reg in addition to nominating it to mentation on the variety of historic ister Bulletin: How to Complete the Na the National Register. property types, significance, abun tional Register Registration Form and dance, condition, ownership, needs, National Register Bulletin: How to Com and other information. It is the begin plete the National Register Multiple This bulletin also contains a sum ning of a national census of historic Property Documentation Form ) mary of the National Historic Land properties. The National Register Cri The guidelines provided here are marks Criteria for Evaluation (see teria for Evaluation define the scope intended to help you understand the Part IX). National Historic Land of the National Register of Historic National Park Service's use of the Cri marks are those districts, sites, build Places; they identify the range of re teria for Evaluation, historic contexts, ings, structures, and objects desig sources and kinds of significance that integrity, and Criteria Considerations, nated by the Secretary of the Interior will qualify properties for listing in and how they apply to properties un as possessing national significance in the National Register. The Criteria der consideration for listing in the American history, architecture, arche are written broadly to recognize the National Register. Examples are pro ology, engineering, and culture .. Al wide variety of historic properties as vided throughout, illustrating specific though National Register documenta sociated with our prehistory and his circumstances in which properties are tion includes a recommendation tory. and are not eligible for the National about whether a property is signifi Decisions concerning the signifi Register. This bulletin should be used cant at the local, State, or national cance, historic integrity, documenta by anyone who is: level, the only official designation of tion, and treatment of properties can national significance is as a result of be made reliably only when the re • Preparing to nominate a property National Historic Landmark designa source is evaluated within its historic to the National Register, tion by the Secretary of the Interior, context. The historic context serves as National Monument designation by • Seeking a determination of a the framework within which the Na the President of the United States, or property's eligibility, tional Register Criteria are applied to establishment as a unit of the National specific properties or property types. • Evaluating the comparable sig Park System by Congress. These (See Part V for a brief discussion of nificance of a property to those properties are automatically listed in listed in the National Register, or the National Register.
1 II. THE NATIONAL REGISTERCRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
c. A birthplace or grave of a historical CRITERIA FOR CRITERIA figure of outstanding importance 3 if there is no appropriate site or EVALUATION: CONSIDERATIONS: building directly associated with his or her productive life; or The quality of significance in Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, d A cemetery which derives its American history, architecture, arche or graves of historical figures, proper primary significance from graves ology, engineering, and culture is ties owned by religious institutions or of persons of transcendent impor present in districts, sites, buildings, used for religious purposes, structures tance, from age, from distinctive structures, and objects that possess in that have been moved from their design features, or from association tegrity of location, design, setting, ma original locations, reconstructed his with historic events; or terials, workmanship, feeling, and as toric buildings, properties primarily sociation, and: commemorative in nature, and prop e. A reconstructed building when erties that have achieved significance accuratelv executed in a suitable A. That are associated with events that within the past 50 years shall not be environ~ent and presented in a have made a significant contribu considered eligible for the National dignified manner as part of a tion to the broad patterns of our Register. However, such properties restoration master plan, and when history; or will qualify if they are integral parts of no other building or structure with the same association has survived; B. That are associated with the lives of districts that do meet the criteria or if or persons significant in our past; or they fall within the following catego ries: f. A property primarily commemora C. That embody the distinctive tive in intent if design, age, tradi characteristics of a type, period, or a. A religious property deriving tion, or symbolic value has in method of construction, or that primary significance from architec vested it with its own exceptional represent the work of a master, or tural or artistic distinction or significance; or that possess high artistic values, or historical importance; or that represent a significant and g. A property achieving significance distinguishable entity whose b. A building or structure removed within the past 50 years if it is of components may lack individual from its original location but which exceptional importance. distinction; or is significant primarily for architec tural value, or which is the surviv D. That have yielded, or may be likely ing structure most importantly to yield, information important in associated with a historic person or prehistory or history. event; or
3The Criteria for Evaluation are found in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 36, Part 60, and are reprinted here in full.
2 III. HOW TO USE THIS BULLETINTO EVALUATEA PROPERTY
For a property to qualify for the a district, site, building, structure, 4. Determine if the property repre National Register it must meet one of or object for inclusion in the sents a type usually excluded from the National Register Criteria for National Register. the National Register (Part VII). Evaluation by: If so, determine if it meets any of 2. Determine which prehistoric or the Criteria Considerations. • Being associated with an impor historic context(s) the property represents (Part V). A property tant historic context and 5. Determine whether the property must possess significance in retains integrity (Part VIII). • Retaining historic integrity of American history, architecture, Evaluate the aspects of location, those features necessary to con archeology, engineering, or design, setting, workmanship, ma vey its significance. culture when evaluated within terials, feeling, and association the historic context of a relevant that the property must retain to Information about the property geographic area. convey its historic significance. based on physical examination and documentary research is necessary to 3. Determine whether the property evaluate a property's eligibility for the is significant under the National If, after completing these steps, the National Register. Evaluation of a Register Criteria (Part VI). This property appears to qualify for the Na property is most efficiently made is done by identifying the links to tional Register, the next step is to pre when following this sequence: important events or persons, pare a written nomination. (Refer to design or construction features, National Register Bulletin: How to 1. Categorize the property (Part IV). or information potential that Complete the National Register Registra A property must be classified as make the property important. tion Form.)
3 IV. HOW TO DEFINE CATEGORIESOF HISTORIC PROPERTIES
The National Register of Historic whole building must be considered, piers, all of which, if extant, must be Places includes significant properties, and its significant features must be included when considering the classified as buildings, sites, districts, identified. property for eligibility. structures, or objects. It is not used to If a building has lost any of its basic If a structure has lost its historic list intangible values, except in so far structural elements, it is usuallv con configuration or pattern of organiza as thev are associated with or re sidered a "ruin" and is categorized as tion through deterioration or demoli flected by historic properties. The Na a site. tion, it is usually considered a "ruin" tion,11 Register does not list cultural Examples of buildings include: and is categorized as a site. events, or skilled or talented individu als, as is done in some countries. administration building Examples of structures include: Rather, the National Register is ori carriagehouse clzurclz aircraft ented to recognizing physically con apiary crete properties th<1tare relatively city or town hall automobile fixed in location. courthouse detached kitchen, barn, and privy bandstand For purposes of National Register boats and ships nominations, small groups of proper dormitory bridge ties are listed under a single category, fort cairn using the primary resource. For ex garage canal ample, a city hall and fountain would hotel carousel be categorized by the city hall (build house corncrib ing), a farmhouse with two outbuild library dam ings would be categorized by the mill building earthwork farmhouse (building), and a city park office building fence with a gazebo would be categorized post office gazebo by the park (site). Properties with school grain elevator large acreage or a number of re social hall highway sources are usually considered dis shed irrigation system tricts. Common sense and reason stable kiln should dictate the selection of catego store ries. theater lighthouse train station railroadgrade silo BUILDING trolley car STRUCTURE tunnel A building, such as a house, barn, windmill church, hotel, or similar construc The term "structure" is used to tion, is created principally to shelter distinguish from buildings those any form of human activity. "Build functional constructions made usu ing" may also be used to refer to a ally for purposes other than creating historically and functionally related human shelter. unit, such as a courthouse and jail or Structures nominated to the a house and barn. National Register must include all of Buildings eligible for the National the extant basic structural elements. Register must include all of their basic Parts of structures can not be consid structural elements. Parts of build ered eligible if the whole structure ings, such as interiors, facades, or remains. For example, a truss bridge wings, are not eligible independent of is composed of the metal or wooden the rest of the existing building. The truss, the abutments, and supporting 4 OBJECT A site may be a natural landmark commercial buildings, sites, struc strongly associated with significant tures, or objects. A district can also be The term "object" is used to prehistoric or historic events or a grouping of archeological sites distinguish from buildings and patterns of events, if the significance related primarily by their common structures those constructions that of the natural feature is well docu components; these types of districts are primarily artistic in nature or are mented through scholarly research. often will not visually represent a relatively small in scale and simply Generally, though, the National specific historic environment. constructed. Although it may be, by Register excludes from the definition nature or design, movable, an object of "site" natural waterways or bodies SIGNIFICANCE is associated with a specific setting of water that served as determinants or environment. in the location of communities or A district must be significant, as Small objects not designed for a were significant in the locality's well as being an identifiable entity. It specific location are normally not subsequent economic development. must be important for historical, eligible. Such works include trans While they may have been "avenues architectural, archeological, engineer portable sculpture, furniture, and of exploration," the features most ing, or cultural values. Therefore, other decorative arts that, unlike a appropriate to document this signifi districts that are significant will fixed outdoor sculpture, do not cance are the properties built in usually meet the last portion of possess association with a specific association with the waterways. Criterion C plus Criterion A, Criterion place. B, other portions of Criterion C, or Objects should be in a setting Examples of sites include: Criterion D. appropriate to their significant battlefield historic use, roles, or character. campsite TYPES OF FEATURES Objects relocated to a museum are cemeteries significant for information inappropriate for listing in the Na potential or historic association A district can comprise both tional Register. ceremonial site features that lack individual distinc designed landscape tion and individually distinctive Examples of objects include: habitation site features that serve as focal points. It boundary marker natural feature (such as a rock formation) may even be considered eligible if all fountain having cultural significance of the components lack individual milepost petroglyph distinction, provided that the group monument rock carving ing achieves significance as a whole scupturc rock shelter within its historic context. In either statuary ruins of a building or structure case, the majority of the components shipwreck that add to the district's historic trail character, even if they are individu village site ally undistinguished, must possess SITE integrity, as must the district as a DISTRICT whole. A site is the location of a signifi A district can contain buildings, cant event, a prehistoric or historic structures, sites, objects, or open occupation or activity, or a building A district possesses a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity spaces that do not contribute to the or structure, whether standing, significance of the district. The ruined, or vanished, where the of sites, buildings, structures, or objects united historically or aes nm:1b~r of noncontributing properties location itself possesses historic, a d1stnct can contain yet still convey cultural, or archeological value thetically by plan or physical devel opment. its sense of time and place and regardless of the value of any exist historical development depends on ing structure. how these properties affect the A site can possess associative CONCENTRATION, LINKAGE, & CONTINUITY OF FEATURES district's integrity. In archeological significance or information potential districts, the primary factor to be or both, and can be significant under considered is the effect of any distur any or all of the four criteria. A site A district derives its importance from being a unified entity, even bances on the information potential of need not be marked by physical the district as a whole. remains if it is the location of a though it is often composed of a wide prehistoric or historic event or pattern v~rie_ty of resources. The identity of a of events and if no buildings, struc d1stnct results from the interrelation tures, or objects marked it at the time ship of its resources, which can of the events. However, when the convey a visual sense of the overall location of a prehistoric or historic historic environment or be an ar event cannot be conclusively deter rangement of historically or function mined because no other cultural al_ly~elated properties. For example, a materials were present or survive, d1stnct can reflect one principal documentation must be carefully activity, such as a mill or a ranch, or it evaluated to determine whether the can encompass several interrelated traditionally recognized or identified activities, such as an area that in site is accurate. cludes industrial, residential, or
5 GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES DISCONTIGUOUS DISTRICTS It is not appropriate to use the discontiguous district format to A district must be a definable A district is usually a single geo- include an isolated resource or small geographic area that can be distin- graphic area of contiguous historic group of resources which were once guished from surrounding properties properties; however, a district can connected to the district, but have by changes such as density, scale, also be composed of two or more since been separated either through type, age, style of sites, buildings, definable significant areas separated demolition or new construction. For structures, and objects, or by docu- by nonsignificant areas. A example, do not use the discontiguous mented differences in patterns of discontiguous district is most appro- district format to nominate individual historic development or associations. priate where: buildings of a downtown commerical It is seldom defined, however, by the district that have become isolated limits of current parcels of ownership, • Elements are spatially discrete; through demolition. management, or planning boundaries. The boundaries must be based upon a • Space between the elements is Examples of districts iE,[;lude: shared relationship among the not related to the significance of the district; and business districts properties constituting the district. canal systems • Visual continuity is not a factor groups of habitation sites in the significance. college campuses In addition, a canal can be treated estates and farms with large acreage/ as a discontiguous district when the numerous properties system consists of man-made sections industrial complexes of canal interspersed with sections of irrigation systems river navigation. For scattered residential areas archeological properties, a rural villages discontiguous district is appropriate transportation networks when the deposits are related to each rural historic districts other through cultural affiliation, period of use, or site type.
Ordeman-Shaw Historic District, Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama. Historic districts derive their identity from the interrationship of their resources. Part of the defining characteristics of this 19th century residential district in Montgomery, Alabama, is found in the rhythmic pattern of the rows of decorative porches. (Frank L. Thiermonge, III)
6 V. HOWTOEVALUATEA PROPERTY WITHIN ITS HISTORIC CONTEXT
In order to decide whether a UNDERSTANDING property is significant within its HOW TO EVALUATE historic context, the following five HISTORIC things must be determined: APROPERTY
CONTEXTS • The facet of prehistory or history WITHIN ITS of the local area, State, or the na- To qualify for the National Regis- tion that the property represents; HISTORIC CONTEXT ter, a property must be significant; that is, it must represent a significant • Whether that facet of prehistory Identify what the property repre- part of the history, architecture, or history is significant; sents: the theme(s), geographical archeology, engineering, or culture of • Whether it is a type of property limits, and chronological period that an area, and it must have the charac- that has relevance and impor- provide a perspective from which to teristics that make it a good represen- tance in illustrating the historic evaluate the property's significance. tative of properties associated with context; that aspect of the past. This section Historic contexts are historical explains how to evaluate a property • How the property illustrates that patterns that can be identified through within its historic context. history; and finally consideration of the history of the The significance of a historic • Whether the property possesses property and the history of the sur- property can be judged and explained the physical features necessary to rounding area. Historic contexts may only when it is evaluated within its convey the aspect of prehistory have already been defined in your area historic context. Historic contexts are or history with which it is associ- by the State historic preservation office, those patterns or trends in history by ated. Federal agencies, or local governments. which a specific occurrence, property, In accordance with the National Regis- or site is understood and its meaning These five steps are discussed in ter Criteria, the historic context may (and ultimately its significance) detail below. If the property being relate to one of the following: within history or prehistory is made evaluated does represent an impor- clear. Historians, architectural tant aspect of the area's history or • An event, a series of events or ac- historians, folklorists, archeologists, prehistory and possesses the requisite tivities, or patterns of an area's de- and anthropologists use different quality of integrity, then it qualifies velopment (Criterion A); words to describe this phenomena for the National Register. • with life of an such as trend, pattern, theme, or Association the im- person cultural affiliation, but ultimately the portant (Criterion B); concept is the same. • A building form, architectural style, The concept of historic context is engineering technique, or artistic not a new one; it has been fundamen- values, based on a stage of physical tal to the study of history since the development, or the use of a mate- 18th century and, arguably, earlier rial or method of construction that than that. Its core premise is that shaped the historic identity of an resources, properties, or happenings area (Criterion C); or in history do not occur in a vacuum but rather are part of larger trends or • A research topic (Criterion D). patterns.
