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The preservation movement in the United States has grown considerably both in scope and in visibility. Interest in historic sites and the desire to preserve them have led to increased legislation at the federal, state, and local levels. This article uses a case study to examine the special costs and benefits that accrue to historic properties. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Today, the centers of a number of American cities are again dynamic places where historic buildings are newly useful and where they complement innovative new architecture. The revival of small-town Main Streets continues to be a struggle because of competition from shopping malls and big-box retailers, but the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street program has, to date, improved the business districts of some 1,600 towns, and other towns have followed their examples. The heritage tourism that grew so enormously in the last part of the 20th century remains a major economic trend.

Historic preservation is still evolving. New periods of history and architecture are being recognized. The concept has expanded to encompass historic landscapes, cultures, and archaeological sites. For appraisers, market value, as always, is the objective. To the extent that the market for real estate reflects the economic, social, political, and cultural trends that make up historic preservation, appraisers must also understand and reflect them in their valuations.

This article presents a case study of a hypothetical property (described in Table 1) to demonstrate the valuation process for historic properties. The article will examine the answers to nine questions as they apply to the property and to historic properties in general. The answers to the following questions should isolate any special costs and benefits that accrue to the property:

1. What is the significance of this property to the history of the United States and/or to its region, community, or neighborhood and is its significance architectural, cultural, or related to a historical figure or event?

2. What designations does the property have or is it eligible for in recognition of its significance?

3. Is the property solitary, or is it one of a grouping of historic properties?

4. Is the property eligible for historic rehabilitation tax credits or other tax credits?

5. Is the property eligible for grants, low-interest loans, or other benefits?

6. Will the rehabilitated property benefit from heritage tourism?

7. Is the property encumbered by, or eligible for, a preservation or conservation easement?

8. For what adaptive uses is the property suitable?

9. What extraordinary costs of rehabilitation or operation should be considered?

Case Study Application: Description of the Subject Property

The properly is a 25-room hotel built in 1889 in a small town. The hotel is from another era and is composed of a unique limestone that is no longer in common use as a building material. It was built near the railroad in a location that was originally next to the train station, which was demolished a long time ago. The structure retains most of its original materials and form and is located within a cultural enclave that includes a number of other buildings that were constructed in the same era and of the same stone. Because of these common qualities, an extensive portion of the town has been designated a historic district and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The property has been certified as contributory to the historic district.

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The property described is ideal for illustrating the appraisal of a historically significant property because:

* Each of the typical valuation approaches assists the appraisal process in a meaningful way.

* The scarcity of comparable transactions can be overcome innovatively.

* The relationship between highest and best use and the appropriate level of rehabilitation can be examined.

* The property shows that the economic infeasibility of some preservation projects can be reversed through governmental income tax policies.

Despite the fact that the subject of this article is the appraisal of historic properties, and not hotels, per se, the theories apply whether the appraiser's assignment is a historic warehouse, retail store, church, school, apartment house, office, or other investment property. Many also apply to single-family dwellings.

Question 1: What is the significance of this property to the history of the United States and to its region, community, or neighborhood, and is its significance architectural, cultural, or related to a historical figure or event?

Historic properties in the United States range from the U.S. Capitol to old bridges, and from national parks to prairie landscapes, so a distinctive 117-year-old hotel built in a now-rare fashion and located within a community that has important cultural associations is likely to qualify as historically significant. The criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic Places specify that a property must:

* Have an association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history, or

* Have an association with the life of a person significant in our past, or

* Possess distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, be representative of the work of a master, or possess special artistic values, or

* Provide information important in prehistory or history.1

Case Study Application: Property's Historic Significance

The subject hotel has an association with the broad patterns of American history in that it is an exemplar of the type of building that immigrants constructed in the region in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and it possesses distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and method of construction.

Question 2: What designations does the property have or is it eligible for in recognition of its significance?

Federal Designations

The property has been certified as contributory to its historic district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and on the State Register of Historic Places. To qualify as contributory to a historic district, a property must meet the secretary of the Interior's Standards for Evaluating Significance Within Registered Historic Districts, which require that by virtue of its location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, the property must add to the district's sense of time and place and historical development, providing these aspects have not been irretrievably altered or allowed to deteriorate.

