Transcript The Preservation Process

The Preservation Process
Sequence of Preservation actions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Setting standards or criteria that define what is worth
preserving.
Undertaking a survey to locate and describe resources
potentially to be saved.
Evaluating the resources discovered in the survey against
the standards established in step one.
Giving those properties that qualify “official status” in some
way. This is Listing on the National Register
Following up with protective measures.
Why this sequence?
Sequence represents an approach to government
administration.
a. Standards are set in legislative action.
b. Administration of a disaster relief involves identifying
scope, triage (planning what to do first), providing aid.
c. All steps must be constantly under scrutiny and are subject
to change.
Who does the work of Historic
Preservation?
Procedures are expressed without actors (agents). This
approach obscures decisions of inclusion and exclusion and
who constructs the rhetoric of those choices.
Stated in this listing suggests a linear process-making the
irrational appear rational.
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 created a
protective structure and set the criteria for consideration, yet
little of survey necessary for inclusion had been done.
High Standards of Standardness
The standards of what is worthy of protection was codified in
the language of the National Historic Preservation act of
1966 and has been further elaborated in publications of the
National Park Service in defining properties eligible for the
National Register of Historic Places.
Eligibility is the term for meeting standards.
Criteria of the National Register
Structures associated with events that have made a significant
contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or
B. That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our
past; or
C. That 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; or
A.
D.
Have yielded or likely to yield, information important in
prehistory or history.
How did we get standards?
The standards of what is worthy of protection was
codified in the language of the National Historic
Preservation act of 1966 and has been further
elaborated in publications of the National Park
Service in defining properties eligible for the
National Register of Historic Places.
 Background events: In 1963 the National Trust and
Colonial Williamsburg sponsored a conference to
discuss historic preservation, improving
transportation and urban decay. The outlines from
that conference contained in a 1966 publication
Historic Preservation Today was narrow in focus on
outstanding sites of historic content. In 1964 a small
committee of preservationists began to push for
new legislation. In January of 1966 the report of
their findings With Heritage So Rich was published.
 The National Historic Preservation Act was created
by vote of the 89th Congress.


How do you read a public law? First understand that the name of a law is not
necessarily the official title, but a popular name used for convenience of the
readers.
The legal outline form involves:
Title I. Section 101. (a)(1)(A)

Survey
Field-based Research Design. The goal of research with any
preservation organization is the development of a complete
and fully documented, comprehensive inventory of the
community’s historic properties. However, “a survey need
not be complete and comprehensive in order to be useful.”
National Park Service Bulletin 24
Criteria of survey includes a “fifty year” rule–moving target of
survey. In 1970s administrators (with their own criteria) felt
that surveys would be finished, however, newer buildings
have continued to be added to mix.
Evaluation
In order for properties to be listed on the National Register they must
meet four conditions: They must
a. possess a significance that
b. meets at least one of the criteria of the national register and the
significance must
c. be developed from an understanding of the historic context (theme,
time, place), and
d. retain integrity of location and materials.
Properties may have buildings that are Contributing or “non-contributing.”
Listings
 The National Register of Historic Places
 National Historic Landmarks
 Virginia Landmarks Register
 Local Historic Districts
Protective Measures and Incentives
 Protecting against the actions of man.
 a. Section 106 protections against the practices of government.
 Protecting against environmental and temporal effects–
conservation.
Funding the costs of preservation.
 tax incentives. Direct and Indirect.
 Grants.