4 For a complete discussion of historic contexts, see National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Completing National Register of Historic Places Registration Forms. 7 Determine how the theme of the Determine what the property type Determine how the property context is significant in the history of is and whether it is important in represents the context through the local area, the State, or the illustrating the historic context. specific historic associations, archi nation. tectural or engineering values, or A context may be represented by a information potential (the Criteria A theme is a means of organizing variety of important property types. for Evaluation). properties into coherent patterns For example, the context of "Civil based on elements such as environ War Military Activity in Northern For example, the context of county ment, social/ ethnic groups, transpor Virginia" might be represented by government expansion is represented tation networks, technology, or such properties as: a group of mid- under Criterion A by historic districts political developments that have 19th century fortification structures; or buildings that reflect population influenced the development of an area an open field where a battle occurred; growth, development patterns, the during one or more periods of prehis a knoll from which a general directed role of government in that society, tory or history. A theme is considered troop movements; a sunken transport and political events in the history of significant if it can be demonstrated, ship; the residences or public build the State, as well as the impact of through scholarly research, to be ings that served as company head county government on the physical important in American history. Many quarters; a railroad bridge that served development of county seats. Under significant themes can be found in the as a focal point for a battle; and Criterion C, the context is represented following list of Areas of Significance earthworks exhibiting particular by properties whose architectural used by the National Register. construction techniques. treatments reflect their governmental Because a historic context for a functions, both practically and AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE community can be based on a distinct symbolically. (See Part VI: How to Agriculture period of development, it might Identify the Type of Significance of a Architecture include numerous property types. Property.) Archeology For example, the context "Era of Prehistoric Industrialization in Grand Bav, Determine what physical features Historic-Aboriginal Michigan, 1875 - 1900" could be the property must possess in order Historic-Non-Aboriginal represented by important property for it to reflect the significance of the Art types as diverse as sawmills, paper historic context. Commerce mill sites, salt refining plants, flour Communications mills, grain elevators, furniture These physical features can be Community Planning and Development factories, workers housing, commer determined after identifying the Conservation cial buildings, social halls, schools, following: Economics churches, and transportation facilities. Education A historic context can also be based • Which types of properties are as Engineering on a single important type of prop sociated with the historic context, erty. The context "Development of Entertainment/ Recreation • The ways in which properties can County Government in Georgia, Ethnic Heritage represent the theme, and Asian 1777 - 1861" might be represented Black solely by courthouses. Similarly, • The applicable aspects of integ European "Bridge Construction in Pittsburgh, rity. Hispanic 1870 - 1920" would probably only have one property type. Properties that have the defined Native American characteristics are eligible for listing. Pacific Islander (See Part VIII: How to Evaluate the Other Integrity of a Property.) Exploralion/ Settlement Health/Medicine Industry Invention LandscapeArchitecture Law Literature Maritime History Military Performing Arts Philosophy Politics/Government Religion Science Social History Transportation Other
8 PROPERTIES SIGNIFICANT found throughout the entire State: LOCAL, STATE, they can be located in only a portion WITHIN MORE THAN ONE of the State's present political bound HISTORIC CONTEXT AND NATIONAL ary. It is the property's historic context that must be important A specific property can be signifi HISTORIC statewide. For example, the "cotton cant within one or more historic belt" extends through only a portion contexts, and, if possible, all of these CONTEXTS of Georgia, yet its historical develop should be identified. For example, a ment in the antebellum period af public building constructed in the Historic contexts are found at a fected the entire State. These State 1830s that is related to the historic variety of geographical levels or historic contexts may have associated context of Civil War campaigns in the scales. The geographic scale selected properties that are statewide or area might also be related to the may relate to a pattern of historical locally significant representations. A theme of political developments in the development, a political division, or a cotton gin in a small town might be a community during the 1880s. A cultural area. Regardless of the scale, locally significant representation of property is only required, however, to the historic context establishes the this context, while one of the largest be documented as significant in one framework from which decisions cotton producing plantations might context. about the significance of related be of State significance. properties can be made. A property whose historic associa COMPARING RELATED tions or information potential appears PROPERTIES LOCAL HISTORIC to extend beyond a single local area CONTEXTS might be significant at the State level. A property can be significant to more Properties listed in the National than one community or local area, A local historic context represents Register must possess significance however, without having achieved an aspect of the history of a town, when evaluated in the perspective of State significance. their historic context. Once the city, county, cultural area, or region, A property that overlaps several or any portions thereof. It is defined historic context is established and the State boundaries can possibly be property type is determined, it is not by the importance of the property, not significant to the State or local history necessarily the physical location of the necessary to evaluate the property in of each of the States. Such a property property. For instance, if a property question against other properties if: is not necessarily of national signifi is of a type found throughout a State, cance, however, nor is it necessarily • It is the sole example of a prop or its boundaries extend over two significant to all of the States in which States, but its importance relates only erty type that is important in il it is located. lustrating the historic context or to a particular county, the property Prehistoric sites are not often would be considered of local signifi considered to have "State" signifi • It clearly possesses the defined cance. cance, per se, largely because States characteristics required to The level of context of archeologi are relatively recent political entities strongly represent the context. cal sites significant for their informa and usually do not correspond closely tion potential depends on the scope of If these two conditions do not to Native American political territo the applicable research design. For apply, then the property will have to ries or cultural areas. Numerous sites, example, a Late Mississippian village be evaluated against other examples however, may be of significance to a site may yield information in a of the property type to determine its large region that might geographi research design concerning one eligibility. The geographic level cally encompass parts of one, or (local, State, or national) at which this settlement system on a regional scale, while in another research design it usually several, States. Prehistoric evaluation is made is the same as the resources that might be of State may reveal information of local level of the historic context. (See Part significance include regional sites that V: How to Evaluate a Property Within importance concerning a single group's stone tool manufacturing provide a diagnostic assemblage of Its Historic Context.) artifacts for a particular cultural techniques or house forms. It is a question of how the available infor group or time period or that provide mation potential is likely to be used. chronological control (specific dates or relative order in time) for a series of cultural groups. STATE HISTORIC CONTEXTS
Properties are evaluated in a State context when they represent an aspect of the history of the State as a whole (or American Samoa, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands). These properties do not necessarily have to belong to property types
9 NATIONAL HISTORIC Regulations, Title 36, Part 65 and are was fought in only a portion of the CONTEXTS summarized in this bulletin in Part IX: United States, yet its impact was Summary of National Historic Land nationwide. The site of a small marks Criteriafor Evaluation. military skirmish might be a locally Properties are evaluated in a A property with national signifi significant representation of this national context when they represent cance helps us understand the history national context, while the capture of an aspect of the history of the United of the nation by illustrating the the State's largest city might be a States and its territories as a whole. nationwide impact of events or statewide significant representation These national historic contexts may persons associated with the property, of the national context. have associated properties that are its architectural type or style, or When evaluating properties at the locally or statewide significant information potential. It must be of national level for designation as a representations, as well as those of exceptional value in representing or National Historic Landmark, please national significance. illustrating an important theme in the refer to the National Historic Land Properties designated as nationally history of the nation. marks outline, History and Prehistory significant and listed in the National Nationally significant properties in the National Park System and the Register are the prehistoric and do not necessarily have to belong to a National Historic Landmarks Program historic units of the National Park property type found throughout the 1987. (For more information about System and those properties that have entire country: they can be located in the National Historic Landmarks been designated National Historic only a portion of the present political program, please write to the Depart Landmarks. The National Historic boundaries. It is their historic context ment of the Interior, National Park Landmark criteria are the standards that must be important nationwide. Service, National Historic Land for nationally significant properties; For example, the American Civil War marks, 1849 C Street, NW, NC400, they are found in the Code of Federal Washington, DC 20240.)
10 VI. HOW TO IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF SIGNIFICANCE OF A PROPERTY
INTRODUCTION After identifying the relevant NATIONAL REGISTER historic context(s) with which the CRITERIA FOR property is associated, the four When evaluated within its historic Criteria are applied to the property. EVALUATION* context, a property must be shown to Within the scope of the historic be significant for one or more of the four context, the National Register Criteria The National Register Criteria Criteria for Evaluation - A, B, C, or D define the kind of significance that the recognize different types of values (listed earlier in Part II). The Criteria properties represent. embodied in districts, sites, buildings, describe how properties are signifi For example, within the context of structures, and objects. These values cant for their association with impor "19th Century Gunpowder Produc fall into the following categories: tant events or persons, for their tion in the Brandywine Valley," Associative value (Criteria A and importance in design or construction, Criterion A would apply to those B): Properties significant for their or for their information potential. properties associated with important association or linkage to events The basis for judging a property's events in the founding and develop (Criterion A) or persons (Criterion B) significance and, ultimately, its ment of the industry. Criterion B important in the past. eligibility under the Criteria is historic would apply to tho~e properties Design or Construction value context. The use of historic context associated with persons who are (Criterion C): Properties significant allows a property to be properly significant in the founding of the as representatives of the manmade evaluated in a nearlv infinite number industry or associated with important expression of culture or technology. of capacities. For i~stance, Criterion inventions related to gunpowder Information value (Criterion D): C: Design/Construction can accom manufacturing. Criterion C would Properties significant for their ability modate properties representing apply to those buildings, structures, to yield important information about construction types that are unusual or or objects whose architectural form or prehistory or history. widely practiced, that are innovative style reflect important design qualities or traditional, that are "high style" or integral to the industry. And Crite *For a complete listing of the Criteria for vernacular, that are the work of a rion D would apply to properties that Evaluation, refer to PMt II of this bulletin. famous architect or an unknown can convey information important in master craftsman. The ke11to deternzin our understanding of this industrial ing whether the clwracteristics or associa process. If a property qualifies under tions of a particular property are signifi more than one of the Criteria, its cant is to consider the property within its significance under each should be historic context. considered, if possible, in order to identify all aspects of its historical value.
11 CRITERION A: EVENT
Properties can be eligible for the National Register if they are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.
EXAMPLES OF PROPERTIES UNDERSTANDING APPLYING ASSOCIATED WITH EVENTS CRITERION A: CRITERION A: Propertiesassociated with specificevents: EVENT EVENT • The site of a battle. • The building in which an important invention was developed. To be considered for listing under TYPES OF EVENTS Criterion A, a property must be • A factory district where a significant associated with one or more events A property can be associated with strike occurred. important in the defined historic either (or both) of two types of events: context. Criterion A recognizes • An archeologicalsite at which a ma jor new aspect of prehistory was dis properties associated with single • A specific event marking an im events, such as the founding of a covered,such as the first evidenceof portant moment in American pre man and extinct Pleistoceneanimals town, or with a pattern of events, history or history and repeated activities, or historic trends, being contemporaneous. such as the gradual rise of a port city's • A pattern of events or a historic • A site where an important facet of prominence in trade and commerce. trend that made a significant con Europeanexploration occurred. The event or trends, however, must tribution to the development of a clearly be important within the community, a State, or the nation. Propertiesassociated with a pattern of events: associated context: settlement, in the Refer to the sidebar on the right for case of the town, or development of a a list of specific examples. • A trail associatedwith western mi maritime economy, in the case of the gration. port city. Moreover, the property must have an important association ASSOCIATION OF THE • A railroadstation that served as the with the event or historic trends, and PROPERTY WITH THE focus of a community's transporta it must retain historic integrity. (See EVENTS tion system and commerce. Part V: How to Evaluatea Property • A mill district reflecting the impor Within its Historic Context.) The property you are evaluating tance of textile manufacturing dur Several steps are involved in must be documented, through ac ing a given period. determining whether a property is cepted means of historical or archeo significant for its associative values: logical research (including oral • A building used by an important lo history), to have existed at the time of cal social organization. • Determine the nature and origin the event or pattern of events and to • A site where prehistoricNative of the property, have been associated with those Americans annually gatheredfor • Identify the historic context with events. A property is not eligible if its seasonallyavailable resources and which it is associated, and associations are speculative. For for social interaction. archeological sites, well reasoned • Evaluate the property's history to inferences drawn from data recovered • A downtown district representinga determine whether it is associ at the site can be used to establish the town's growth as the commercialfo ated with the historic context in association between the site and the cus of the surrounding agricultural any important way. events. area.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ASSOCIATION
Mere association with historic events or trends is not enough, in and of itself, to qualify under Criterion A: the property's specific association must be considered important as well. For example, a building historically in commercial use must be shown to have been significant in commercial history. 12 TRADITIONAL CULTURAL VALUES
Traditional cultural significance is derived from the role a property plays in a community's historically rooted beliefs, customs, and practices. Properties may have significance under Criterion A if they are associ ated with events, or series of events, significant to the cultural traditions of a community. 5
Eligible • A hilltop associated in oral his torical accounts with the founding of an Indian tribe or society is eligible. • A rural community can be eli gible whose organization, buildings, or patterns of land use reflect the cultural traditions valued by its long term residents. • An urban neighborhood can Criterion A - The Old Brulay Plantation, Brownsvillevicinity, Cameroncounty, be eligible as the traditional Texas. Historicallysignificant for its associationwith the developmentof agriculture home of a particular cultural in southeast Texas, this complex of 10 brick buildings was constructed by GeorgeN. group and as a reflection of its beliefs and practices. Brulay, a Frenchimmigrant who introducedcommercial sugar productionand irrigation to the Rio Grande Valley. (Photo by Texas HistoricalCommission). Not Eligible • A site viewed as sacred by a recently established utopian or religious community does not have traditional cultural value and is not eligible.
5 For more information, refer to NationalRegister Bulletin: Guidelinesfor Evaluatingand DocumentingTraditional Cultural Properties. 13 CRITERION B: PERSON
Properties may be eligible for the National Register if they are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past.
UNDERSTANDING CRITERION B: PERSON 6
Criterion B applies to properties associated with individuals whose specific contributions to history can be identified and documented . Persons "significant in our past" refers to individuals whose activities are demonstrably important within a local, State, or national historic context. The criterion is generally restricted to those properties that illustrate (rather than commemorate) a person's important achievements. (The policy regarding commemora tive properties, birthplaces, and graves is explained further in Part VIII: How to Apply the Criteria Consid erations.) Several steps are involved in determining whether a property is significant for its associative values Criterion B - The William Whitney House, Hinsdale, DuPage County, Illinois. under Criterion B. First, determine This building is locallysignificant for its historicalassociation with William Whitney, the importance of the individual. Second, ascertain the length and the founder of the town of Hinsdale, Illinois. Whitney, a citizen of New York State, nature of his/her association with the moved to Illinois, establishedthe town, and while living here between 1870 and 1879 property under study and identify the was a prominent localbusinessman and politician. (Photo by FrederickC. Cue). other properties associated with the individual. Third, consider the property under Criterion B, as outlined below .
EXAMPLES OF PROPERTIES ASSOCIATED WITH PERSONS Propertiesassociated with a Significant Person:
• The home of an important merchant or laborleader. • The studio of a significant artist. • The business headquartersof an im portant industrialist.
• For further information on properties eligible under Criterion B, refer to National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Evalr1ati11gand Dornmenting PropertiesAssociated with Significant Persons.
