[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 36, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2006]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 36CFR60.4]

[Page 311-312]
 
              TITLE 36--PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC PROPERTY
 
      CHAPTER I--NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
 
PART 60_NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES--Table of Contents
 
Sec.  60.4  Criteria for evaluation.

    The criteria applied to evaluate properties (other than areas of the 
National Park System and National Historic Landmarks) for the National 
Register are listed below. These criteria are worded in a manner to 
provide for a wide diversity of resources. The following criteria shall 
be used in evaluating properties for nomination to the National 
Register, by NPS in reviewing nominations, and for evaluating National 
Register eligibility of properties. Guidance in applying the criteria is 
further discussed in the ``How To'' publications, Standards & Guidelines 
sheets and Keeper's opinions of the National Register. Such materials 
are available upon request.

    National Register criteria for evaluation. The quality of 
significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, 
and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and 
objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, 
workmanship, feeling, and association and
    (a) that are associated with events that have made a significant 
contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or
    (b) that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our 
past; or
    (c) that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, 
or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or 
that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and 
distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; 
or
    (d) that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information 
important in prehistory or history.
    Criteria considerations. 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 past 50 years shall not be considered eligible 
for the National Register. However, such properties will qualify if they 
are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria of if they 
fall within the following categories:
    (a) A religious property deriving primary significance from 
architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance; or
    (b) A building or structure removed from its original location but 
which is significant primarily for architectural value, or which is the 
surviving structure most importantly associated with a historic person 
or event; or
    (c) A birthplace or grave of a historical figure of outstanding 
importance if there is no appropriate site or building directly 
associated with his productive life.
    (d) A cemetery which derives its primary significance from graves of 
persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design 
features, or from association with historic events; or
    (e) 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
    (f) A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, 
tradition, or symbolic value has invested it with its own exceptional 
significance; or
    (g) A property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it 
is of exceptional importance.
    This exception is described further in NPS ``How To'' 2, 
entitled ``How to Evaluate and Nominate Potential National Register 
Properties That Have Achieved Significance Within the Last 50 Years'' 
which is available from the National Register of Historic

[[Page 312]]

Places Division, National Park Service, United States Department of the 
Interior, Washington, D.C. 20240.