NHLSA PRESENTS

October 15, 2009

3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

National Preservation Conference

Location:

Renaissance Nashville Hotel

Nashville, Tennessee

Fisk Room 2

About National Historic Landmarks

National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) are places that possess national significance and exceptional value in interpreting the heritage of the United States. NHLs are designated by the Secretary of the Interior of the United States. The National Historic Landmarks Program is administered by the National Park Service (NPS), within the Department of the Interior. Currently, there are over 2,400 NHLs in the United States and its territories.

What are National Historic Landmarks?

National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American history and culture. Many of the most renowned historic properties in the Nation are Landmarks.

Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, the Apollo Mission Control Center, Alcatraz and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthplace are Landmarks that illustrate important contributions to the Nation's historical development.

How are National Historic Landmarks different

from other historic properties listed in the

National Register of Historic Places?

Landmarks have been recognized by the Secretary of the

Interior as possessing national significance. Nationally

significant properties help us understand the history of the

Nation and illustrate the nationwide impact of events or

persons associated with the property, its architectural type

or style, or information potential. A nationally significant

property is of exceptional value in representing or illustrating

an important theme in the history of the Nation. Properties

listed on the National Register are primarily of State and

local significance.

With a State or locally significant property, its impact is

restricted to a smaller geographic area. For example, many

historic schools are listed on the National Register because

of the historically important role they played in educating

individuals in the community or State in which they are located. Central High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas, is nationally significant because it was the site of the first major confrontation over implementation of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision

outlawing racial segregation in public schools. The city's

resistance led to President Eisenhower's decision to send

Federal troops to enforce desegregation at this school in 1957.

All National Historic Landmarks are included in the National Register, which is the official list of the Nation's historic properties worthy of preservation. Landmarks constitute more than 2400 of almost 76,000 entries in the National Register; the others are of State and local significance.

The process for listing a property in the National Register

is different from that for Landmark designation with different criteria and procedures used. Some properties are recommended as nationally significant when they are nominated to the National Register, but before they can be designated as National Historic Landmarks, they must be evaluated by the National Park Service's National Historic Landmark Survey, reviewed by the National Park System Advisory Board, and recommended to

the Secretary of the Interior.

Aerial view of Fort Monroe, Virginia

Courtesy of the City of Hampton, Virginia

How are National Historic Landmarks Selected?

Potential Landmarks are identified primarily through theme studies undertaken by the National Park Service; these

studies provide a comparative analysis of properties

associated with a specific area of American history, such

as Labor or Women's History. The historic importance of

these potential Landmarks is evaluated by the National

Park Service and the National Park System Advisory

Board twice yearly at meetings that are open to the public.

The Advisory Board includes citizens who are national and community leaders in the conservation of natural, historic,

and cultural areas.

Recommendations by the Advisory Board are made to the Secretary of the Interior on potential National Historic

Landmarks. Final decisions regarding National Historic

Landmark designation are made by the Secretary of the Interior.

In most cases, designation by the Secretary occurs six

to eight weeks following the Advisory Board's recommendation. Designation may be delayed if questions regarding the significance, physical condition, or boundaries of a potential Landmark are raised by the Advisory Board or the Secretary of the Interior.

Nominations prepared by other Federal agencies, State Historic Preservation Officers, and individuals are accepted for review and represent an increasing number of nominations reviewed each year.

The Ryman Auditorium

Home of the Grand Ole Opry

Nashville, Tennessee

Courtesy of Ryan Kaldari

Honokohau Halau

Kaloko-Honokohau National Historic Park

Hawaii

What criteria are used to select National Historic Landmarks?

The quality of national significance is ascribed to districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects that possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States in history, architecture, archeology, technology and culture; and that possess a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:

(1) That is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to, and are identified with, or that outstandingly represents, the broad national patterns of United States history and from which an understanding and appreciation of those patterns may be gained; or

(2) That are associated importantly with the lives of persons nationally significant in the history of the United States; or

(3) That represent some great idea or ideal of the American people; or

(4) That embody the distinguishing characteristics of an architectural type specimen exceptionally valuable for the study of a period, style or method of construction, or that represent a significant, distinctive and exceptional entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or

(5) That are composed of integral parts of the environment not sufficiently significant by reason of historical association or artistic merit to warrant individual recognition but collectively compose an entity of exceptional historical or artistic significance, or outstandingly commemorate or illustrate a way of life or culture; or

(6) That have yielded or may be likely to yield information of major scientific importance by revealing new cultures, or by shedding light upon periods of occupation over large areas of the United States. Such sites are those which have yielded, or which may reasonably be expected to yield, data affecting theories, concepts and ideas to a major degree.

Ordinarily, cemeteries, birthplaces, graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings and properties that have achieved significance within the past 50 years are not eligible for designation. Such properties, however, will qualify if they fall within the following categories:

(1) A religious property deriving its primary national significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance; or

(2) A building or structure removed from its original location but which is nationally significant primarily for its architectural merit, or for association with persons or events of transcendent importance in the Nation's history and the consequential association; or

(3) A site of a building or structure no longer standing but the person or event associated with it is of transcendent importance in the Nation's history and the consequential association; or

(4) A birthplace, grave, or burial if it is of a historical figure of transcendent national significance and no other appropriate site, building or structure directly associated with the productive life of that person exists; or

(5) A cemetery that derives its primary national significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, or from an exceptionally distinctive design or from an exceptionally significant event; or

(6) A reconstructed building or ensemble of buildings of extraordinary national significance when accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan, and when no other buildings or structures with the same association have survived; or

(7) A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value has invested it with its own national historical significance; or

(8) A property achieving national significance within the past 50 years if it is of extraordinary national importance.

Some properties listed in the National Register are subsequently identified by the Survey as nationally significant; others are identified for the first time during Landmark theme studies or other special studies. Both the National Historic Landmarks and the National Register programs are administered by the National Park Service under the Secretary of the Interior.