14 APPLYING ASSOCIATION WITH THE ASSOCIATION WITH PROPERTY GROUPS CRITERION B: Properties eligible under Criterion For properties associated with PERSON B are usuallv those associated with a several community leaders or with a person's prdductive life, reflecting the prominent family, it is necessary to SIGNIFICANCE OF THE time period when he or she achieved identify specific individuals and to significance. In some instances this explain their significant accomplish INDIVIDUAL may be the person's home; in other ments. cases, a person's business, office, The persons associated with the laboratory, or studio may best repre Eligible property must be individually signifi sent his or her contribution. Proper cant within a historic context. A ties that pre- or post-date an • A residential district in which a property is not eligible if its only individual's significant accomplish large number of prominent or justification for significance is that it ments are usually not eligible. (See influential merchants, profes was owned or used by a person who Comparison to Related Properties, below, sionals, civic leaders, politi cians, etc., lived will be eligible is a member of an identifiable profes for exceptions to this rule.) sion, class, or social or ethnic group. The individual's association with under Criterion B if the signifi It must be shown tha~ the person the property must be documented by cance of one or more specific gained importance within his or her accepted methods of historical or individual residents is explic profession or group. archeological research, including itly justified. written or oral history. Speculative • A building that served as the associations are not acceptable. For seat of an important family is Eligible archeological sites, well reasoned eligible under Criterion B if the • The residence of a doctor, a inferences drawn from data recovered significant accomplishments of mayor, or a merchant is eli at the site are acceptable. one or more individual family gible under Criterion B if the members is explicitly justified. person was significant in the COMP ARIS ON TO RELATED Not Eligible field of medicine, politics, or PROPERTIES commerce, respectively. • A residential district in which a large number of influential per Not Eligible Each property associated with an important individual should be sons lived is not eligible under • A property is not eligible un compared to other associated proper Criterion B if the accomplish der Criterion B if it is associ ties to identify those that best repre ments of a specific indivi ated with an individual about sent the person's historic contribu dual(s) cannot be documented. whom no scholarly judgement tions. The best representatives If the significance of the district can be made because either re usually are properties associated with rests in the cumulative impor search has not revealed spe the person's adult or productive life. tance of prominent residents, cific information about the Properties associated with an however, then the district person's activities and their individual's formative or later years might still be eligible under impact, or there is insufficient may also qualify if it can be demon Criterion A. Eligibility, in this perspective to determine strated that the person's activities case, would be based on the whether those activities or during this period were historically broad pattern of community contributions were historically significant or if no properties from the development, through which important. person's productive years survives. the neighborhood evolved into Length of association is an important the primary residential area for factor when assessing several proper this class of citizens. ties with similar associations. • A building that served as the A community or State may contain seat of an important family will several properties eligible for associa not be eligible under Criterion tions with the same important person, B if the significant accomplish if each represents a different aspect of ments of individual family the person's productive life. A members cannot be docu property can also be eligible if it has mented. In cases where a suc brief but consequential associations cession of family members with an important individual. (Such have lived in a house and col associations are often related to lectively have had a demon specific events that occurred at the strably significant impact on property and, therefore, it may also be the community, as a family, the eligible under Criterion A.) house is more likely to be sig nificant under Criterion A for association with a pattern of events.
15 ASSOCIATION WITH ASSOCIATION WITH NATIVE AMERICAN SITES LIVING PERSONS ARCHITECTS/ ARTISANS The known major villages of Properties associated with living Architects, artisans, artists, and individual Native Americans who persons are usually not eligible for engineers are often represented by were important during the contact inclusion in the National Register. their works, which are eligible under period or later can qualify under Sufficient time must have elapsed to Criterion C. Their homes and studios, Criterion B. As with all Criterion B assess both the person's field of however, can be eligible for consider properties, the individual associated endeavor and his/her contribution to ation under Criterion B, because these with the property must have made that field. Generally, the person's usually are the properties with which some specific important contribution active participation in the endeavor they are most personally associated. to history. Examples include sites must be finished for this historic significantly associated with Chief perspective to emerge. (See Criteria Joseph and Geronimo.7 Considerations C and G in Part VII: How to Apply the CriteriaConsider ations.)
7 For more information, refer to National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Eualuati11g and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties.
16 CRITERIONC: DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION
Properties may be eligible for the National Register if they embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.
defined within the context of Crite rion C. Districts, however,can be con sideredfor eligibility under all the Crite ria, individually or in any combina tion, as is appropriate. For this rea son, the full discussion of districts is contained in Part IV: How to Define Categoriesof Historic Properties. Throughout the bulletin, however, districts are mentioned within the context of a specific subject, such as an individual Criterion.
Richland Plantation, East FelicianaParish, Louisiana. Propertiescan qualify under Criterion C as examples of high style architecture. Built in the 1830s, Richland is a fine exampleof a Federalstyle residencewith a GreekRevival style portico. (Photo by Dave Gleason).
• Represent a significant and dis UNDERSTANDING tinguishable entity whose com ponents may lack individual dis CRITERION C: tinction . DESIGN/ The first requirement, that proper ties "embody the distinctive charac CONSTRUCTION teristics of a type, period, or method of construction," refers to the way in This criterion applies to properties which a property was conceived, significant for their physical design or designed, or fabricated by a people or culture in past periods of history. Grant Family House, Saco vicinity, construction, including such elements York County, Maine. Properties as architecture, landscape architec "The work of a master" refers to the ture, engineering, and artwork. To be technical or aesthetic achievements of possessinghigh artistic value meet eligible under Criterion C, a property an architect or craftsman. "High Criterion C through the expressionof must meet at least one of the following artistic values" concerns the expres aestheticideals or preferences. The Grant requirements: sion of aesthetic ideals or preferences Family House, a modest Federalstyle and applies to aesthetic achievement. residence,is significant for its remarkably • Embody distinctive characteris Resources "that represent a signifi well-preservedstenciled wall decorative tics of a type, period, or method cant and distinguishable entity whose of construction. treatment in the entry hall and parlor. components may lack individual dis Painted by an unknown artist ca. 1825, • Represent the work of a master . tinction" are called "districts." In the Criteria for Evaluation (as published this is a fine example of 19th century New • Possess high artistic value. in the Codeof FederalRegulations and England regionalartistic expression. reprinted here in Part II), districts are (Photo by Kirk F. Mohney).
17 EXAMPLES OF PROPERTIES Distinctive Characteristics: "Dis Type, Period, and Method of ASSOCIATED WITH DESIGN/ tinctive characteristics" are the physi Construction: "Type, period, or CONSTRUCTION cal features or traits that commonly method of construction" refers to the Propertiesassociated with design and recur in individual types, periods, or way certain properties are related to construction: methods of construction. To be one another by cultural tradition or eligible, a property must clearly function, by dates of construction or • A house or commercialbuilding rep contain enough of those characteristics style, or by choice or availability of resenting a significant style of archi to be considered a true representative materials and technology. tecture. of a particular type, period, or method A structure is eligible as a speci • A designed park or garden associated of construction. men of its type or period of construc with a particular landscapedesign Characteristics can be expressed in tion if it is an important example philosophy. terms such as form, proportion, struc (within its context) of building ture, plan, style, or materials. They practices of a particular time in • A 111ovietheater embodying high ar can be general, referring to ideas of history. For properties that represent tistic value in its decorativefeatures. design and construction such as basic the variation, evolution, or transition plan or form, or they can be specific, of construction types, it must be • A bridge or dam representing techno referring to precise ways of combining demonstrated that the variation, etc., logicaladvances. particular kinds of materials. was an important phase of the archi tectural development of the area or Eligible community in that it had an impact as APPLYING evidenced by later buildings. A • A building eligible under the property is not eligible, however, CRITERION C: theme of Gothic Revival archi simply because it has been identified tecture must have the distinc as the only such property ever fabri DESIGN/ tive characteristics that make cated; it must be demonstrated to be up the vertical and picturesque significant as well. CONSTRUCTION qualities of the style, such as pointed gables, steep roof DISTINCTIVE pitch, board and batten siding, Eligible and ornamental bargeboard CHARACTERISTICS OF and veranda trim. • A building that has some char TYPE, PERIOD, AND acteristics of the Romanesque • A late Mississippian village Revival style and some charac METHOD OF that illustrates the important teristics of the Commercial CONSTRUCTION concepts in prehistoric style can qualify if it illustrates community design and plan the transition of architectural This is the portion of Criterion C ning will qualify. design and the transition itself under which most properties are • A designed historic landscape is considered an important ar eligible, for it encompasses all archi will qualify if it reflects a his chitectural development. tectural styles and construction toric trend or school of theory practices. To be eligible under this • A Hopewellian mound, if it is and practice, such as the City an important example of portion of the Criterion, a property Beautiful Movement, evidenc must clearly illustrate, through mound building construction ingdistinguished design, lay techniques, would qualify as a "distinctive characteristics," the out, and the work of skilled following: method or type of construc era ftsmanshi p. tion. • The pattern of features common Not Eligible to a particular class of resources, • A building which illustrates • A commercial building with the early or the developing • The individuality or variation of some Art Deco detailing is not technology of particular features that occurs within the eligible under Criterion C if the structural systems, such as class, detailing was added merely as skeletal steel framing, is eli gible as an example of a • The evolution of that class, or an afterthought, rather than fully integrated with overall particular method of construc • The transition between classes of lines and massing typical of the tion. resources. Art Deco style or the transition between that and another style. • A designed landscape that has had major changes to its his toric design, vegetation, origi nal boundary, topography/ grading, architectural features, and circulation system will not qualify.
18 HISTORIC ADAPTATION OF THE ORIGINAL PROPERTY
A property can be significant not only for the way it was originally constructed or crafted, but also for the way it was adapted at a later period, or for the way it illustrates changing tastes, attitudes, and uses over a period of time. A district is eligible under this guideline if it illustrates the evolution of historic character of a place over a particular span of time.
Eligible • A Native American irrigation system modified for use by Europeans could be eligible if it illustrates the technology of either or both periods of con- struction. • An early 19th century farm- Swan Falls Dam and Power Plant, Murphy vicinity, Ada County, Idaho. house modified in the 1880s Significant works of engineering can qualify under Criterion C. Built between 1900- with Queen Anne style orna- 1907 the Swan Falls Dam and Power Plant across the Snake River is one of the early mentation could be significant hydroelectric plants in the State of Idaho. (Photo by H.L. Hough). for the modification itself, if it represented a local variation or significant trend in building construction or remodelling, was the work of a local master (see Works of a Master on page 20), or reflected the tastes of an important person associated with the property at the time· of its alteration. • A district encompassing the commercial development of a town between 1820 and 1910, characterized by buildings of various styles and eras, can be eligible.
Looney House, Asheville vicinity, St. Clair County, Alabama. Examples of vernacular styles of architecture can qualify under Criterion C. Built ca. 1818, the Looney House is significant as possibly the State's oldest extant two-story dogtrot type of dwelling. The defining open center passage of the dogtrot was a regional building response to the southern climate. (Photo by Carolyn Scott).
19 WORKS OF A MASTER PROPERTIES POSSESSING A Significant and Distinguishable HIGH ARTISTIC VALUES Entity Whose Components May Lack A master is a figure of generally Individual Distinction. This portion of Criterion C refers to districts. For recognized greatness in a field, a High artistic values may be ex known craftsman of consummate detailed information on districts, refer pressed in many ways, inch~ding . to Part IV of this bulletin. skill, or an anonymous craftsman areas as diverse as community design whose work is distinguishable from or planning, engineering, and sculp others by its characteristic style and ture. A property is eligible for its quality. The property must express a high artistic values if it so fully particular phase in the development articulates a particular concept of of the master's career, an aspect of his design that it expresses an aesthetic or her work, or a particular idea or ideal. A property is not eligible, theme in his or her craft. however, if it does not express A property is not eligible as the aesthetic ideals or design concepts work of a master, however, simply more fully than other properties of its because it was designed by a promi type. nent architect. For example, not every building designed by Fran~ Lloy? Wright is eligible under ~his portion Eligible of Criterion C, although 1t might meet other portions of the Criterion, for • A sculpture in a town square instance as a representative of the that epitomizes the design Prairie style. principles of the Art Deco style The work of an unidentified is eligible. craftsman is eligible if it rises above • A building that is a classic ex the level of workmanship of the other pression of the design theories properties encompassed by the of the Craftsman Style, such as historic context. carefully detailed handwork, is eligible. • A landscaped park that syn thesizes early 20th century principles of landscape archi tecture and expresses an aes thetic ideal of environment can be eligible. • Properties that are important_ representatives of the aesthetic values of a cultural group, such as petroglyphs and ground drawings by Native Americans, are eligible. Not Eligible • A sculpture in a town square that is a typical example of sculpture design during its pe riod would not qualify for high artistic value, although_ it might be eligible if it were sig nificant for other reasons. • A building that is a modest ex ample (within its historic con text) of the Craftsman Style of architecture, or a landscaped park that is characteristic of turn of the century landscape design would not qualify for high artistic value.
20 CRITERION D: INFORMATION POTENTIAL
Properties may be eligible for the National Register if they have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information im portant in prehistory or history.
UNDERSTANDING data gaps or alternative theories that BUILDINGS, STRUCTURES, challenge existing ones or 2) priority AND OBJECTS areas identified under a State or CRITERION D: Federal agency management plan. While most often applied to INFORMATION archeological districts and sites, APPLYING Criterion D can also apply to build POTENTIAL ings, structures, and objects that CRITERION D: contain important information. In Certain important research ques order for these types of properties to tions about human history can only be INFORMATION be eligible under Criterion D, they answered by the actual physical themselves must be, or must have material of cultural resources. Crite POTENTIAL been, the principal source of the rion D encompasses the properties important information. that have the potential to answer, in ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES whole or in part, those types of Eligible research questions. The most com Criterion D most commonly • A building exhibiting a local mon type of property nominated applies to properties that contain or variation on a standard design under this Criterion is the archeologi are likely to contain information cal si le (or a district comprised of or construction technique can bearing on an important archeological be eligible if study could yield archeological sites). Buildings, research question. The property must important information, such as objects, and structures (or districts have characteristics suggesting the how local availability of mate comprised of these property types), likelihood that it possesses configura rials or construction expertise however, can also be eligible for their tions of artifacts, soil strata, structural affected the evolution of local information potential. remains, or other natural or cultural building development. Criterion D has two requirements, features that make it possible to do which must both be met for a property the following: Not Eligible to qualify: • The ruins of a hacienda once • The property must have, or have • Test a hypothesis or hypotheses contained murals that have had, information to contribute to about events, groups, or pro since been destroyed. Histori our understanding of human his cesses in the past that bear on im cal documentatio~, however, tory or prehistory, and portant research questions in the social or natural sciences or the indicates that the murals were • The information must be consid humanities; or significant for their highly un ered important. usual design. The ruins can • Corroborate or amplify currently not be eligible under Criterion Under the first of these require available information suggesting D for the importance of the de ments, a property is eligible if it has that a hypothesis is either true or stroyed murals if the informa been used as a source of data and false; or tion is contained only in the contains more, as yet unretrieved documentation. data. A property is also eligible if it • Reconstruct the sequence of ar has not yet yielded information but, cheological cultures for the pur through testing or research, is deter pose of identifying and explain mined a likely source of data. ing continuities and discontinu Under the second requirement, the ities in the archeological record information must be carefully evalu for a particular area. ated within an appropriate context to determine its importance. Informa tion is considered "important" when it is shown to have a significant bearing on a research design that addresses such areas as: I) current
21 property. Research questions can be related to property-specific issues, to broader questions about a large geographic area, or to theoretical issues independent of any particular geographic location. These questions may be derived from the academic community or from preservation programs at the local, regional, State, or national level. Research questions are usually developed as part of a "research design," which specifies not only the questions to be asked, but also the types of data needed to supply the answers, and often the techniques needed to recover the data .
