Historic Preservation Act

Historic Preservation Act
Name	Historic Preservation Act
Enacted by	United States Congress
Enacted	1966
Status	current

Historic Preservation Act

The Historic Preservation Act is a landmark federal statute enacted to identify, protect, and promote National Register of Historic Places listings, coordinate preservation among National Park Service, State Historic Preservation Officers, and local entities, and to integrate preservation into projects involving Federal Highway Administration, Department of Transportation undertakings, Archaeological Resources Protection Act considerations, and National Environmental Policy Act reviews. The Act established procedures affecting properties associated with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O'Connor, Louis Brandeis, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Chief Justice John Marshall-era sites and properties tied to events like the American Revolutionary War, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, Women's suffrage, Westward expansion, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Gold Rush, Industrial Revolution, Great Depression, World War I, World War II, Cold War heritage, and Space Race facilities.

Background and Purpose

The Act arose from preservation advocacy by groups such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, American Institute of Architects, American Antiquarian Society, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, Historic Sites Act of 1935 predecessors, and commentators responding to losses exemplified by demolition of sites like the Pennsylvania Station (New York City) and controversies around projects by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee Valley Authority, and Federal Railroad Administration. Purpose statements reference protection of archeological sites tied to Anasazi (Ancestral Puebloans), Mississippian culture mounds, Pueblo Bonito, Moundville Archaeological Site, and colonial-era structures in Jamestown, Virginia, Colonial Williamsburg, Plymouth (Massachusetts), as well as industrial heritage at places like Lowell National Historical Park, Eli Whitney Museum, and maritime resources including USS Constitution and Pearl Harbor National Memorial. The Act aimed to balance interests represented by National Governors Association, American Planning Association, National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, and culturally focused organizations such as National Congress of American Indians and NAACP.

Key Provisions and Definitions

Key provisions created the National Register of Historic Places and defined criteria for evaluation drawing on standards from the Secretary of the Interior and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Definitions encompass historic property, contributing resource, district, site, structure, and object with thresholds related to periods like Colonial America, Antebellum South, Reconstruction Era, Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Roaring Twenties, Postwar era, and Modernist architecture linked to figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, Richard Neutra, Eero Saarinen, Bertram Goodhue, Henry Hobson Richardson, Thomas Jefferson (architect)-related sites. The Act established consultation requirements with State Historic Preservation Officer, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and agencies including the Federal Highway Administration, General Services Administration, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Implementation and Administration

Administration is primarily through the National Park Service with coordination by State Historic Preservation Offices and involvement of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, local historic preservation commissions, Certified Local Government programs, and nonprofit partners like the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation League of New York State, National Trust for Scotland-style analogs, regional entities such as New York Landmarks Conservancy, Los Angeles Conservancy, Chicago Landmarks Commission, and university programs at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Virginia that provide research, training, and documentation standards. Implementation tools include nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, preparation of Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering Record, Historic American Landscapes Survey, preparation of preservation plans influenced by charters like Venice Charter and international instruments such as the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

Impact and Outcomes

The Act led to thousands of listings including properties associated with Harlem Renaissance figures, Renaissance Theater Districts, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Independence Hall, Alamo, Gettysburg Battlefield, Gettysburg Address-associated sites, and industrial landscapes like Lowell, Massachusetts and Pittsburgh. Outcomes include revitalization of main streets in Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, New Orleans, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Portland, Maine, tourism-driven preservation in Colonial Williamsburg and Mystic Seaport, increased protection of Native American archaeological sites and historic cemeteries, and integration with Historic Preservation Tax Incentives affecting rehabilitation projects in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami. The Act influenced international practice via exchanges with ICOMOS, UNESCO, and bilateral programs involving British Heritage and National Trust (England) counterparts.

Legal Challenges and Amendments

The Act has been subject to litigation in forums including the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Court of Appeals, and state courts with cases touching on procedural compliance under National Environmental Policy Act, Section 106 consultation disputes involving Department of Transportation, Corps of Engineers permits, St. Lawrence Seaway-era conflicts, energy projects tied to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, tribal sovereignty claims by Navajo Nation, Cherokee Nation, Lakota communities, and challenges concerning eminent domain and redevelopment in cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago. Amendments and related statutory updates have involved the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments and adjustments influenced by bills introduced in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives addressing tribal consultation, disaster response coordination with Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Native American cultural property protections under statutes like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Related Programs and Incentives

Complementary programs include federal tax credits administered by the Internal Revenue Service, grants from the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, technical assistance from the Preservation Directory network, conservation easements managed by Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy for heritage landscapes, state tax credit programs in New York (state), California, Texas, Georgia (U.S. state), Maryland, Massachusetts, and incentive programs coordinated with Federal Transit Administration projects. Internationally linked initiatives involve UNESCO World Heritage Sites nominations, technical exchange with ICOMOS, and joint projects with institutions such as the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund.

Category:United States federal legislation