The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties are a set of nationally recognized guidelines issued by the National Park Service to guide the preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of historic buildings.
These Standards are widely used across the United States to ensure that work on historic properties preserves their character while allowing for appropriate updates and continued use. They are especially important for projects seeking federal or state historic tax credits, grants, or other preservation incentives.
Overall, the Standards emphasize repairing rather than replacing historic materials, maintaining distinctive features, and ensuring that any new work is compatible with, but distinguishable from the original structure.
These guidelines help protect the historic integrity of properties while allowing them to remain functional and relevant for modern use.
There are four treatment approaches outlined in the Standards:
- Preservation focuses on maintaining and repairing existing historic materials and retaining a property’s form as it has evolved over time.
- Rehabilitation allows for alterations and additions while preserving significant historic features, making it the most commonly used approach for active buildings.
- Restoration depicts a property at a specific period in its history by removing features from other periods and reconstructing missing elements.
- Reconstruction recreates a vanished or non-surviving building using new materials, based on historical documentation.