I) Lewis
II) Clark
III) Genealogy
>Preservation
>>Legislation
>>>National Historic Landmark Program
National Historic Preservation ActVirginia Department of Historic Resources
Legislation in Albemarle County
Legislation in Charlottesville
Owning an Historic Home
For Family HeritageFor Historical Interest
Educating the Public
Museum at Buena VistaLewis and Clark Exploratory Center
National Historic Landmarks Program
In 1960, the National Park Service created the National Historic Landmark Program to recognize and "encourage the long range preservation of nationally significant properties that illustrate or commemorate the history and prehistory of the United States (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service, 65.1)." This plan created a list of historic landmarks throughout the country that were important to the entire country, not just a local community or state (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Ser-vice, 65.2). The National Park Service was in charge of identifying these important features. The Secretary of the Interior then reviewed and designated the places historic landmarks (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service, 65.5).
Once the Park Service designated a place, district, or home a national landmark, the Park Service could not dictate to a private owner what to do with or to the property. The Park Service could only intervene to protect a home, area, or district if a federal project threatened an historic landmark. Once the Park Service identified a federal program that threatened a site, Congress reviewed the plan to determine whether or not to continue the project (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service, 65.7).
The National Historic Landmark Program focused only on preserving sites pertinent to the nation's history. Although citizens could make suggestions to the Park Service, the Park Service's staff picked potential landmarks through studies of broader historical trends (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service, 65.10). There were incentives involved in having a property listed as an historic landmark, in that owners of commercial and residential buildings could receive a federal rehabilitation tax credit for twenty percent of the cost of the work done on the buildings, but only if these buildings were in a historic district but were not historic or purely residential buildings (Preservation Assistance Division, National Park Service, 65.2).