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DC's Most Endangered

DC's Historic Districts

    Designation Process
    Frequently Asked Questions

Historic Site Inventory

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Designation Procedures and Criteria

Designation of properties in the D.C. Inventory of Historic Places is the responsibility of the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). Requests for designation are initiated by submitting an application to the board along with supporting documentation, including a statement of historic or architectural significance narrative description, historical research, photographs, and bibliographic references. After staff evaluation and a hearing open to all interested parties, the HPRB votes on the designation. The Board also decides whether to recommend the property for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Nomination is made by the State Historic Preservation Officer.

Applications for historic designation may be sponsored by property owners, the HPRB, private historic preservation organizations, public agencies, or governmental units such as Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Public notice of all actions related to designation is given to ensure that interested parties are aware of the application and afforded the opportunity to participate in the designation process. For further information about designation requirements and to obtain application materials, contact the DC Historic Preservation Office at (202) 442-8800.

Applying for historic landmark designation protects the property on an interim basis until the HPRB acts on the application. Properties proposed for historic district status are not protected until the State Historic Preservation Officer makes an official determination to nominate them to the National Register. Pending designations are listed in an Inventory Update available from the Historic Preservation Division.

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Criteria for D.C. Historic Landmark and Historic District Designation

Properties nominated to the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites may include historic and prehistoric buildings, building interiors, structures, monuments, works of art or other similar objects, areas, places, sites, neighborhoods, networks, and cultural landscapes. Properties may be listed in the Inventory if they possess one or more of the following values or qualities:

1. They are the site of significant events or are associated with persons, groups, institutions, or movements that contributed significantly to the heritage, culture, or development of the National Capital or the Nation;
2. They exemplify the significant military, political, economic, social, scientific, technical, educational, historical, archaeological, architectural, or artistic heritage of the national capital or nation,
3. They embody the distinguishing characteristics of architectural styles; building types; construction types or methods; landscape architecture; urban design, or other architectural, aesthetic, or engineering expressions significant to the appearance and development of the national capital or nation,
4. They have been identified as notable works of craftsmen, artists, sculptors, architects, landscape architects, urban planners, engineers, builders, or developers whose works have influenced the evolution of their fields of endeavor or the development of the national capital or nation;
5. They contain information about or evidence of historic or prehistoric events, processes, institutions, design, construction, settlement patterns, or other facets of earlier cultures that is known or established likely to be important to the knowledge or understanding of such cultures;
6. In the case of natural forms or settings or substantially natural forms or settings, they reflect significant patterns of settlement or use of the landscape as well as the continuum and evolution of cultural attitudes, norms, and values toward the land.

Properties must also possess sufficient integrity to convey, represent, or contain the values and qualities for which they are judged significant, and sufficient time must have passed since they achieved significance or were constructed to allow professional evaluation of them in their historical context.

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