Criterion D - Champe-Fremont 1 Archeological Site, Omahavicinity, Douglas Eligible County, Nebraska. This archeologicalsite, datingfrom ca. 1100-1450A.D., consistsof • When a site consisting of a vil pit housesand storagepits which have the potentialto yield importantinformation lage occupation with midden concerningthe subsistencepatterns, religious and mortuarypractices, and social deposits, hearths, ceramics, organizationof the prehistoricresidents of easternNebraska. (NebraskaState and stratified evidence of sev HistoricalSociety) eral occupations is being evaluated, three possible re search topics could be: 1) the ASSOCIATION WITH ESTABLISHING A HISTORIC question of whether the site HUMAN ACTIVITY CONTEXT occupants were indigenous to the area prior to the time of oc A property must be associated with The information that a property cupation or recent arrivals, 2) human activity and be critical for yields, or will yield, must be evalu the investigation of the settle understanding a site's historic environ ated within an appropriate historic ment-subsistence pattern of ment in order to be eligible under context. This will entail consulting the occupants, 3) the question Criterion D. A property can be linked the body of information already of whether the region was a to human activity through events, collected from similar properties or center for the domestication of processes, institutions, design, con other pertinent sources, including plants . Specific questions struction, settlement, migration, ideals, modern and historic written records. could include: A) Do the de beliefs, lifeways, and other facets of the The researcher must be able to posits show a sequential de development or maintenance of anticipate if and how the potential velopment or sudden intro cultural systems. information will affect the definition duction of Ceramic Type X? The natural environment associated of the context . The information likely B) Do the dates of the occupa with the properties was often very to be obtained from a particular tions fit our expectations based different from that of the present and property must confirm, refute, or on the current model for the strongly influenced cultural develop supplement in an important way reoccupation behavior of ment. Aspects of the environment that existing information. slash-and-burn agricultural are pertinent to human activities A property is not eligible if it ists? C) Can any genetic should be considered when evaluating cannot be related to a particular time changes in the food plant re properties under Criterion D. period or cultural group and, as a mains be detected? Natural features and paleontological result, lacks any historic context Not Eligible (floral and faunal) sites are not usually within which to evaluate the impor eligible under Criterion D in and of tance of the information to be gained. • A property is not eligible if so themselves. They can be eligible, little can be understood about however, if they are either directly DEVELOPING RESEARCH it that it is not possible to de related to human activity or critical to termine if specific important understanding a site's historic environ QUESTIONS research questions can be an ment. In a few cases, a natural feature swered by data contained in or site unmarked by cultural materials, Having established the importance the property. that is primarily eligible under Crite of the information that may be rion A, may also be eligible under recovered, it is necessary to be explicit Criterion D, if study of the feature, or in demonstrating the connection its location, setting, etc. (usually in the between the important information context of data gained from other and a specific property. One ap sources), will yield important informa proach is to determine if specific tion about the event or period with important research questions can be which it is associated. answered by the data contained in the 22 ESTABLISHING THE INTEGRITY PARTLY EXCAVATED OR PRESENCE OF ADEQUATE DISTURBED PROPERTIES The assessment of integrity for DATA properties considered for informati_on The current existence of appropri potential depends on the data reqmre To support the assertion that a ate physical remains must be ascer ments of the applicable research tained in considering a property's property has the data 1:ecessary_ to design. A property possessing provide the important 1~form~hon, ability to yield important information. information potential does not need to Properties that have been partly the property should be mveshgate~ recall visually an event, person, with techniques sufficient to estabhsh excavated or otherwise disturbed and process, or constructi~n t~~hnique. It that are being considered for their the presence of relevant data c~tego is important that the s1gmficant_ data ries. What constitutes appropriate potential to yield additional impor contained in the property remam tant information must be shown to investigation techniques would sufficiently intact to yield the ex depend upon specific circumstances retain that potential in their remaining pected important inforf1:ation, if the portions. including the property's location, appropriate study techmques are condition, and the research questions employed. being addressed, and could range from surface survey (or photographic Eligible survey for buildings), to the applica Eligible • A site that has been partially tion of remote sensing techniques or excavated but still retains sub intensive subsurface testing. Justifica • An irrigation system signifi stantial intact deposits (or a tion of the research potential of a cant for the information it will site in which the remaining de property may be based on anal~gy to yield on early engineering posits are small but contain another better known property 1f practices can still be eligible critical information on a topic sufficient similarities exist to establish even though it is now filled in that is not well known) is eli the appropriateness of the analogy. and no longer retains the ap gible. pearance of an open canal. Not Eligible Not Eligible Eligible • A totally collected surface site • A plowed archeological site • Data requirements depend on or a completely excavated bur contains several superimposed ied site is not eligible since the the specific research topics and components that have been questions to be addressed. To physical remains capable of mixed to the extent that arti continue the example in "De yielding important informa fact assemblages cannot be re veloping Research Questions" tion no longer exist at the site. constructed. The site cannot above, we might want to ascer (See Completely Excavated Sites, be eligible if the data require tain the following with refer on page 24, for exception.) ments of the research design ence to questions A, B, and C: Likewise, a site that has been call for the study of artifacts A) The site contains Ceramic looted or otherwise disturbed specific to one component. Type X in one or more occupa to the extent that the remain tion levels and we expect to be ing cultural materials have lost able to document the local their important depositional evaluation of the type or its in context (horizontal or vertical trusive nature. B) The hearths location of deposits) is not eli contain datable carbon deposits gible. and are associated with more • A reconstructed mound or than one occupation. C) The other reconstructed site will midden deposits show good generally not be considered floral/ fauna! preservation, and eligible, because original cul we know enough about the tural materials or context or physical evolution of food both have been lost. plants to interpret signs that suggest domestication. Not Eligible • Generally, if the applicable re search design requires clearly stratified deposits, then subsur face investigation techniques must be applied. A site com posed only of surface materials can not be eligible for its poten tial to yield information that could only be found in strati fied deposits.
23 COMPLETELY EXCAVATED SITES
Properties that have yielded important information in the past and that no longer retain additional research potential (such as completely excavated archeological sites) must be assessed essentially as historic sites under Criterion A. Such sites must be significant for associative values related to: 1) the importance of the data gained or 2) the impact of the property's role in the history of the development of anthropology/ archeology or other relevant disci plines. Like other historic properties, the site must retain the ability to convey its association as the former repository of important information, the location of historic events, or the representative of important trends.
Eligible • A property that has been exca vated is eligible if the data re covered was of such impor tance that it influenced the di rection of research in the disci pline, as in a site that clearly established the antiquity of the human occupation of the New World. (See Criterion A in Part VI: How to Identify the Type of Significanceof a Property and Criteria Consideration G in Part VII: How to Apply the Criteria Considerations.) Not Eligible • A totally excavated site that at one time yielded important in formation but that no longer can convey either its historic/ prehistoric utilization or sig nificant modern investigation is not eligible.
24 VII. HOW TO APPLY THE CRITERIA CONSIDERATIONS
the property is of a type that is b. a building or structure removed INTRODUCTION usually excluded from the Na from its original location but tional Register. The sections that which is significant primarily for Certain kinds of properties are not follow also list specific examples architectural value, or which is usually considered for listing in the of properties of each type. If the surviving structure most im National Register: religious proper your property clearly does not fit portantly associated with a his ties, moved properties, birthplaces one of these types, then it does toric person or event; or and graves, cemeteries, reconstructed not need to meet any special re c. a birthplace or grave of a histori properties, commemorative proper quirements. cal figure of outstanding impor ties, and properties achieving signifi tance if there is no appropriate cance within the past fifty years. • If your property does fit one of site or building directly associ These properties can be eligible for these types, then it must meet the ated with his or her productive listing, however, if they meet special special requirements stipulated life; or requirements, called Criteria Consid for that type in the Criteria Con siderations. erations, in addition to meeting the d. a cemetery which derives its pri regular requirements (that is, being mary significance from graves of eligible under one or more of the four CRITERIA persons of transcendent impor Criteria and possessing integrity). tance, from age, from distinctive Part VII provides guidelines for CONSIDERATIONS* design features, from association determining which properties must with historic events; or meet these special requirements and Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, for applying each Criteria Consider or graves of historical figures, proper e. a reconstructed building when ation. ties owned by religious institutions or accurately executed in a suitable The Criteria Considerations need to used for religious purposes, structures environment and presented in a be applied only to individual proper that have been moved from their dignified manner as part of a res ties. Components of eligible districts original locations, reconstructed toration master plan, and when do not have to meet the special historic buildings, properties prima no other building or structure requirements unless they make up the rily commemorative in nature, and with the same association has majority of the district or are the focal properties that have achieved signifi survived; or cance within the past fifty years shall point of the district. These are the f. a property primarily commemo not be considered eligible for the general steps to follow when applying rative in intent if design, age, tra National Register. However, such the Criteria Considerations to your dition, or symbolic value has in property: properties will qualify if they are vested it with its own exceptional integral parts of districts that do meet significance; or, • Before looking at the Criteria the criteria or if they fall within the Considerations, make sure your following categories: g. a property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it is of property meets one or more of a. a religious property deriving pri exceptional importance. the four Criteria for Evaluation mary significance from architec and possesses integrity. tural or artistic distinction or his • If it does, check the Criteria Con torical importance; or *The Criteria Considerations are taken from siderations (next column) to see if the Criteria for Evaluation, found in the Code of FederalReg11latious, Title 36, Part 60.
25 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION A: RELIGIOUS PROPERTIES A religious property is eligible if it derives its primary significzince from architectural or artistic distinction or historiczil importzince.
Examples of Properties that MUST UNDERSTANDING Meet Criteria Co11sidemtion A: Reli APPLYING CRITERIA gious Properties CRITERIA
CONSIDERATION • A historic church where r.11 impor CONSIDERATION tant 11011-rcligio11se,1e11t occurred, A: RELIGIOUS such as a spccclz/Jy Patrick Henry. A: RELIGIOUS • A historic synagogue that is sig11ifi PROPERTIES ca11tfor architecture. PROPERTIES A religious property requires • A pri'rntc residence is the site of a justification on architectural, artistic, 111ecti11gimportant to religious lzis ELIGIBILITY FOR HISTORIC or historic grounds to avoid any tory. EVENTS appearance of judgment by govern • A co111111ercialblock that is rnrrentlt; ment about the validity of ziny reli owned as a11i11vest111e11t property b:\j A religious property can be eligible gion or belief. Historic significance a religious i11stitutio11. for a religious property cannot be under Criterion A for any of three rea established on the merits of a reli • A historic district i11wlziclz rcligio11 sons: gious doctrine, but rather, for archi was eitlzera predo111ina11tor signifi • It is significant under a theme in tectural or artistic values or for cant fu11ctio11duri11g the period of the history of religion having important historic or cultural forces sig11ifica11cc. secular scholarly recognition; or that the property represents. A Example of Properties that DO NOT religious property's significance • It is significant under another his Need to Meet Criteria Consideration torical theme, such as explora under Criterion A, B, C, or D must be A: Religious Properties judged in purely secular terms. A tion, settlement, social philan thropy, or education; or religious group may, in some cases, • A residential or commercial district be considered a cultural group whose that rnrrently co11tai11sa smal/ 11111 • It is significantly associated with activities are significant in areas ber of clrnrclzesthat are not a pre traditional cultural values. broader than religious history. do111ina11tfeature of the district. Criteria Consideration for Reli • A town meeting hall that serves as gious Properties applies: the center of comm1111ityactivity and houses a wide variety of public • If the resource was constructed and priuate meetings, including reli by a religious institution. gio11sservice. The resource is sig nificant for architecture and politics, • If the resource is presently and the religious f1111ctionis inciden owned by a religious institution tal. or is used for religious purposes. • A town hall, significant for politics • If the resource was owned by a from 1875 to 1925, that housed religious institution or used for religious services during the 1950s. religious purposes during its Pe Since the religio11sfunction occurred riod of Significance. after the Period of Significance, the • If Religion is selected as an Area Criteria Consideration does not ap of Significance. ply.
26 RELIGIOUS HISTORY TRADITIONAL CULTURAL ELIGIBILITY FOR HISTORIC VALUES PERSONS A religious property can be eligible if it is directly associated with either a When evaluating properties A religious property can be eligible specific event or a broad pattern in the associated with traditional cultures, it for association with a person impor history of religion. is important to recognize that often tant in religious history, if that these cultures do not make clear significance has scholarly, secular Eligible distinctions between what is secular recognition or is important in other and what is sacred. Criteria Consider historic contexts. Individuals who • The site of a convention at ation A is not intended to exclude would likely be considered significant which a significant denomina traditional cultural resources merely are those who formed or significantly tional split occurred meets the because they have religious uses or influenced an important religious requirements of Criteria Con are considered sacred. A property or institution or movement, or who were sideration A. Also eligible is a natural feature important to a tradi important in the social, economic, or property that illustrates the tional culture's religion and mythol political history of the area. Proper broad impact of a religious in ogy is eligible if its importance has ties associated with individuals stitution on the history of a lo been ethnohistorically documented important only within the context of a cal area. and if the site can be clearly defined. single congregation and lacking Not Eligible It is critical, however, that the activi importance in any other historic ties be documented and that the context would not be eligible under • A religious property cannot be associations not be so diffuse that the Criterion B. eligible simply because was physical resource cannot be ad the place of religious services equately defined. 8 for a community, or was the Eligible oldest structure used by a reli gious group in a local area. Eligible • A religious property strongly associated with a religious • A specific location or natural leader, such as George feature that an Indian tribe be Whitefield or Joseph Smith, is OTHER HISTORICAL lieves to be its place of origin eligible. THEMES and that is adequately docu mented qualifies under Crite ria Consideration A. A religious property can be eligible if it is directly associated with either a specific event or a broad pattern that is significant in another historic context. A religious property would also qualify if it were significant for its associations that illustrate the importance of a particular religious group in the social, cultural, eco nomic, or political history of the area. Eligibility depends on the importance of the event or broad pattern and the role of the specific property.
Eligible • A religious property can qualify for its important role as a temporary hospital during the Revolutionary War, or if its school was significant in the history of education in the community. Not Eligible • A religious property is not sig nificant in the history of edu cation in a community simply because it had occasionally served as a school. 8 For more information on applying Criteria Consideration A to traditional cultural properties, refer to National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties.