Case Study Application: Designations for Significance

The property is located within a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The subject hotel's characteristics are consistent with those of its historic district, and it has retained most of its original fabric and form, and as a result, it has been certified as contributory.

In addition to individually listed properties and properties that are contributory to historic districts on the National Register, there are other federal historic designations that appraisers may wish to note. National Historic Landmarks and National Historic Sites are some of the country's most significant historic properties.2 National Historic Landmarks, governed by a detailed set of criteria, are assigned to nine categories, among them, earliest inhabitants of the country, major American wars, and social and humanitarian movements. National Historic Sites are of similar significance but are limited to properties administered by the National Park Service.

Case Study Application: Other Noted Historic Designations

A National Historic Site, a military fort dating from 1865 that attracts tourists to the area, is located 35 miles from the subject historic hotel.

State Designations

Many states maintain state registers that include other properties in addition to those on the National Register. Listing on a state register is usually the essential criterion for state grants, state tax credits, property tax abatements, and other financial incentives and subsidies. If a state has provided the enabling legislation, municipalities and counties can elect to provide property tax benefits to owners of designated historic properties. These can be tied to rehabilitation, homeownership, commercial property ownership, or other criteria. Property tax relief is fairly common in the form of tax moratoriums, tax abatements, tax freezes, or tax credits. A tax moratorium eliminates all property taxes for a specified time. A property tax abatement reduces or defers taxes for a specified time. A tax freeze precludes increases in assessments over a specific time. A property tax credit deducts some portion of rehabilitation cost or other amount from the actual tax bill. To obtain these benefits, the property owner usually has to promise in writing not to change the historic characteristics of the property for the period to which the tax incentive applies, and there may be a penalty for doing so. Some localities assess designated historic properties on the basis of their actual use rather than on the basis of their most economic use. This can be a substantial benefit if there is a significant disparity between the two.

Local Designations

Properties located in the hotel's historic district are subject to the controls imposed by the local landmark ordinance as implemented by the local landmark commission. Before any demolition, alteration, moving, or new construction can be carried out, the landmarks commission must issue a special permit. Almost all of the states have enabling legislation that allows any local jurisdiction within the state to create landmark ordinances. There are approximately 2,500 communities in the United States with landmark ordinances and landmark commissions to ensure conformance with them. The ordinances protect the locally listed historic properties and normally include National Register and state register properties within the community, as well as properties that primarily have local significance.

Decisions rendered by the landmark commission have a direct economic impact on property values and the feasibility of any changes that a property owner proposes. Decisions are often controversial and well publicized. Landmark commissions conduct evidentiary hearings that involve work for attorneys, economic development consultants, architects, and appraisers. For example, appraisers might be called on to testify if contention arises as to whether the proposed changes to a landmark property will affect the market value of nearby properties.

Question 3: Is the property solitary, or is it one of a grouping of historic properties?

Buyers, lessees, and customers generally prefer properties that are not isolated or atypical. For example, business owners occupying historic buildings prefer to be located among groups of other businesses in similar historic buildings because such aggregates attract more tourists, shoppers, restaurant patrons, gallery visitors, and hotel guests. Potential buyers of historic residential properties also prefer to acquire properties among similar properties because they provide a historical context, shared values among owners and occupants, and the psychological, physical, and economic security that result. Properties in historic districts may tend to be better maintained because of their owners' pride in the historic district. Appraisers will appreciate that comparable data are easier to obtain when a property is one of a group of similar properties.

Case Study Application: Location Within a Historic District

The subject hotel is located in a newly designated historic district composed of buildings from the same era and of the same unique stone. The district, even before it was designated, attracted visitors drawn by its culture, its festivals, and its unusual buildings. The rehabilitated hotel property, which is already a focal point of the historic district, will further enhance as well as benefit from it

Question 4: Is the property eligible for historic rehabilitation tax credits or other tax credits?

An investment tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of income taxes due. A federal rehabilitation investment tax credit of 10% is available for non-historic properties constructed before 1936 and a federal rehabilitation investment tax credit of 20% is available for certified historic structures. The National Park Service and the Internal Revenue Service jointly administer the historic preservation tax credit program. The 20% tax credit applies to qualified rehabilitation expenditures (QREs), which include all direct and indirect costs of rehabilitating the historic structure, but do not include acquisition costs, costs of new construction (additions or enlargements), or any landscaping or other site improvements outside the historic structure. The tax credits are available to the ownership of the property upon completion of the rehabilitation.

