Crafting Preservation Criteria: The National Register of Historic Places and American Historic Preservation

by John H. Sprinkle Jr.

In 1966, American historic preservation was transformed by the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act, which created a National Register of Historic Places. Now comprising more than 1.4 million historic properties across the country, the National Register is the official federal list of places in the United States thought to be worthy of preservation.

One of the fundamental principles of the National Register is that every property is evaluated according to a standard set of criteria that provide the framework for understanding why a property is significant in American history. The origins of these criteria are important because they provide the threshold for consideration by a broad range of federal preservation programs, from planning for continued adaptive use, to eligibility for grants, and inclusion in heritage tourism and educational programs.

Crafting Preservation Criteria sets out these preservation criteria for students, explaining how they got added to the equation, and elucidating the test cases that allowed for their use. From artworks to churches, from 'the fifty year rule' to 'the historic scene', students will learn how places have been historically evaluated to be placed on the National Register, and how the criteria evolved over time.

Genres: Heritage Preservation

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 21, 2014

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic read for anyone first starting to learn about the world of historic preservation. This was one of the required texts for my intro to historic preservation class and it was hard NOT to read ahead (okay, so I did) every week because Sprinkle has organized and written his text in such a compelling way. He has done his research and presents content across a variety of historic preservation topics. Admittably, I went in knowing little, but feel I have a far more in-depth understanding and ability to understand it in real world application. He presents multiple scenarios to back up the content being presented, all of which are concise and well written. Although, there are places the text can be dense which may warrant a re-read.

Currently I am making a PIF for a historic site, and this has been a book I've continued to reference back to for information. If you have any interest in the national registry, history or historical preservation, I highly recommend giving this a read.