27 ELIGIBILITY FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR ABILITY TO REFLECT ARCHITECTURAL OR INFORMATION POTENTIAL HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS ARTISTIC DISTINCTION A religious property, whether a As with all eligible properties, A religious property significant for district, site, building, structure, or religious properties must physically its architectural design or construc object, is eligible if it can yield impor represent the period of time for which tion should be evaluated as are other tant information about the religious they are significance . For instance, a properties under Criterion C; that is, practices of a cultural group or other recent building that houses an older it should be evaluated within an historic themes . This kind of property congregation cannot qualify based on established architectural context and, should be evaluated as are other the historic activit ies of the group if necessary, compared to other properties under Criterion D, in because the current building does not properties of its type, period, or relation to similar properties, other convey the earlier history. Likewi se, method of construction. (See "Com information sources, and existing data an older building that housed the paring Related Properties" in Part V: gaps. historic activities of the congregation How to Evaluatea Property Within Its is eligible if it still physically repre Historic Context.) sents the period of the congregation's Eligible significance. However, if an older building has been remodeled to the • A 19th century camp meeting extent that its appearance dates from Eligible site that could provide infor the time of the remodeling, it can only mation about the length and • A historic camp meeting dis be eligible if the period of significance intensity of site use during re trict that meets the require corresponds with the period of the vivals of the Second Great ments of Criterion C for its sig alterations . nificance as a type of construc Awakening is eligible. tion is eligible. • Rock cairns or medicine wheels that had a historic reli Eligible gious mythological function • A church built in the 18th cen and can provide information tury and altered beyond recog about specific cultural beliefs nition in the 19th century is are eligible. eligible only if the additions are important in themselves as an example of late 19th cen tury architecture or as a reflec tion of an important period of the congregation 's growth. Not Eligible • A synagogue built in the 1920s cannot be eligible for the im portant activities of its congre gation in the 18th and 19th centuries. It can only be eli gible for significance obtained after its construction date . • A rural 19th century frame church recently sheathed in brick is not eligible because it has lost its characteristic ap pearance and therefore can no longer convey its 19th century significance, either for archi tectural value or historic asso ciation .
Criteria Consideration A - Religious Properties. A religiousproperty can qualify as an exception to the Criteriaif it is architecturallysignificant . The Church of the Navity in Rosedale,Iberville Parish, Louisiana, qualified as a rareexample in the State of a 19th century small frame Gothic Revival style chapel. (Robert Obier)
28 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION B: MOVED PROPERTIES A property removed from its original or historically significant location can be eligible if it is significant primarily for architectural value or it is the surviving property most importantly associated with a historic person or event.
Examples of Properties that MUST UNDERSTANDING APPLYING Meet Criteria Consideration B: CRITERIA CRITERIA Moved Properties • A resource moued from one location CONSIDERATION CONSIDERATION 011 its original site to mzotlzcr loca tion on tlze property, during or after B:MOVED B: MOVED its Period of Significance. PROPERTIES • A district in wlziclza significant PROPERTIES number of resourceslzaue been moved from their original location. The National Register criteria limit ELIGIBILITY FOR the consideration of moved properties • A district wlziclzhas one moved because significance is embodied in ARCHITECTURAL VALUE building that makes an especially locations and settings as well as in the significant contribution to the dis properties themselves. Moving a A moved property significant trict. property destroys the relationships under Criterion C must retain enough historic features to convey its architec • A portable resource,such as a slzip or between the property and its sur railroadcar, tlzat is relocatedto a roundings and destroys associations tural values and retain integrity of design, materials, workmanship, place incompatible with its original with historic events and persons. A function. move may also cause the loss of feeling, and association. historic features such as landscaping, • A portable resource, such as a slzip or foundations, and chimneys, as well as railroadcar, whose importance is loss of the potential for a~sociated critically linked to its historic loca archeological deposits. Properties tion or route and that is moved. that were moved before their period of significance do not need to meet the Examples of Properties that DO NOT special requirements of Criteria Need to Meet Criteria Consideration Consideration B. B: Moved Properties One of the basic purposes of the • A property that is moved prior to its National Register is to encourage the Period of Significance. preservation of historic properties as living parts of their communities. In • A district in which only a small per keeping with this purpose, it is not centage of typical buildings in a dis usual to list artificial groupings of trict are moved. buildings that have been created for • A moved building that is part of a purposes of interpretation, protection, complex but is of less significance or maintenance. Moving buildings to than the remaining (unmoved) such a grouping destroys the integrity buildings. of location and setting, and can create a false sense of historic development. • A portable resource,such as a ship or railroadcar, that is eligible under Criterion C and is moved within its natural setting (water, rails, etc.). • A property that is raised or lowered on its foundations.
29 ELIGIBILITY FOR HISTORIC SETTING AND ASSOCIATION DEPENDENT AS SOCIA TIO NS ENVIRONMENT ON THE SITE
A moved property significant In addition to the requirements For a property whose design values under Criteria A or B must be demon above, moved properties must still or historical associations are directly strated to be the surviving property have an orientation, setting, and dependent on its location, any mov~ most importantly associated with a general environment that are compa will cause the property to lose its particular historic event or an impor rable to those of the historic location integrity and prevent it from convey tant aspect of a historic person's life. and that are compatible with the ing its significance. The phrase "most importantly associ property's significance. ated" means that it must be the single surviving property that is most Eligible closely associated with the event or Eligible • A farm structure significant with the part of the person's life for • A property significant as an only as an example of·a which he or she is significant. example of mid-19th century method of construction pecu rural house type can be eli liar to the local area is still eli gible if it is moved within that Eligible gible after a move, provided that it is placed on a lot that is local area and the new setting • A moved building occupied by sufficient in size and character is similar to that of the original an business woman during the to recall the basic qualities of location. majority of her productive ca the historic environment and Not Eligible reer would be eligible if the setting, and provided that the other extant properties are a building is sited appropriately • A 19th century rural residence house she briefly inhabited in relation to natural and that was designed around par prior to her per(od of signifi manm.ade surroundings. ticular topographicfeatures, cance and a commercial build reflecting that time period's Not Eligible ing she owned after her retire ideals of environment, is not ment. • A rural house that is moved eligible if moved. into an urban area and a Not Eligible bridge that is no longer situ • A moved building associated ated over a waterway are not with the beginning of rail eligible. transportation in a community is not eligible if the original railroad station and ware house remained intact on their original sites.
30 PROPERTIES DESIGNED TO ARTIFICIALLY CREATED PORTIONS OF PROPERTIES BE MOVED GROUPINGS A moved portion of a building, A property designed to move or a An artificially created grouping of structure, or object is not eligible property frequently moved during its buildings, structures, or objects is not because, as a fragment of a larger historic use must be located in a eligible unless it has achieved signifi resource, it has lost integrity of historically appropriate setting in cance since the time of its assemblage. design 1 setting, materials, workman order to qualify, retaining its integrity It cannot be considered as a reflection ship, and location. of setting, design, feeling, and associa of the time period when the indi tion. Such properties include ,rntomo vidual buildings were constructed. biles, railroad cars and engines, and ships. Eligible
Eligible • A grouping of moved historic buildings whose creation • A ship docked in a harbor, a marked the beginning of a ma locomotive on tracks or in a jor concern with past lifestyles railyard, and a bridge relo can qualify as an early attempt cated from one body of water at historic preservation and as to another are eligible. an illustration of that genera tion's values. Not Eligible Not Eligible • A ship on land in a park, a bridge placed in a pasture, or a • A rural district composed of a locomotive displayed in an in farmhouse on its original site door museum are not eligible. and a grouping of historic barns recently moved onto the property is not eligible.
31 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION C: BIRTHPLACES OR GRAVES A birthplace or grave of a historical figure is eligible if the person is of outstanding importance and if there is no other appropriate site or building directly associated with his or her productive life.
UNDERSTANDING APPLYING LAST SURVIVING PROPERTY ASSOCIATED CRITERIA CRITERIA WITH A PERSON
CONSIDERATION CONSIDERATION When an geographical areil strongly associated with a person of C: BIRTHPLACES C: BIRTHPLACES outstanding importance has lost all other properties directly associated AND GRAVES AND GRAVES with his or her formative years or productive life, a birthplace or grave Birthplaces and grilves often ilttilin PERSONS OF may be eligible. importance ilS reflections of the origins OUTSTANDING of importilnt persons or ilS lasting memorials to them. The lives of IMPORTANCE persons significant in our past nor mally are recognized by the National The phrase "a historical figure of Register through listing of properties outstanding importance" means that illustrative of or associilted with that in order for a birthplace or grave lo person's productive life's work. qualify, it cannot be simply the Birthplaces and graves, as properties birthplace or grave of a person that represent the beginning and the significant in our past (Criterion B). It end of the life of distinguished indi must be the birthplace or grave of an viduills, may be temporally and individual who was of outstanding geogrilphically for removed from the importance in the history of the locill person's significilnt activities, ilnd area, State, or nation. The birthplace therefore are not usually considered or grilve of an individual who was eligible. one of several people ilctive in some aspect of the history of a community, Examples of Properties that MUST a state, or the Nation would not be Meet Criteria Consideration C: Birth eligible. places and Graves • The birthplace of a significant person who lived elsewhere during his or her Period of Significance. • A grave that is nominated for its as sociation with the significant person buried in it. • A grave that is nominated for infor- mation potential. Examples of Properties that DO NOT Need to Meet Criteria Consideration C: Birthplaces and Graves • A house that was inhabited by a sig nificant person for his or her entire lifetime. • A grave located on the grounds of the house where a significant person spent his or her productive years. 32 ELIGIBILITY FOR OTHER ASSOCIATIONS
A birthplace or grave can also be eligible if it is significant for reasons other than association with the productive life of the person in question. It can be eligible for signifi- cance under Criterion A for associa- tion with important events, under Criterion B for association with the productive lives of other important persons, or under Criterion C for architectural significance. A birth- place or grave can also be eligible in rare cases if, after the passage of time, it is significant for its commemorative value. (See Criteria Consideration F for a discussion of commemorative properties.) A birthplace or grave can also be eligible under Criterion D if it contains important information on research, e.g., demography, pathol- Criteria Consideration C - Birthplaces. A birthplace of a historical figure is eligible ogy, mortuary practices, socioeco- if the person is of outstanding importance and there is no other appropriate site or nomic status differentiation. building associated with his or her productive life. The Walter Reed Birthplace, Gloucester vicinity, Gloucester County, Virginia is the most appropriate remaining building associated with the life of the man who, in 1900, discovered the cause and mode of transmission of the great scourge of the tropics, yellow fever. (Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission)
33 CRITERIACONSIDERATION D: CEMETERIES A cemetery is eligible if it derives its primary significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design features, or from association with historic events.
Examples of Properties that MUST UNDERSTANDING Meet Criteria Consideration D: APPLYING CRITERIA Cemeteries CRITERIA • A cemetery that is nominated indi- CONSIDERATION vidually for Criterion A, B, or C. CONSIDERATION D: CEMETERIES D: CEMETERIES Examples of Properties that DO NOT A cemetery is a collection of graves Need to Meet Criteria Consideration PERSONS OF D: Cemeteries that is marked by stones or other TRANSCENDENT artifacts or that is unmarked but recognizable by features such as • A cemetery that is nominatedalong IMPORTANCE fencing or depressions, or through with its associatedchurch, but the maps, or by means of testing. Cem church is the main resourcenomi A cemetery containing the graves eteries serve as a primary means of an nated. of persons of transcendent importance individual's recognition of family • A cemetery that is nominated under may be eligible. To be of transcendent history and as expressions of collec Criterion D for informationpoten importance the persons must have tive religious and/ or ethnic identity . tial. been of great eminence in their fields Because cemeteries may embody of endeavor or had a great impact values beyond personal or family • A cemetery that is nominatedas part upon the history of their community , specific emotions, the National of a district but is not the focal point State , or nation. (A single grave that Register criteria allow for listing of of the district. is the burial place of an important cemeteries under certain conditions. person and is located in a larger cemetery that does not qualify under this Criteria Consideration should be treated under Criteria Consideration C: Birthplaces and Graves .)
Eligible • A historic cemetery containing the graves of a number of per sons who were exceptionally significant in determining the course of a State's political or economic history during a par ticular period is eligible. Not Eligible • A cemetery containing graves of State legislators is not eli gible if they simply performed the daily business of State gov ernment and did not have an outstanding impact upon the Criteria Consideration D - Cemeteries. The Hancock Cemetery, Quincy, Norfolk nature and direction of the County, Massachusetts meets the exception to the Criteria becauseit derives its State's history . primary significance from its great age (the earliest burials datefrom 1640) and from the distinctive design features found in its rich collection of late 17th and early 18th century funerary art. (N. Hobart Holly) 34 ELIGIBILITY ON THE BASIS ELIGIBILITY FOR ELIGIBILITY FOR OFAGE ASSOCIATION WITH INFORMATION POTENTIAL EVENTS Cemeteries can be eligible if they Cemeteries, both historic and have achieved historic significance for Cemeteries may be associated with prehistoric, can be eligible if they their relative great age in a particular historic events including specific have the potential to yield important geographic or cultural context. important events or general events information. The information must be that illustrate broad patterns. important within a specific context and the potential to yield information Eligible must be demonstrated. Eligible A cemetery can qualify if it has • A cemetery dating from a potential to yield important informa community's original 1830s • A cemetery associated with an tion provided that the information it settlement can attain signifi important Civil War battle is contains is not available in extant cance from its association with eligible. documentary evidence. that very early period. • A cemetery associated with the settlement of an area by an ethnic or cultural group is eli Eligible ELIGIBILITY FOR DESIGN gible if the movement of the • A cemetery associated with the group into the area had an im settlement of a particular cul Cemeteries can qualify on the basis portant impact, if other prop tural group will qualify if it of distinctive design values. These erties associated with that has the potential to yield im values refer to the same design values group are rare, and if few portant information about sub addressed in Criterion C and can documentary sources have jects such as demography, include aesthetic or technological survived to provide informa variations in mortuary prac achievement in the fields of city tion about the group's tices, or the study of the cause planning, architecture, landscape history. of death correlated with nutri architecture, engineering, mortuary tion or other variables. art, and sculpture. As for all other Not Eligible nominated properties, a cemetery • A cemetery associated with a must clearly express its design values battle in the Civil War does and be able to convey its historic not qualify if the battle was appearance. not important in the history of the war. Eligible • A cemetery associated with an area's settlement by an ethnic • A Victorian cemetery is eli or cultural group is not eli gible if it clearly expresses the gible if the impact of the group aesthetic principlesrelated to on the area cannot be estab funerary design for that pe lished, if other extant historic riod, through such features as properties better convey asso the overall plan, landscaping, ciation with the group, or if statuary, sculpture, fencing, the information that the cem buildings, and grave markers. etery can impart is available in Not Eligible documentary sources. • A cemetery cannot be eligible for design values if it no longer conveys its historic ap pearance because of the intro duction of new grave markers.