To be eligible for the federal historic rehabilitation tax credits a property must meet certain criteria. First, it must be a historic property: (1) individually listed on the National Register, or (2) certified by the Park Service as contributory to a historic district on the National Register, or (3) certified as contributory to a local district not listed on the National Register but which meets the criteria of the Register. Properties that are already listed on the National Register need not apply for certification. Otherwise, the initial request for certification is made on Part I of the Historic Preservation Certification Application form, which is submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in each state. The SHPO reviews the request and makes the appropriate critical comments to the National Park Service, which in turn makes the final decision. If the property is neither listed on the National Register nor located in a district on the National Register, the property owner can request a preliminary determination of significance, which permits the owner to begin the rehabilitation while the process of nominating the building or the district continues.

Secondly, The National Park Service must approve the rehabilitation both as proposed and as completed. The criteria for rehabilitation certification are contained in The secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings, which are designed to provide the information necessary to protect the historic fabric of a property, both on its exterior and interior. The Standards also apply to the site and related landscape features and to attached, adjacent, and related new construction. The standards can be summarized as requiring the minimum amount of change to the defining historic characteristics of the property while still permitting adaptive uses and modern conveniences. Original materials and craftsmanship should be repaired not replaced. Archaeological resources must be protected. Chemical treatments or sandblasting that cause damage to historic surfaces are not permitted. Changes that create a false sense of historical development are not permitted and new additions or related new construction must be clearly delineated and must be compatible in scale and architectural features with the old. The planned rehabilitation must be described in detail on Part II of the Historic Preservation Certification Application. Again, the State Historic Preservation Office will review the planned rehabilitation and make a recommendation to the Park Service. The rehabilitation must be substantial, i.e., its cost must exceed the greater of $5,000, or the adjusted basis in the building during the 24-month period of the rehabilitation that ends in the year the credits are claimed. Phased rehabilitations can be carried out over sixty months.

Part III of the Historic Preservation Certification Application must be completed to document the completion of the rehabilitation and is subject to final approval by the Park Service. The depreciable basis of the rehabilitated structure is reduced by the full amount of the tax credit claimed. Historic rehabilitation tax credits are subject to recapture anytime during the five-year period after the building is placed in service. If the property is sold, subjected to foreclosure, or the building is destroyed during the first year, 100% of the tax credits are recaptured; in the second year 80% are recaptured, and so on. Also, if inappropriate changes are made to the property during the first five years of service, the National Park Service can rescind certification of the rehabilitation.

The historic investment tax credits are frequently used in tandem with the low-income housing tax credits. The low-income housing tax credits return 9% on the investment each year for 10 years for rehabilitation and new construction and 4% per year for the acquisition of existing housing or for the rehabilitation or new construction of lowincome housing using federal subsidies. The taxpayer must reduce the rehabilitation expenditures eligible for the low-income housing tax credits by the amount of the rehabilitation tax credits. Generally, the housing must remain low-income for at least 15 years.

The rehabilitation tax credits can also be used with the new markets tax credits, which were created in 2000 by the Community Renewal AcL The new markets tax credits were designed to encourage private investment in low-income commercial areas and apply to non-housing uses. They return 5% on the investment in Years 1-3 of the project and 6% in Years 4-7, for a total of 39% during a sevenyear period. To take advantage of the new markets tax credits, a for-profit ownership entity must apply to the Department of the Treasury to become a Community Development Entity. The CDE must invest in a qualified investment in a qualified community. Approximately 50% of historic commercial properties are located in low-income areas, so the new markets tax credits should be beneficial to preservation, although the credits can also be used to construct new buildings.

