National Register Criteria and Considerations
National Register Requirements
Please note the following criteria if you are interested in listing a property.
To be listed on the National Register, properties must generally be at least fifty years old; and must also retain their historic character.
Properties must also meet one or more of the following criteria:
- be associated with important events that have contributed significantly to the broad pattern of our history; or
- be associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or
- embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values, or represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or
- have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
IMPORTANT: A property must also have integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. This means that if a property has been dramatically altered, or its setting has been lost, it is probably NOT eligible for the Register.
National Register criteria are designed to guide the officials of the National Register, Nebraska State Historical Society State Historic Preservation Offices, federal agencies, local governments, preservation organizations, and members of the general public in evaluating properties for entry on the National Register
Ordinarily cemeteries, birthplaces, or graves of historical figures, properties owned by religious institutions or used for religious purposes, structures that have been moved from their original locations, reconstructed historic buildings, properties primarily commemorative in nature, and properties that have achieved significance within the last fifty years shall not be considered eligible for the National Register. However, properties will qualify if they are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria or if they fall within the following categories:
- a religious property deriving primary significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance; or
- a building or structure removed from its original location but which is significant for architectural value, or which is the surviving structure most importantly associated with an historic person or event; or
- a birthplace or grave or an historical figure of outstanding importance if there is no other appropriate site or building directly associated with his or her productive life; or
- a cemetery that derives its primary significance from graves or persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design features, or from association with historic events; or
- a reconstructed building when accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan, and when no other building or structure with the same association has survived; or
- a property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value has invested it with its own historical significance; or
- a property achieving significance within the past fifty years if it is or exceptional importance.
Back to NRHP