35 INTEGRITY NATIONAL CEMETERIES its history, the age of the cemetery is not a factor in judging eligibility, Assessing the integrity of a historic National Cemeteries administered although integrity must be present. cemetery entails evaluating principal by the Veterans Administration are A national cemetery or a portion of design features such as plan, grave eligible because they have been a national cemetery that has only been markers, and any related elements designated by Congress as primary set aside for use in the future is not (such as fencing). Only that portion memorials to the military history of eligible. of a historic cemetery that retains its the United States. Those areas within historic integrity can be eligible. If the a designated national cemetery that overall integrity has been lost because have been used or prepared for the of the number and size of recent grave reception of the remains of veterans markers, some features such as and their dependents, as well as any buildings, structures, or objects that landscaped areas that immediately retain integrity may be considered as surround the graves may qualify. individual properties if they are of Because these cemeteries draw their such historic or artistic importance significance from the presence of the that they individually meet one or remains of military personnel who more of the requirements listed have served the country throughout above.
36 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION E: RECONTRUCTED PROPERTIES A reconstructed property is eligible when it is accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dig nified manner as part of a restoration master plan and when no other building or structure with the same associations has survived. All three of these requirements must be met.
UNDERSTANDING APPLYING SUITABLE ENVIRONMENT CRITERIA CRITERIA The phrase "suitable environment" refers to: 1) the physical context CONSIDERATION E: CONSIDERATION E: provided by the historic district and 2) any interpretive scheme, if the RECONSTRUCTED RECONSTRUCTED historic district is used for interpretive purposes. This means that the PROPERTIES PROPERTIES reconstructed property must be located at the same site as the original. It must also be situated in its original "Reconstruction" is defined as the ACCURACY OF THE reproduction of the exact form and grou'ping of buildings, structures, and detail of a vanished building, struc RECONSTRUCTION objects (as many as are extant), and ture, object, or a part thereof, as it that grouping must retain integrity. appeared at a specific period of time. The phrase "accurately executed" In addition, the reconstruction must Reconstructed buildings fall into two means that the reconstruction must be not be misrepresented as an authentic categories: buildings wholly con based upon sound archeological, historic property. structed of new materials and build architectural, and historic data con ings reassembled from some qistoric cerning the historic construction and Eligible and some new materials. Both 1catego appearance of the resource. That documentation should include both ries of properties present problems in • A reconstructed plantation meeting the integrity requirements of analysis of any above or below ground manager's office building is material and research in written and the National Register criteria. considered eligible because it other records. is located at its historic site, Examples of Properties that MUST grouped with the remaining Meet Criteria Consideration E: Recon historic plantation buildings structed Properties and structures, and the planta • A property in which most or all of the tion as a whole retains integ fabric is not original. rity. Interpretation of the plantation district includes an • A district in which an important re explanation that the manager's source or a significant number of re office is not the original build sources are reconstructions. ing, but a reconstruction. Examples of Properties that DO NOT Not Eligible Need to Meet Criteria Consideration E: Reconstructed Properties • The same reconstructed plan tation manager's office build • A property that is remodeledor reno ing would not qualify if it vated and still has the majority of its were rebuilt at a location dif original fabric. ferent from that of the original building, or if the district as a whole no longer reflected the period for which it is signifi cant, or if a misleading inter pretive scheme were used for the district or for the recon struction itself.
37 RESTORATION MASTER LAST SURVIVING RECONSTRUCTIONS PLANS PROPERTY OF A TYPE OLDER THAN FIFTY YEARS
Being presented "as part of a This consideration also stipulates After the passage of fifty years, a restoration master plan" means that: that a reconstruction can qualify if, in reconstruction may attain its own I) a reconstructed property is an addition to the other requirements, no significance for what it reveals about essential component in a historic other building, object, or structure the period in which it was built, district and 2) the reconstruction is with the same association has sur rather than the historic period it was part of an overall restoration plan for vived. A reconstruction that is part of intended to depict. On that basis, a an entire district. "Restoration" is a restoration master plan is appropri reconstruction can possibly qualify defined as accurately recovering the ate only if: I) the property is the only under any of the Criteria. form and details of a property and its one in the district with which a setting as it appeared at a particular particular important activity or event period by removing later work or by has been historically associated or replacing missing earlier work (as 2) no other property with the same opposed to completely rebuilding the associative values has survived. property). The master plan for the entire property must emphasize restoration, not reconstruction. In other words, the master plan for the entire resource would not be accept able under this consideration if it called for reconstruction of a majority of the resource.
Eligible • A reconstructed plantation manager's office is eligible if the office were an important component of the plantation and if the reconstruction is one element in an overall plan for restoring the plantation and if no other building or structure with the same associations has survived. • The reconstruction of the plan tation manager's office build ing can be eligible only if the majority of buildings, struc tures, and objects that com prised the plantation are ex tant and are being restored. For guidance regarding resto ration see the Secretaryof the Interior's Standardsfor Historic PreservationProjects.
38 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION F: COMMEMORATIVEPROPERTIE A property primarily commemorative in intent can be eligible if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value has invested it with its own historical significance.
UNDERSTANDING Examples of Properties that MUST Meet Criteria Consideration F: APPLYING CRITERIA Commemorative Properties CRITERIA • A property whose sole or pri111ary CONSIDERATION F: function is commemorative or in CONSIDERATION F: which the commemorative function COMMEMORATIVE is of pri111arysignificance. COMMEMORATIVE PROPERTIES Examples of Properties that DO NOT PROPERTIES Need to Meet Criteria Consideration F: Commemorative Properties Commemorative properties are ELIGIBILITY FOR DESIGN designed or constructed after the • A resource that has a non occurrence of an important historic co111mc111orativeprimary function A commemorative property derives event or after the life of an important or significance. person. They are not directly associ its design from the aesthetic values of ated with the event or with the • A single marker that is a component the period of its creation. A com person's productive life, but serve as of a district (whether contributing or memorative property, therefore, may evidence of a later generation's assess non-contributing). be significant for the architectural, artistic, or other design qualities of its ment of the past. Their significance comes from their value as cultural own period in prehistory or history. expressions at the date of their cre ation. Therefore, a commemorative property generally must be over fifty Eligible years old and must possess signifi • A commemorative statue situ cance based on its own value, not on ated in a park or square is eli the value of the event or person being gible if it expresses the aesthet memorialized. ics or craftsmanship of the pe riod when it was made, meet ing Criterion C. • A late 19th century statue erected on a courthouse square to commemorate Civil War vet erans would qualify if it reflects that era's shared perception of the noble character and valor of the veterans and their cause. This was commonly conveyed by portraying idealized soldiers or allegorical figures of battle, victory, or sacrifice.
39 ELIGIBILITY FOR AGE, INELIGIBILITY AS THE TRADITION, OR SYMBOLIC Not Eligible LAST REPRESENTATIVE OF VALUE • A commemorative marker AN EVENT OR PERSON erected in the past by a cul- A commemorative property cannot tural group at the site of an The loss of properties directly qualify for association with the event event in its history would not associated with a significant event or or person it memorializes. A com- be eligible if the marker were person does not strengthen the case memorative property may, however, significant only for association for consideration of a commemorative acquire significance after the time of with the event, and it had not property. Unlike birthplaces and its creation through age, tradition, or become significant itself graves, a commemorative property symbolic value. This significance must through tradition. usually has no direct historic associa- be documented by accepted methods • A building erected as a monu- tion. The commemorative property of historical research, including ment to an important histori- can qualify for historic association written or oral history, and must meet cal figure would not be eligible only if it is clearly significant in its one or more of the Criteria. if its only value lay in its asso- own right, as stipulated above. ciation with the individual, and it has not come to symbol- Eligible ize values, ideas, or contribu- • A commemorative marker tions valued by the generation erected by a cultural group that erected the monument. that believed the place was the • A commemorative marker site of its origins is eligible if, erected to memorialize an for subsequent generations of event in the community's the group, the marker itself be- history would not qualify sim- came the focus of traditional ply for its association with the association with the group's event it memorialized. historic identity. • A building erected as a monu- ment to an important histori- cal figure will qualify if through the passage of time the property itself has come to symbolize the value placed upon the individual and is widely recognized as a re- minder of enduring principles or contributions valued by the generation that erected the monument. • A commemorative marker erected early in the settlement or development of an area will qualify if it is demonstrated that, because of its relative great age, the property has long been a part of the historic identity of the area.
40 CRITERIA CONSIDERATION G: PROPERTIESTHAT HAVE ACHIEVED SIGNIFICANCE WITHIN THE LAST FIFl'YYEARS 9 A property achieving significance within the last fifty years is eligible if it is of exceptional importance.
Examples of Properties that MUST Examples of Properties that DO NOT UNDERSTANDING Meet Criteria Consideration G: Prop Need to Meet Criteria Consideration erties that Have Achieved Signifi G: Properties that Have Achieved CRITERIA cance Within the Last Fifty Years Significance Within the Last Fifty Years CONSIDERATION • A property that is less than fifty years old. • A resource whose construction be G: PROPERTIES gan over fifty years ago, but the • A property that continues to achieve completion overlaps the fifty year pe significance into a period less than THAT HAVE riod by a few years or less. fifty years before the nomination. • A resource that is significant for its ACHIEVED • A property that has non-contiguous plan or design, which is over fifty Periods of Significance, one of which years old, but the actual completion SIGNIFICANCE is less than fifty years before the nomination. of the project overlaps the fifty year WITHIN THE LAST period by a few years. • A property that is more than fifty • A historic district in which a few FIFTY YEARS years old and had no significance until a period less than fifty years properties are newer than fifty years before the nomination. old, but the majority of properties The National Register Criteria for and the most important Period of Evaluation exclude properties that Significance are greater than fifty achieved significance within the last years old. fifty years unless they are of excep tional importance. Fifty years is a general estimate of the time needed to develop historical perspective and to evaluate significance. This consider ation guards against the listing of properties of passing contemporary interest and ensures that the National Register is a list of truly historic places.
9 For more information on Criteria Consideration G, refer to National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Evafllati11gand Nominating Properties that Have Achieved Significa11ceWithi11 the Last Fifty Years.
41 The phrase "exceptional impor VETERANS APPLYING tance" does not require that the property be of national significance. ADMINISTRATION CRITERIA It is a measure of a property's impor HOSPITALS CONSIDERATION tance within the appropriate historic context, whether the scale of that Hospitals less than fifty years old G: PROPERTIES context is local, State, or national. that were constructed by the Veterans Bureau and Veterans Administration THAT HAVE can be evaluated because the collec Eligible tion of forty-eight facilities built be ACHIEVED • The General Laundry Building tween 1920 and 1946 has been ana in New Orleans, one of the few lyzed in a study prepared by the SIGNIFICANCE remaining Art Deco Style agency. The study provided a historic buildings in that city, was and architectural context for develop WITHIN THE PAST listed in the National Register ment of veteran's care within which when it was forty years old be hospitals could be evaluated. The ex FIFTY YEARS cause of its exceptional impor ceptional importance of specific indi tance as an example of that ar vidual facilities constructed within the chitectural style. past fifty years could therefore be de ELIGIBILITY FOR termined based on their role and their EXCEPTIONAL present integrity. IMPORTANCE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE COMP ARIS ON WITH The phrase "exceptional impor RELATED PROPERTIES tance" may be applied to the extraor A property that has achieved dinary importance of an event or to significance within the past fifty years In justifying exceptional impor an entire category of resources so can be evaluated only when sufficient tance, it is necessary to identify other fragile that survivors of any age are historical perspective exists to deter properties within the geographical unusual. Properties listed that had mine that the property is exception area that reflect the same significance attained significance in less than fifty ally important. The necessary per or historic associations and to deter years include: the launch pad at Cape spective can be provided by scholarly mine which properties best represent Canaveral from which men first research and evaluation, and must the historic context in question. traveled to the moon, the home of consider both the historic context and Several properties in the area could nationally prominent playwright the specific property's role in that become eligible with the passage of Eugene O'Neill, and the Chrysler context. time, but few will qualify now as Building (New York) significant as the In many communities, properties exceptionally important. epitome of the "Style Moderne" such as apartment buildings built in the 1950s cannot be evaluated because architecture. POST-WORLD WAR II Properties less than fifty years old there is no scholarly research avail that qualify as exceptional because the able to provide an overview of the PROPERTIES entire category of resources is fragile nature, role, and impact of that include a recent example of a tradi building type within the context of Properties associated with the post tional sailing canoe in the Trust historical and architectural develop World War II era must be identified Territory of the Pacific Islands, where ments of the 1950s. and evaluated to determine which because of rapid deterioration of ones in an area could be judged materials, no working Micronesian NATIONAL PARK SERVICE exceptionally important. For ex canoes exist that are more than twenty RUSTIC ARCHITECTURE ample, a public housing complex may years old. Properties that by their be eligible as an outstanding expres sion of the nation's post-war urban nature can last more than fifty years Properties such as structures built cannot be considered exceptionally policy. A military installation could in a rustic style by the National Park be judged exceptionally important important because of the fragility of Service during the 1930s and 1940s the class of resources. because of its contribution to the Cold can be evaluated because a broad War arms race. A church building in study, National Park Service Rustic a Southern city may have served as Architecture (1977), provides the the pivotal rallying point for the city's context for evaluating properties of most famous civil rights protest. A this type and style. Specific examples post-war suburban subdivision may were listed in the National Register be the best reflection of contemporary prior to reaching fifty years of age siting and design tenets in a metro when documentation concerning the politan area. In each case, the nomi individual properties established their nation preparer must justify the significance within the historical and exceptional importance of the property architectural context of the type and relative to similar properties in the style. community, State, or nation.
42 ELIGIBILITY FOR HISTORIC DISTRICTS PROPERTIES MORE THAN INFORMATION POTENTIAL FIFTY YEARS IN AGE, LESS Properties which have achieved THAN FIFTY YEARS IN significance within the past fifty years A property that has achieved SIGNIFICANCE significance within the past fifty years can be eligible for the National can qualify under Criterion D only if Register if they are an integral part of it can be demonstrated that the a district which qualifies for National Properties that are more than fifty information is of exceptional impor Register listing. This is demonstrated years old, but whose significant tance within the appropriate context by documenting that the property associations or qualities are less than and that the property contains data dates from within the district's fifty vears old, must be treated under superior to or different from those defined Period of Significance and the, fifty year consideration. obtainable from other sources, includ that it is associated with one or more ing other culturally related sites. An of the district's defined Areas of archeological site less than fifty years Significance. Eligible Properties less than fifty years old old may be eligible if the former • A building constructed early may be an integral part of a district inhabitants are so poorly documented in the twentieth century (and when there is sufficient perspective to that information about their lifeways having no architectural impor consider the properties as historic. is best obtained from examination of tance), but that was associated This is accomplished by demonstrat the material remains. with an important person ing that: 1) the district's Period of during the 1950s, must be Significance is justified as a discrete evaluated under Criteria Con period with a defined beginning and Eligible sideration G because the Pe end, 2) the character of the district's riod of Significance is within • Data such as the rate of adop historic resources is clear!v defined the past fifty years. Such a tion of modern technological and assessed, 3) specific resources in property would qualify if the innovations by rural tenant the district are demonstrated to date person was of exceptional im farmers in the 1950s may not from that discrete era, and 4) the portance. be obtainable through inter majority of district properties are over views with living persons but fifty years old. In these instances, it is could be gained by examina not necessary to prove exceptional tion of homesites. importance of either the district itself REQUIREMENT TO MEET Not Eligible or the less-than-fifty-year-old proper ties. Exceptional importance still THE CRITERIA, • A recent archeological site must be demonstrated for district REGARDLESS OF AGE such as the remains of a where the majority of properties or f\:avajo sheep corral used in the major Period of Significance is less Properties that are less than fifty the 1950s would not be consid than fifty years old, and for less-than years old and are not exceptionally ered exceptionally significant fifty-year-old properties which are important will not automatically for its information potential on nominated individually. qualify for the National Register once animal husbandry if better in they are fifty years old. In order to be formation on the same topic is listed in the National Register, all available through ethno properties, regardless of age, must be graphic studies or living infor demonstrated to meet the Criteria for mants. Evaluation.