Case Study Application: Eligibility for Tax Credits

Neither the low-income housing credit nor the new markets credits are available to the subject hotel property, which is not a low-income housing project or in a low-income commercial area. However, in addition to its being eligible for federal tax credits, the state in which the property is located has a 25% state historic tax credit that applies to certified properties. This tax credit has no upper limit, is available for owner-occupied properties as well as for income properties, and is transferable. The state tax credit status for the income property in this case study example will be approved as a matter of course once the federal tax credits are assured, so historic rehabilitation tax credits with a face value of 45% of the qualified rehabilitation costs are potentially available to the hotel property. Were the subject a non-income property ineligible for the federal tax credits, the rehabilitation program would have to be approved by the State Historic Preservation Office before any rehabilitation could begin. The state tax credit programs vary from state to state.

Because so few individual taxpayers can use the tax credits due to the strictures of the passive investment rules, the alternate minimum tax, and the investment and loan liability at-risk rules, in addition to other limitations, building owners applying for the historic credits can partner with investors who can use the tax credits. This can be accomplished through a syndication or through a complex leasing arrangement, with the owner electing to assign the tax credits to the lessee. An amount approaching the face value of the 20% federal credits, depending on the timing of the investor payments, can be raised to help finance the rehabilitation by incorporating passthrough investors into the ownership structure. The tax credits can pass through partnerships, S corporations, or limited liability companies taxed as partnerships. State tax credits, if passed through to investors, usually produce a lower percentage of their face value.

The eligible rehabilitation costs for both the federal and the state credits include all direct and indirect construction costs but exclude acquisition costs, new construction, and improvements outside of the building. The credits can be regarded as a major incentive for owner/developers to rehabilitate historic properties, especially when state tax credits are available or when the federal credits can be combined with the low-income housing credits or the new markets credits.

Question 5: Is the property eligible for grants, low-interest loans, and other benefits?

Grants for historic properties are available from a variety of federal, state, and local public and private sources. Money from grants may or may not be taxable. If it is not taxable, the rehabilitation tax credits cannot be used against rehabilitation expenditures covered by the grant funds.

Although the federal government's Historic Preservation Fund was created by the 1966 National Historic Preservation Act to aid in the acquisition and development of historic properties, congressional appropriations have never come close to the authorized level of $150 million, and its funds are currently available mostly for property surveys, National Register nominations, and development of preservation plans, ordinances, and design-review guidelines at the state and local levels. Most federal assistance for historic preservation does not come from designated federal preservation grant programs but rather from the wide range of federal programs established to provide housing, transportation, and other public services. The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 funded transportation "enhancements" such as the restoration of railroad stations and the acquisition of easements to preserve scenic areas, at $2.6 billion to be used over six years. Its 1998 successor, the Transportation Efficiency Act for the Twenty-First Century (TEA-21), expanded the enhancement program to $3.6 billion over another six years, and added transportation museums and visitors' centers to the enhancement options. These transportation funds are currently the single largest source of federal dollars for historic preservation. By the end of 2001, approximately $800 million of funds under these two legislative acts had supported historic preservation projects.

Community Development Block Grants administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are often used for preservation. HUD's block grants are allocated to local governments for the general purpose of urban revitalization. The local governments make the decisions as to how to use the funds, which have been increasingly used for rehabilitation of existing structures. Private foundations and corporations also award grants for historic preservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides various types of grants, but mostly as catalyst funds. State-based grants also are available and vary greatly.

Case Study Application: Eligibility for Grants, Low-Interest Loans and Other Benefits

The state in which the subject property is located grants funds for planning, surveying, and making National Register recommendations, and has a bricks and mortar grant program capped at $100,000 per property, for which there is intense competition each year. The criteria for awarding these grants include consideration of the historic significance of the property, the condition of the property, the demonstrated need for the funds, community support, and a distribution balance over the state.

Many states and large cities have preservation organizations with revolving funds to save endangered historic properties. These organizations purchase such properties and resell them to preservation-minded purchasers with preservation restrictions requiring rehabilitation, prohibiting demolition, and limiting alterations, and/or they make lowinterest loans, which when paid, free up funds for the next loan.

Local jurisdictions can offer incentives for the restoration and maintenance of designated properties such as subsidized-interest loans, tax-exempt bond financing, mortgage guarantees, relief from local property taxes, and relief from zoning and building code regulations. The sale of development rights is another tool used to protect designated properties. This device is particularly effective where the historic improvement is of a much lower density than its site will permit, resulting in pressure to redevelop the site. Selling the unused density to the developer of another site often can make rehabilitation of the historic property financially feasible.

