FEDERAL GUIDELINES
FOR RESTORING HISTORICAL STRUCTURES
Drive along Route 6A and you will see many properties that
are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Perhaps
you own a home or other structure listed in the register
and wonder what obligations this designation carries. Surprisingly
few, in fact.
In 1966, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act because it
feared properties significant to the nation’s heritage were being lost
or substantially altered with increasing frequency. In an attempt to recognize
historically significant properties, the government created the National
Register of Historic Places.
Under federal law, owners of private property listed in the National Register
are free to maintain, manage, or dispose of their property as they choose,
provided that there is no federal involvement. Owners have no obligation
to open their properties to the public, to restore them or even to maintain
them, if they choose not to do so. But, in an effort to provide leadership
regarding the preservation of historic structures, the federal government
has created standards for the rehabilitation of historic structures:
1. Every reasonable effort shall be made to provide a compatible
use for a property which requires minimal alteration of the
building, structure or site and its environment, or to use
a property for its originally intended purpose.
2. The distinguishing original qualities or character of a building, structure
or site and its environment shall not be destroyed. The removal or alteration
of any historic material or distinctive architectural features should be
avoided when possible.
3. All buildings, structures and sites shall be recognized as products of their
own time. Alterations that have no historical basis and which seek to create
an earlier appearance shall be discouraged.
4. Changes which may have taken place in the course of time are evidence of
the history and development of a building, structure or site and its environment.
These changes may have acquired significance in their own right, and this
significance shall be recognized and respected.
5. Distinctive stylistic features or examples of skilled
craftsmanship which characterize a building, structure or
site shall be treated with sensitivity.
6. Deteriorated architectural
features shall be repaired rather than replaced, wherever
possible. In the event replacement is necessary, the new
material should match the material being replaced in composition,
design, color, texture and other visual qualities. Repair
or replacement of missing architectural features should
be based on accurate duplications of features, substantiated
by historic, physical or pictorial evidence rather than
on conjectural designs or the availability of different architectural
elements from other buildings or structures.
7. The surface
cleaning of structures shall be undertaken with the gentlest
means possible. Sandblasting and other cleaning methods
that will damage the historic building materials shall not
be undertaken.
8. Every reasonable effort shall be made to
protect and preserve archeological resources affected by,
or adjacent to, any project.
9. Contemporary design for
alterations and additions to existing properties shall
not be discouraged when such alterations and additions do
not destroy significant historical, architectural or cultural
material, and such design is compatible with the size,
scale, color, material and character of the property, neighborhood
or environment.
10. Wherever possible, new additions or
alterations to structures shall be done in such a manner
that if such additions or alterations were to be removed
in the future, the essential form and integrity of the
structure would be unimpaired.
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