Visitors to cultural and historic sites gain insight into a different era or locale, which can prove particularly valuable for students studying history – it helps them visualize history they may otherwise miss from textbooks alone.
Historical is often applied to buildings, events and records that hold great historical importance; however not every place or object deserves this classification.
The National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the official listing of buildings, structures, objects, districts and sites important to American history. It serves to preserve these properties through identification as potential preservation candidates while offering technical support to their owners. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that established the National Register mandates each state to establish a State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), who will help guide you through the process of adding your property to it. In order to qualify, properties must meet four criteria: they must be associated with significant events or people; an example of significant styles or designs; or provide information that helps define history and prehistory.
Nominators for the Register can include either private owners or government agencies, like historical societies. Once nominated, SHPO notifies owners and allows public comment. Once listed properties receive recognition for their historical significance as well as grants and tax credits.
The National Park Service
The National Park Service is the government agency tasked with taking care of America’s 428 national parks and other special areas of natural, cultural, and historic significance. Their aim is to preserve these places while making them accessible to all Americans while encouraging outdoor recreation in ways that safeguard both natural and historic integrity for present and future generations.
Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, the first directors of the National Park Service (NPS), implemented policies designed to make parks more accessible to the public. This included creating a corps of National Park Service superintendents and rangers who brought stability, order, and professionalism into park management.
Today, the National Park Service (NPS) stands as one of the world’s leading park agencies, its growth and evolution an object of scrutiny by researchers, students, legislators, educators in multiple fields worldwide and from different disciplines. Furthermore, NPS oversees numerous historical sites and programs like Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) established during Great Depression as a make-work program documenting representative samples of our nation’s architectural heritage.
The National Historic Landmarks Program
The National Historic Landmarks Program is the National Park Service’s premier designation program for properties of outstanding national significance. Designations confers many benefits, including access to federal grants like Save America’s Treasures grant program. Furthermore, owners of designated landmarks are invited to accept a bronze plaque to display on their properties.
The National Park Service conducts surveys of historic resources across the nation and selects those of national significance for Landmark status designation. Professional historians, architectural historians and archeologists with knowledge of national history provide this evaluation process.
Anyone can suggest a property for consideration as a National Historic Landmark; however, the evaluation and survey process for National Historic Landmarks is rigorous and requires substantial documentation of a site’s significance and integrity. NPS staff and National Park System Advisory Board then review nominations before being sent on to Secretary of Interior for approval for final designation – with successful designation, these sites automatically joining the National Register of Historic Places.
The National Historic Sites Act
The Historic Sites Act established the National Register of Historic Places and outlined preservation as a federal obligation, creating State Historic Preservation Offices across the nation as well as authorizing an Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to advocate for historic preservation on behalf of all of us at once.
This act mandated federal agencies to consider the effects of their undertakings on historic properties when taking decisions that affect these assets, creating the Section 106 review process in which agencies consult with SHPOs/THPOs/Federally recognized Indian tribe(s) where appropriate in order to assess whether projects have significant adverse effects on historic property.
The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act marked an important step in saving America’s historical resources from destruction, neglect and deterioration. To safeguard historic resources’ consideration in federal decision making processes, an advisory council on Historic Preservation was created. Their list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places serves as an effective advocacy tool. Furthermore, Historic Preservation Week and Preservation magazine are key activities supported by them as well.
