Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties

(Excerpted from The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring, and Reconstructing Historic Buildings (pdf).)

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties (1995) identify four distinct treatment approaches, with accompanying guidelines for each, that apply to a wide variety of cultural resource types, including buildings, sites, structures, objects, districts, and landscape features and patterns:

• Preservation maintains the existing integrity and character of a historic resource. This treatment precludes uses that would require major additions or demolition.
• Rehabilitation maintains the existing integrity and character of a historic structure but allows major additions or alterations to accommodate a compatible contemporary use.
• Restoration reestablishes the form, features, and character of a historic resource at a specific past period of time. NPS Management Policies permits restoration only if (a) it is essential for public understanding of the cultural associations of a park and (2) it can be accomplished with minimal conjecture based on sufficient data.
• Reconstruction produces a new resource identical in form, features, and details to a historic resource that no longer exists. NPS Management Policies permits reconstruction only if (a) it is essential for public understanding of the cultural associations of a park established for that purpose, (b) the resource can be built at full scale on the original site with minimal conjecture. As such, NPS rarely reconstructs historic resources and reconstruction is not a recommended treatment for historic resources in this general management plan.

One set of standards applies to a property undergoing treatment, depending upon the property's significance, existing physical condition, the extent of documentation available and interpretive goals, when applicable.

The standards are a series of concepts about maintaining, repairing, and replacing historic materials, as well as designing new additions or making alterations. The guidelines offer general design and technical recommendations to assist in applying the Standards to a specific property. Together, they provide a framework and guidance for decision-making about work or changes to a historic property.

The Standards and Guidelines can be applied to historic properties of all types, materials, construction, sizes, and use. They include both the exterior and the interior and extend to a property’s landscape features, site, environment, as well as related new construction.

Federal agencies use the Standards and Guidelines in carrying out their historic preservation responsibilities. State and local officials use them in reviewing both Federal and nonfederal rehabilitation proposals. Historic district and planning commissions across the country use the Standards and Guidelines to guide their design review processes.

 

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