Question 6: Will the rehabilitated property benefit from heritage tourism?

The increase in travel to historic sites resulting from the preservation movement has been an economic benefit for the country that has exceeded all expectations, and heritage tourism has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Visits to historic sites, when combined with restaurants, lodging, and entertainment, provide a primary justification for trips. Travelers want to go to areas where there is a special local sense of place, not what some observers term "generica." The large cities that have made the best efforts to save their historic architecture-Washington, D.C.; Boston; Chicago; San Francisco; and New Orleans-draw many visitors to see this architecture. Smaller cities, such as Santa Fe, New Mexico; Annapolis, Maryland; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Natchez, Mississippi; and Galveston, Texas, include historic architecture among their primary attractions. Tourism provides economic benefits by creating employment and by increasing receipts for retail, restaurant, lodging, and state and local sales taxes. Tourism also motivates property owners to restore and preserve historic properties, which in turn encourages more tourism.

Case Study Application: Benefits from Heritage Tourism

The town in which the case study hotel is located attracts several thousand people each year to its summer folk festival to appreciate its stone buildings and its eastern European heritage. This type of tourism is increasing as more people plan weekend trips or even one- or two-day junkets in lieu of longer trips to more distant destinations. The subject hotel property is located just off an interstate highway and is 15 miles from a recreational lake that lacks a hotel, but where residents own second homes. Historic preservation has become much more popular in the general region of the small town, and heritage tourism is growing.

Question 7: Is the property encumbered by, or eligible for, a preservation or conservation easement?

The Tax Treatment Act of 1980 made permanent the charitable deduction of the value of a preservation or conservation easement. These easements are restrictions that control the future use and preservation of historic or conservation properties. The easements impose conditions relinquished by deed that restrict the uses of the property in perpetuity; thus, they preserve or conserve the status quo. The grantee entities, which are charitable preservation/conservation 501(c)(3) organizations or government entities, hold them in trust and may not assign the rights to any but other approved trust entities. The National Trust for Historic Preservation holds many easements on significant properties. Developers often donate them on properties that have just been rehabilitated, but they are also donated when important properties are threatened by demolition or destructive change. Individuals donate easements on potential residential subdivision land or on their own single-family dwellings.

Case Study Application: Encumbrances and Easements

The owners of the subject hotel property might consider donating an easement to a statewide preservation organization. The easement could prohibit any demolition or changes to the historic exterior and interior features of the building. Portions of these restrictions overlap those imposed by the landmarks ordinance on properties within the historic district; however, the easement is perpetual, whereas landmarks laws can change or fail to be enforced.

Appraisers should always ascertain whether or not a property is encumbered by an easement before beginning an appraisal. It is necessary to obtain a copy of any easement on the property and to consider its effects during the appraisal process.

Question 8: For what adaptive uses is the property suitable?

The most relevant question for buyers and, perhaps, appraisers of historic properties is nothow old the property is, but how adaptable it is to its most economic use. For an adaptive use property to qualify as a certified historic property and to be eligible for financial incentives, the property must retain its basic integrity; that is, it must retain the major part of the qualities that give it meaning and value. These qualities are present in a property's style, workmanship, setting and location, materials, building type or function, and continuity.5 Renewing existing structures for new uses and new forms of old uses has become, with the preservation movement, a large part of both commercial and residential redevelopment Adaptive use not only preserves history, but it conserves energy, land infrastructure, building materials, and decorative elements that cannot be reproduced economically today.

Case Study Application: Adaptive Use or Reuse

The subject hotel property was designed and built as a hotel and has never been put to any other use so its contemplated use is not an adaptive use, which can be defined as a use other than the one for which a building was designed and which requires modifications to meet contemporary demand. Most historic properties qualifying for the tax credits are adaptive uses.

Question 9: What extraordinary costs of rehabilitation or operation should be considered?

Historic properties, despite their charm and many beneficial aspects, are not the easiest properties to own, rehabilitate, and maintain. Owning a property listed on the National Register becomes, to some extent, a public responsibility. Many people consider it an honor; others may not welcome the attention it attracts. Landmark laws control demolition of, and changes to, properties listed on the National Register where such laws exist. Properties within historic districts subject to landmark laws are likewise controlled. Where no landmark laws exist, owners are free to change their properties or even demolish them. However, even if National Register properties are not subject to landmark laws, public opinion may discourage demolition or alterations.