43 VIII. HOW TO EVALUATE THE INTEGRITY OF A PROPERTY
INTRODUCTION SEVEN ASPECTS OF DESIGN INTEGRITY Design is the combination of Integrity is the ability of a prop • Location elements that create the form, plan, erty to convey its significance. To be space, structure, and style of a listed in the National Register of • Design property. It results from conscious Historic Places, a property must not • Setting decisions made during the original only be shown to be significant under conception and planning of a prop the National Register criteria, but it • Materials erty (or its significant alteration) and also must have integrity. The evalua • Workmanship applies to activities as diverse as tion of integrity is sometimes a community planning, engineering, subjective judgment, but it must • Feeling architecture, and landscape architec always be grounded in an under ture. Design includes such elements • Association standing of a property's physical as organization of space, proportion, features and how they relate to its scale, technology, ornamentation, and significance. materials. Historic properties either retain UNDERSTANDING A property's design reflects historic integrity (this is, convey their signifi functions and technologies as well as cance) or they do not. Within the THE ASPECTS OF aesthetics. It includes such consider concept of integrity, the National ations as the structural system; Register criteria recognizes seven INTEGRITY massing; arrangement of spaces; aspects or qualities that, in various pattern of fenestration; textures and combinations, define integrity. LOCATION colors of surface materials; type, To retain historic integrity a amount, and style of ornamental property will always possess several, Location is the place where the detailing; and arrangement and type and usually most, of the aspects. The historic property was constructed or of plantings in a designed landscape. retention of specific aspects of integ the place where the historic event Design can also apply to districts, rity is paramount for a property to occurred. The relationship between whether they are important primarily convey its significance. Determining the property and its location is often for historic association, architectural whic/z of these aspects are most important to understanding why the value, information potential, or a important to a particular property property was created or why some combination thereof. For districts requires knowing why, where, and thing happened. The actual location significant primarily for historic when the property is significant. The of a historic property, complemented association or architectural value, following sections define the seven by its setting, is particularly important design concerns more than just the aspects and explain how they com in recapturing the sense of historic individual buildings or structures bine to produce integrity. events and persons. Except in rare located within the boundaries. It also cases, the relationship between a applies to the way in which buildings, property and its historic associations sites, or structures are related: for is destroyed if the property is moved. example, spatial relationships be (See Criteria Consideration Bin Part tween major features; visual rhythms VII: How to Apply the Criteria Consider in a streetscape or landscape ations, for the conditions under which plantings; the layout and materials of a moved property can be eligible.) walkways and roads; and the relation ship of other features, such as statues, water fountains, and archeological sites.
44 SETTING recent structure fabricated to look ASSOCIATION historic is not eligible. Likewise, a Setting is the physical environ property whose historic features and Association is the direct link ment of a historic property. Whereas materials have been lost and then between an important historic event location refers to the specific place reconstructed is usually not eligible. or person and a historic property. A where a property was built or an event (See Criteria Consideration E in Part property retains association if it is the occurred, setting refers to the character VII: How to Apply tlze Criteria Consider place where the event or activity of the place in which the property ations for the conditions under which occurred and is sufficiently intact to played its historical role. It involves a reconstructed property can be convey that relationship to an ob how, not just where, the property is eligible.) server. Like feeling, association situated and its relationship to sur requires the presence of physical rounding features and open space. WORKMANSHIP features that convey a property's Setting often reflects the basic historic character. For example, a physical conditions under which a Workmanship is the physical Revolutionary War battlefield whose property was built and the functions it evidence of the crafts of a particular natural and manmade elements have was intended to serve. In addition, culture or people during any given remained intact since the 18th centurv the way in which a property is posi period in history or prehistory. It is will retain its quality of association ° tioned in its environment can reflect the evidence of artisans' labor and with the battle. the designer's concept of nature and skill in constructing or altering a Because feeling and association aesthetic preferences. building, structure, object, or site. depend on individual perceptions, The physical features that constitute Workmanship can apply to the their retention alone is never sufficient the setting of a historic property can property as a whole or to its indi to support eligibility of a property for be either natural or manmade, includ vidual components. It can be ex the National Register. ing such elements as: pressed in vernacular methods of • Topographic features (a gorge or construction and plain finishes or in ASSESSING the crest of a hill); highly sophisticated configurations and ornamental detailing. It can be • Vegetation; based on common traditions or INTEGRITY IN • Simple manmade features (paths innovative period techniques. PROPERTIES or fences); and Workmanship is important because it can furnish evidence of the technol • Relationships between buildings ogy of a craft, illustrate the aesthetic Integrity is based on significance: and other features or open space. principles of a historic or prehistoric why, where, and when a property is period, and reveal individual, local, important. Only after significance is These features and their relation fully established can you proceed to ships should be examined not only regional, or national applications of both technological practices and the issue of integrity. within the exact boundaries of the The steps in assessing integrity are: property, but also between the prop aesthetic principles. Examples of erty and its surroundini;:s. This is workmanship in historic buildings • Define the essential physical fea pa;ticularly important for districts. include tooling, carving, painting, tures that must be present for a graining, turning, and joinery. Ex property to represent its signifi amples of workmanship in prehistoric cance. MATERIALS contexts include Paleo-Indian clovis projectile points; Archaic period • Determine whether the essential Materials are the physical ele beveled adzes; Hopewellian birdstone physical features are visible ments that were combined or depos pipes; copper earspools and worked enough to convey their signifi ited during a particular period of bone pendants; and Iroquoian effigy cance. time and in a particular pattern or pipes. configuration to form a historic • Determine whether the property property. The choice and combination needs to be compared with simi of materials reveal the preferences of FEELING lar properties. And, those who created the property and Feeling is a property's expression • Determine, based on the signifi indicate the availability of particular cance and essential physical fea types of materials and technologies. of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. It results tures, which aspects of integrity Indigenous materials are often the are particularly vital to the prop focus of regional building traditions from the presence of physical features that, taken together, convey the erty being nominated and if they and thereby help define an area's are present. sense of time and place. property's historic character. For A property must retain the key example, a rural historic district Ultimately, the question of integ exterior materials dating from the retaining original design, materials, rity is answered by whether or not the period of its historic significance. If workmanship, and setting will relate property retains the identity for the property has been rehabilitated, the feeling of agricultural life in the which it is significant. the historic materials and significant 19th century. A grouping of prehis features must have been preserved. toric petroglyphs, unmarred by The property must also be an actual graffiti and intrusions and located on historic resource, not a recreation; a its original isolated bluff, can evoke a sense of tribal spiritual life. 45 DEFINING THE ESSENTIAL of features, artifacts, and spatial in the National Register-cl historic PHYSICAL FEATURES relationships to the extent that these concert hclll noted for the beauty of its remains are able to illustrate a site cluditorium and its fine acoustic type, time period, method of construc qualities would be the type of prop All properties change over time. It tion, or work of a master. erty that if it were to lose its interior, is not necessary for a property to it would lose its Vcllue as a historic retain all its historic physical features resource. In other cclses, the over or characteristics. The property must CRITERION D clrching significance of cl property's retain, however, the essential physical exterior rnn overcome the adverse features that enable it to convey its For properties eligible under effect of the loss of an interior. historic identity. The essentia( Criterion D, including archeological In borderline cclses particular physical featu!es are those features sites and standing structures studied attention is paid to the significance of that define both why a property is for their information potential, less attention is given to their overall the property and the remaining significant (Applicable Criteria and historic features. Areas of Significance) and zohc11it was condition, than it they were being significant (Periods of Significance). considered under Criteria A, B, or C. They are the features without which a Archeological sites, in particular, do HISTORIC DISTRICTS property can no longer be identified not exist today exactly as they were 0 as, for instance, a late 19th century formed. The/e are al{vays cu ltural For a district to retain integrity as a dairy barn or an early 20th century and natural processes that cllter the whole, the majority of the compo commercial district. deposited mcltericl ls clnd their spcl ticll nents thclt make up the district's relationships. historic character must possess CRITERIA A AND B For properties eligible under integrity even if they are individucllly Criterion D, integrity is based upon undistinguished. In addition, the the property's potenticll to yield relationships among the district's A property that is significant for its specific dcltcl thclt clddresses importclnt components must be substclnticllly historic association is eligible if it reseclrch questions, such clSthose unchanged since the period of signifi retains the essential physical features identified in the historic context cclnce. that made up its character or appear documentation in the Stcltewide When evaluating the impclct of ance during the period of its associa Comprehensive Preservation Plan or intrusions upon the district's integ tion with the important event, histori in the reseclrch design for projects rity, take into consideration the cal pattern, or person(s). If the meeting the Secretary of tire Interior's relative number, size, scclle, design, property is a site (such as a treaty site) Standards for Arc/1cologicalDocumenta clnd location of the components that where there are no material cultural tion. do not contribute to the significance. remains, the setting must be intact. A district is not eligible if it contains Archeological sites eligible under INTERIORS so mclny cllterations or new intrusions Criteria A and B must be in overall thclt it no longer conveys the sense of good condition with excellent preser cl historic environment. vation of features, artifacts, and Some historic buildings are virtu cllly defined by their exteriors, and A component of a district cclnnot spatial relationships to the extent that contribute to the significance if: these remains are able to convey their contribution to the built environ important associations with events or ment can be appreciclted even if their • it has been substantially altered persons. interiors are not accessible. Examples since the period of the district's of this would include early exclmples significclnce or of steel-framed skyscraper construc CRITERION C tion. The greclt advclnce in American • it does not shclre the historic clsso technology and engineering mclde by ciations of the district. A property important for illustrat these buildings can be read from the ing a particular architectural style or outside. The change in American VISIBILITY OF PHYSICAL construction technique must retain populclr tclste during the 19th century, most of the physical features that from the symmetry and simplicity of FEATURES constitute that style or technique. A clrchitectural styles bclsed on classiccll property that has lost some historic precedents, to the expressions of High Properties eligible under Criteria materials or details can be eligible if it Victorian styles, with their combincl A, B, clnd C must not only retain their retains the majority of the features tion of textures, colors, and asym essential physical fecltures, but the that illustrate its style in terms of the metrical forms, is readily apparent fecltures must be visible enough to massing, spatial relationships, propor from the exteriors of these buildings. convey their significance. This means tion, pattern of windows and doors, Other buildings "are" interiors. that even if a property is physiccllly texture of materials, and ornamenta The Cleveland Arcade, that soaring intact, its integrity is questionable if tion. The property is not eligible, 19th century glass-covered shopping its significant features are concealed however, if it retains some basic clrec1,can only be appreciated from the under modern construction. Archeo features conveying massing but has inside. Other buildings in this logical properties clre often the lost the majority of the features that category would be the great covered exception to this; by nature they once characterized its style. train sheds of the 19th century. usually do not require visible features Archeological sites eligible under In some cases the loss of an interior to convey their significance. Criterion C must be in overall good will disqualify properties from listing condition with excellent preservation
46 NON-HISTORIC EXTERIORS SUNKEN VESSELS RARE EXAMPLES OF A PROPERTY TYPE If the historic exterior building A sunken vessel can be eligible material is covered by non-historic under Criterion C as embodying the Comparative information is material (such as modern siding), the distinctive characteristics of a method particularly important to consider property can still be eligible if the of construction if it is structurally when evaluating the integrity of a significant form, features, and detail intact. A deteriorated sunken vessel, property that is a rare surviving ing are not obscured. If a property's no longer structurally intact, can be example of its type. The property exterior is covered by a non-historic eligible under Criterion D if the must have the essential physical false-front or curtain wall, the prop remains of either the vessel or its features that enable it to convey its erty will not qualify under Criteria A, contents is capable of yielding signifi historic character or information. The B, or C, because it does not retain the cant information. For further infor rarity and poor condition, however, of visual quality necessary to convey mation, refer to National Register other extant examples of the type may historic or architectural significance. Bulletin: Nominating Historic Vessels justify accepting a greater degree of Such a property also cannot be and Shipwrecks to the National Register alteration or fewer features, provided considered a contributing element in a of Historic Places. that enough of the property survives historic district, because it does not for it to be a significant resource. add to the district's sense of time and Natural Features place. If the false front, curtain wall, A natural feature that is associated or non-historic siding is removed and with a historic event or trend, such as Eligible the original building materials are a rock formation that served as a trail intact, then the property's integrity marker during westward expansion, • A one-room schoolhouse that can be re-evaluated. must retain its historic appearance, has had all original exterior unobscured by modern construction siding replaced and a replace PROPERTY CONTAINED or landfill. Otherwise it is not eli ment roof that does not exactly gible, even though it remains intact. replicate the original roof pro WITHIN ANOTHER file can be eligible if the other PROPERTY COMPARING SIMILAR extant rare examples have re ceived an even greater degree Some properties contain an earlier PROPERTIES of alteration, such as the sub structure that formed the nucleus for division of the original one later construction. The exterior For some properties, comparison room plan. property, if not eligible in its own with similar properties should be Not Eligible right, can qualify on the basis of the considered during the evaluation of interior property only if the interior integrity. Such comparison may be • A mill site contains informa property can yield significant infor important in deciding what physical tion on how site patterning re mation about a specific construction features are essential to properties of flects historic functional re technique or material, such as that type. In instances where it has quirements, but parts of the rammed earth or tabby. The interior not been determined what physical site have been destroyed. The property cannot be used as the basis features a property must possess in site is not eligible for its infor for eligibility if it has been so altered order for it to reflect the significance mation potential if a compari that it no longer contains the features of a historic context, comparison with son of other mill sites reveals that could provide important infor similar properties should be under more intact properties with mation, or if the presence of impor taken during the evaluation of integ complete information. tant information cannot be demon rity. This situation arises when strated. scholarly work has not been done on a particular property type or when surviving examples of a property type are extremely rare. (See Comparing Related Properties in Part V: How to Evaluate a Property within its Historic Context.)
