Historic Preservation

Contents

• National Park Service Programs and Publications
• Other Interesting Resources
• Private Organizations

National Park Service Programs and Publications

• American Battlefield Protection Program

• Federal Historic Preservation Laws
  In December 2014, Congress created a new title within the United States Code, Title 54, for National Park Service-related laws. This page has been updated with citations to the new Title 54.

• Federal Historic Preservation Laws, Regulations, and Orders
  The Park Service's historic preservation work is governed by federal law (United States Code [USC] and Public Laws [PL]), federal regulations (Code of Federal Regulations [CFR]), Presidential executive orders, and orders issued by the Director of the National Park Service. This page provides information about these laws, regulations, and orders. 

• Federal Preservation Institute

• Heritage Documentation Programs
  Heritage Documentation Programs administers the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the Federal Government's oldest preservation program, and its companion programs: the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). Documentation produced through the programs constitutes the nation's largest archive of historic architectural, engineering, and landscape documentation. The HABS/HAER/HALS Collection is housed at the Library of Congress.

• Historic Lighthouses and Light Stations

• Historic Preservation Planning Program

• Maritime National Historic Landmark Nominations
  Over 250 maritime properties designated National Historic Landmarks are described in the nomination forms

• National Center for Preservation Technology and Training

• National Historic Landmarks
  Listed by State or Territory. The twenty-five hundred properties designated as National Historic Landmarks tell stories that are of importance to the history of the entire nation, not just local communities or states. These properties possess a high, not simply good, level of historic integrity. All properties designated as National Historic Landmarks are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

• National Register of Historic Places

• Online Training
  The National Park Service's Technical Preservation Services has created web-based training features to provide professional development alternatives and enrichment programs for professional preservationists, local preservation commissions, volunteers, and anyone interested in more in-depth training in historic preservation.

• Planning Standards and Guidelines
  To encourage consistent practices, the National Park Service has developed standards and guidelines that guide preservation work at the national, tribal, state, and local levels. In some cases, these standards can be regulatory.

• Preservation Briefs
  Brochures produced by the Heritage Preservation Services of the National Park Service, designed to assist owners and developers of historic buildings in recognizing and resolving common preservation and repair problems prior to work.

• Preservation Tech Notes

• Preservation by Topic

• Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties
  The flagship of the preservation guideposts is The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, which promote  best practices that will help to protect our nation’s irreplaceable cultural resources.

Other Interesting Resources

• AATA Online
  AATA Online is a comprehensive database of over one hundred thousand abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage. Free access, but requires registration.

• Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

• America's Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places
  Selected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with the History Channel

• Building Technology Heritage Library
  Created by the Association for Preservation Technology International to provide access to period documents on building construction. It's primarily a collection of American and Canadian, pre-1964 architectural trade catalogs, house plan books and technical building guides.

• CAMEO: Conservation and Art Material Encyclopedia Online
  Produced by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online (CAMEO) compiles, defines, and provides technical information on terms, materials, and techniques used in the fields of art conservation and historic preservation.

• National Building Museum
  Washington DC museum dedicated to architecture and preservation

• SAH Archipedia
  SAH Archipedia is an authoritative online encyclopedia of the U.S. built environment organized by the Society of Architectural Historians and the University of Virginia Press. It contains histories, photographs, and maps for over 20,000 structures and places.

• The Whole Building Design Guide: Historic Preservation
  Created by a collaboration of several federal agencies, the guide encourages an integrated and team design approach to the creation of high performance buildings. National Park Service staff participate in the WBDG Historic Preservation Subcommittee.

• World Heritage
  World Heritage is the online presence of the World Heritage Committee of Unesco, which attempts to promote the mission of the World Heritage Convention. Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List, thereby preserving the cultural and natural heritage of Earth for future generations.

Private Organizations

• Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation
  Dedicated to the preservation and conservation of historic landscapes in all their variety, from formal gardens and public parks to rural expanses

• American Architectural Foundation
  Non-profit educational organization

• American Association for State and Local History

• American Cultural Resources Association

• American Planning Association

• American Society of Landscape Architects

• Association for Preservation Technology International
  A cross-disciplinary, membership organization dedicated to promoting the best technology for conserving historic structures and their settings.

• The Cultural Landscape Foundation

• DOCOMOMO US
  DOCOMOMO is an acronym for the DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement. DOCOMOMO promotes the study, interpretation and protection of the architecture, landscape and urban design of the Modern Movement.

• International Council on Monuments and Sites

• National Trust for Historic Preservation
  Publishes the Preservation, the magazine and Stories

• Partners for Sacred Places
  Dedicated to historic preservation of religious properties

• Preservation Action
  Nationwide organization working to further preservation of historic structures

• Preservation Trades Network
  A non-profit membership organization founded to provide education, networking and outreach for the traditional building trades

• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
  Non-profit organization that works to convert former railroad lines to hiking/biking trails

• Recent Past Preservation Network
  Assists with practical strategies to document, preserve, and re-use historic places of the recent past, particularly those of the last fifty years

• Society for Commercial Archeology
  "the oldest national organization devoted to the buildings, artifacts, structures, signs, and symbols of the 20th-century commercial landscape"

• Society of Architectural Historians
  Supports and encourages scholarly research in architecture and preservation

• Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF)
  Vernacular architecture refers to ordinary buildings and landscapes. The VAF acknowledges that there have been and continue to be debates on defining "vernacular architecture."
   

Updated October 2022