Restoring or rehabilitating historic structures usually requires specialized knowledge and craftsmanship. An entire industry of professional and published assistance for owners of older buildings has come into being since the 1966 Historic Preservation AcL Technical Preservation Services, a division of the National Park Service, has more than 100 publications available to the public to help with the restoration, rehabilitation, and care of historic properties.

Case Study Application: Extraordinary Costs of Rehabilitation and Operation

The rare stone of which the subject hotel and the other buildings in the town were constructed was formed during the Cretaceous Period between 135 million and 65 million years ago. It lies just below the surface of a swath of three million acres of land and is filled with sea creature fossils from the era when a series of oceans covered the state. The immigrants who came to this area in the late 1870s noticed the stone in outcroppings, and because they had no wood (there were no trees), they began to dig out the stone to build their first permanent structures. When the railroads began to supply pre-cut lumber, the use of the stone declined.

By 1889 when the hotel was built, this type of local limestone construction was typical of the communities in this region. In nearby areas most of these characteristic stone buildings have been allowed to deteriorate badly or have been demolished, making those that survive much more rare. Although the stone itself endures for ages when properly cut and dressed, the mortar has to be replaced periodically. The NPS Preservation Brief Two, Repainting Mortar Joints in Historic Masonry Buildings, covers this topic. Finding a stonemason capable of the work can be a challenge, however. In addition, the north side of the building is covered with a type of mold that sometimes forms on the local limestone buildings. Preservation Brief One: Assessing Cleaning and Water Repellent Treatments for Historic Masonry Buildings is a guide for approaching this type of problem. Preservation Brief Four: Roofing for Historic Buildings covers roof repairs, replacements and the use of alternative roofing materials. The original interior woodwork, although basically intact, will be repaired and refinished. These features are mentioned as examples of the extraordinary effort required to rehabilitate historic structures. To obtain tax credits, all work must be carried out in conformance with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation with Guidelines for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings.

Even after extensive rehabilitation, historic properties can be expensive and difficult to maintain. Construction materials such as the stone, of which the subject hotel is constructed, the copper roof, the wood windows, the extensive woodwork in the lobby, and the interior plaster walls and ornamentation will need more frequent renewal than the steel, glass, concrete block, or brick walls, metal or composition shingle roofs, and the plastic and aluminum elements of most modern buildings. Frame buildings require more exterior maintenance. Wood shingles on roofs are also subject to damage from weather elements. Many historic buildings incorporate elaborate wood or terra cotta trim on the exterior and many kinds of painted, plastered, and decorated surfaces on the interior.

Occupying historic buildings can also present problems. Older buildings are frequently less energy efficient because of their poor insulation and older heating and cooling equipment. There may be concerns about earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or other natural disasters, as well as vulnerability to fire. There are also dangers from older lead-based paints, plumbing lines, and pathogens. Along with any structural deficiencies, these problems, which may prove difficult and expensive to correct, should be remedied before occupation.

Offsetting the costs of rehabilitating and maintaining a historic property, in addition to incentives such as tax credits, is the sheer beauty of the structures. What was lost during the reign of Modernism was the beauty of the buildings and their settings that had once been the pride of cities and towns. Not that all historic buildings were beautiful nor all Modernist buildings ugly-many of the former were misbegotten and many of the latter works of genius. There was, however, an overall loss of aesthetics, scale, character, and community that arose out of suburban shopping malls, the destruction of the central city, and the mass production of look-alike houses. The preservation movement, in addition to its many practical, educational, and social elements, also embodies a concern for aesthetics.

[Footnote]

1. With some exceptions, properties are not considered for placement on the National Register unless they achieved their significance before the past 50 years. Also exempted from consideration, but with some exceptions, are properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved, cemeteries, birthplaces or graves of historical figures, reconstructed historic buildings, and properties that are primarily commemorative.

2. The U.S. Capitol and its grounds, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House, our most significant properties, are not included on the National Register but are protected by special provisions of law.

3. William T. Murtagh, Keeping Time (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997), 118.