47 DETERMINING THE RELEVANT ASPECTS OF Not Eligible Eligible INTEGRITY A mid-19th century water A 19th century wooden covered powered mill important for its bridge, important for illustrating Each type of property depends on association with an area's indus a construction type, is eligible if: certain aspects of integrity, more than trial development is not eligible if: • the essential features of its de others, to express its historic signifi sign are intact, such as abut cance. Determining which of the • it has been moved (Location, ments, piers, roof configura aspects is most important to a particu Setting, Feeling, and Associa tion, and trusses (Design, lar property requires an understand tion), or Workmanship, and Feeling), ing of the property's significance and and its essential physical features. • substantial amounts of new materials have been incorpo • most of the historic materials CRITERIA A AND B rated (Materials, Workman are present (Materials, Work ship, and Feeling), or manship, and Feeling), and A property important for associa • it no longer retains basic de • evidence of the craft of tion with an event, historical pattern, sign features that convey its wooden bridge technology re or person(s) ideally might retain some historic appearance or mains, such as the form and features of all seven aspects of integ function (Design, Workman assembly technique of the rity: location, design, setting, materi ship, and Feeling). trusses (Workmanship). als, workmanship, feeling, and • Since the design of a bridge re association. Integrity of design and lates directly to its function as workmanship, however, might not be a transportation crossing, it is as important to the significance, and CRITERION C also important that the bridge would not be relevant if the property still be situated over a water were a site. A basic integrity test for a A property significant under way (Setting, Location, Feel property associated with an important Criterion C must retain those physi ing, and Association). event or person is whether a historical cal features that characterize the type, contemporary would recognize the period, or method of construction that Not Eligible property as it exists today. the property represents. Retention of For archeological sites that are design, workmanship, and materials For a 19th century wooden cov eligible under Criteria A and B, the will usually be more important than ered bridge, important for its seven aspects of integrity can be location, setting, feeling, and associa construction type, replacement applied in much the same way as they tion. Location and setting will be of some materials of the flooring, are to buildings, structures, or objects. important, however, for those proper siding, and roofing would not It is important to note, however, that ties whose design is a reflection of necessarily damage its integrity. Integrity would be lost, however, the site must have demonstrated its their immediate environment (such as ability to convey its significance, as designed landscapes and bridges). if: opposed to sites eligible under Crite For archeological sites that are • the abutments, piers, or trusses rion D where only the potential to eligible under Criterion C, the seven were substantially altered (De yield information is required. aspects of integrity can be applied in sign, Workmanship, and Feel much the same way as they are to ing) or buildings, structures, or objects. It is important to note, however, that the • considerable amounts of new Eligible site must have demonstrated its ability materials were incorporated to convey its significance, as opposed (Materials, Workmanship, A mid-19th century waterpowered and Feeling). mill important for its association to sites eligible under Criterion D with an area's industrial develop where only the potential to yield • Because environment is a ment is eligible if: information is required. strong factor in the design of this property type, the bridge • it is still on its original site would also be ineligible if it no (Location), and longer stood in a place that • the important features of its conveyed its function as a setting are intact (Setting), and crossing (Setting, Location, Feeling, and Association). • it retains most of its historic materials (Materials), and • it has the basic features expres sive of its design and function, such as configuration, propor tions, and window pattern (Design).
48 CRITERION D Eligible A lithic scatter site important for For properties eligible under yielding data on lithic technology Criterion D, setting and feeling may during the Late Archaic period not have direct bearing on the can be eligible if: property's ability to yield important information. Evaluation of integrity • the site contains lithic probably will focus primarily on the debitage, finished stone tools, location, design, materials, and hammerstones, or antler perhaps workmanship. flakers (Material and Design), and • the site contains datable mate Eligible rial (Association). A multicomponent prehistoric Not Eligible site important for yielding data on changing subsistence patterns A lithic scatter site important for can be eligible if: yielding data on lithic technology during the Late Archaic period • floral or faunal remains are would not be eligible if: found in clear association with cultural material (Materials • the site contains natural de and Association) and posits of lithic materials that are impossible to distinguish • the site exhibits stratigraphic from culturally modified lithic separation of cultural compo material (Design) or nents (Location). • the site does not contain any Not Eligible temporal diagnostic evidence A multicomponent prehistoric that could link the site to the site important for yielding data Late Archaic period (Associa on changing subsistence patterns tion). would not be eligible if: • floral or fauna! remains were so badly decomposed as to make identification impossible (Materials), or • floral or fauna! remains were disturbed in such a manner as to make their association with cultural remains ambiguous (Association), or • the site has lost its strati graphic context due to subse quent land alterations (Location).
49 IX. SUMMARY OF THE NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
A property being nominated to the 3. That represent some great idea National Register may also merit or ideal of the American people; NATIONAL consideration for potential designa or tion as a National Historic Landmark. HISTORIC Such consideration is dependent upon 4. That embody the distinguishing the stringent application of the characteristics of an architectural LANDMARK following distinct set of criteria type specimen exceptionally (found in the Code of FederalRegula valuable for a study of a period, EXCLUSIONS tions, Title 36, Part 65). style or method of construction, or that represent a significant, Ordinarily, cemeteries, birthplaces, distinctive and exceptional entity graves of historical figures, properties NATIONAL whose components may lack in owned by religious institutions or dividual distinction; or used for religious purposes, structures HISTORIC 5. That are composed of integral that have been moved from their parts of the environment not suf original locations, reconstructed his LANDMARKS ficiently significant by reason of toric buildings and properties that historical association or artistic have achieved significance within the CRITERIA merit to warrant individual rec past fifty years are not eligible for des ognition but collectively compose ignation. If such properties fall The quality of national significance an entity of exceptional historical within the following categories they is ascribed to districts, sites, buildings, or artistic significance, or out may, nevertheless, be found to structures, and objects that possess standingly commemorate or il qualify: exceptional value or quality in illus lustrate a way of life or culture; 1. A religious property deriving its trating or interpreting the heritage of or primary national significance the United States in history, architec from architectural or artistic dis ture, archeology, engineering, and 6. That have yielded or may be likely to yield information of ma tinction or historical importance; culture and that possess a high degree or of integrity of location, design, jor scientific importance by re setting, materials, workmanship, vealing new cultures, or by shed 2. A building or structure removed feeling, and association, and: ding light upon periods of occu from its original location but pation over large areas of the which is nationally significant 1. That are associated with events United States. Such sites are primarily for its architectural that have made a significant con those which have yielded, or merit, or for association with per tribution to, and are identified which may reasonably be ex sons or events of transcendent with, or that outstandingly repre pected to yield, data affecting importance in the nation's his sent, the broad national patterns theories, concepts and ideas to a tory and the association conse of United States history and from major degree. quential; or which an understanding and ap preciation of those patterns may 3. A site of a building or structure be gained; or no longer standing but the per son or event associated with it is 2. That are associated importantly of transcendent importance in the with the lives of persons nation nations's history and the associa ally significant in the history of tion consequential; or the United States; or
50 4. A birthplace, grave or burial if it texts are identified similarly; and district. Note that the language is is of a historical figure of tran comparative evaluation is carried out more restrictive than that of the scendent national significance on the same principles enumerated in National Register Criterion in requir and no other appropriate site, Part V. ing that a candidate in architecture be building, or structure directly as There are some differences between "a specimen exceptionally valuable for sociated with the productive life National Register and National the study of a period, style, or method of that person exists; or Historic Landmarks Criteria. The of construction" rather than simply following is an explanation of how embodying distinctive characteristics 5. A cemetery that derives its pri each Landmark Criterion compares of a type, period, or method of con mary national significance from with its National Register Criteria struction. With regard to historic graves of persons of transcendent counterpart: districts, the Landmarks Criterion importance, or from an exception requires an entity that is distinctive ally distinctive design or an ex CRITERION 1 and exceptional. Unlike National ceptionally significant event; or Register Criterion C, this Criterion will not qualify the works of a master, per 6. A reconstructed building or en This Criterion relates to National se, but only such works which are semble of buildings of extraordi Register Criterion A. Both cover exceptional or extraordinary. Artistic nary national significance when properties associated with events. value is considered onlv in the context accurately executed in a suitable The Landmark Criterion, however, of history's judgement in order to environment and presented in a requires that the events associated avoid current conflicts of taste. dignified manner as part of a res with the property be outstandingly toration master plan, and when represented by that property and that no other buildings or structures the property be related to the broad CRITERION 5 with the same association have national patterns of U.S. history. survived; or Thus, the quality of the property to This Criterion does not have a strict 7. A property primarily commemo convey and interpret its meaning counterpart among the National rative in intent if design, age, tra must be of a higher order and must Register Criteria. It may seem redun dition, or symbolic value has in relate to national themes rather than dant of the latter part of Landmark vested it with its own national the narrower context of State or local Criterion 4. It is meant to cover historical significance; or themes. collective entities such as Greenfield Village and historic districts like New 8. A property achieving national CRITERION 2 Bedford, Massachusetts, which qualify significance within the past 50 for their collective association with a years if it is of extraordinary na- nationally significant event, move This Criterion relates to National tional importance. · ment, or broad pattern of national Register Criterion B. Both cover development. properties associated with significant people. The Landmark Criterion COMPARING THE differs in that it specifies that the CRITERION 6 association of a person to the property NATIONAL in question be an important one and The National Register counterpart that the person associated with the of this is Criterion D. Criterion 6 was HISTORIC property be of national significance. developed specifically to recognize LANDMARKS archeological sites. All such sites must CRITERION 3 address this Criterion. The following are the qualifications that distinguish CRITERIA AND THE this Criterion from its National Regis This Criterion has no counterpart ter counterpart: the information among the National Register Criteria. NATIONAL yielded or likely to be yielded must be It is rarely, if ever, used alone. While of major scientific importance by not a landmark at present, the Liberty REGISTER revealing new cultures, or by shedding Bell is an object that might be consid light upon periods of occupation over CRITERIA ered under this Criterion. The appli cation of this Criterion obviously large areas of the United States. Such requires the most careful scrutiny and sites should be expected to yield data In general, the instructions for affecting theories, concepts, and ideas to a would apply only in rare instances preparing a National Register nomina major degree. tion and the guidelines stated in this involving ideas and ideals of the highest order. The data recovered or expected to bulletin for applying the National be recovered must make a major Register Criteria also apply to Land contribution to the existing corpus of mark nominations and the use of the CRITERION 4 information. Potentially recoverable Landmark criteria. While there are data must be likely to revolutionize or specific distinctions discussed below, This Criterion relates to National substantially modify a major theme in Parts IV and V of this bulletin apply Register Criterion C. Its intent is to history or prehistory, resolve a sub equally to National Register listings qualify exceptionally important works stantial historical or anthropological and Landmark nominations. That is, of architecture or collective elements debate, or close a serious gap in a the categories of historic properties are of architecture extraordinarily signifi major theme of U.S. history or prehis defined the same way; historic con- cant as an ensemble, such as a historic tory. 51 architecture, or 2) the persons or EXCLUSION 4 EXCLUSIONS AND events with which they are associated EXCEPTIONS TO are of transcendent national signifi This exclusion relates to Criteria cance and the association is conse Consideration C of the National THE EXCLUSIONS quential. Register Criteria. The only difference Transcendent significance means is that a burial place qualifies for an order of importance higher than Landmark designation only if, in This section of the National His that which would ordinarily qualify a addition to other factors, the person toric Landmarks Criteria has its person or event to be nationally buried is of transcendent national counterpart in the National Register's significant. A consequential associa importance. "Criteria Considerations." The most tion is a relationship to a building that When evaluating properties at the abundant difference between them is had an evident impact on events, national level for designation as a the addition of the qualifiers "na rather than a connection that was National Historic Landmark, please tional," "exceptional," or "extraordi incidental and passing. refer to the National Historic Land nary" before the word significance. marks outline, History and Prehistory Other than this, the following are the EXCLUSION 3 in the National Park System and the most notable distinctions: National Historic Landmarks Program, This pertains to the site of a struc 1987. (For more information about EXCLUSION 2 ture no longer standing. There is no the National Historic Landmarks counterpart to this exclusion in the program, please write to Department Buildings moved from their National Register Criteria. In order of the Interior, National Park Service, original location, qualify only if one of for such a property to qualify for National Historic Landmarks, 1849 C two conditions are met: 1) the build Landmark designation it must meet Street, NW, NC400, Washington, DC ing is nationally significant for the second condition cited for Exclu 20240.) sion 2.
52 X. GLOSSARY
Associative Qualities - An aspect of a Historic Context - An organizing Listing - The formal entry of a prop property's history that links it with structure for interpreting history erty in the National Register of historic events, activities, or that groups information about Historic Places. See also, Registra persons. historic properties that share a tion. common theme, common geo Code of Federal Regulations - Nomination - Official recommenda graphical area, and a common time Commonly referred to as "CFR." tion for listing a property in the period. The development of The part containing the National National Register of Historic historic contexts is a foundation for Register Criteria is usually referred Places. to as 36 CFR 60, and is available decisions about the planning, from the National Park Service. identification, evaluation, registra Property Type - A grouping of tion, and treatment of historic properties defined by common CLG - Certified Local Government. properties, based upon compara physical and associative c1ttributes. Culture - A group of people linked tive historic significance. Registration - Process by which a together by shared values, beliefs, Historic Integrity - The unimpaired historic property is documented and historical associations, together ability of a property to convey its and nominated or determined with the group's social institutions historical significance. eligible for listing in the National and physical objects necessary to Register. the operation of the institution. Historic Property - See Historic Resource. Research Design - A statement of Cultural Resource - See Historic proposed identification, documen Resource. Historic Resource - Building, site, district, object, or structure evalu tation, investigation, or other Evaluation - Process by which the ated as historically significant. treatment of a historic property significance and integrity of a that identifies the project's goals, historic property are judged and Identification - Process through methods and techniques, expected eligibility for National Register which information is gathered results, c1nd the relationship of the listing is determined. about historic properties. expected results to other proposed activities or treatments.
53 XI. LIST OF NATIONAL REGISTER BULLETINS
The Basics How to Apply National Register Criteria for Evaluation*
Guidelines for Completing National Register of Historic Places Form Part A: How to Complete the National Register Form* Part B: How to Complete the National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form*
Researching a Historic Property *
Property Types Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Historic Aids to Navigation*
Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating and Registering America's Historic Battlefields
Guidelines for Evaluating and Registering Historical Archeological Sites
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Historic Aviation Properties
Guidelines for Evaluating and Registering Cemeteries and Burial Places
How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes *
Guidelines for Identifying, Evaluating and Registering Historic Mining Sites
How to Apply National Register Criteria to Post Offices*
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Properties Associated with Significant Persons
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Properties That Have Achieved Significance Within the Last Fifty Years*
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes *
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties *
Nominating Historic Vessels and Shipwrecks to the National Register of Historic Places
Technical Assistance Defining Boundaries for National Register Properties*
Guidelines for Local Surveys: A Basis for Preservation Planning *
How to Improve the Quality of Photographs for National Register Nominations
National Register Casebook: Examples of Documentation*
Using the UTM Grid System to Record Historic Sites
To order these publications, write to: National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, 1849 C St., NC 400, NW, Washington, D.C. 20240, or e-mail at: [email protected]. Publications marked with an asterisk(*) are also available in electronic form at www.cr.nps.gov/nr.
54 U.S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 2005-717-788