Getting listed

How to find and hire a National Register nomination consultant

John HarrisonUpdated October 2026

A nomination consultant is a historian, architectural historian or archaeologist who researches your property, writes NPS Form 10-900, produces the photographs and maps, and shepherds the file through SHPO review and the state board. You find one through your State Historic Preservation Office’s consultant list, check them against the federal qualification standards, and compare written proposals.

This guide is as of October 2026. It does not quote fees beyond what named offices and firms publish; see nomination cost and timeline for those figures.

What a consultant actually does

The nomination is a research document. The consultant’s job is to:

• confirm, early, whether the property is likely to qualify, and under which criterion, so you do not pay for a nomination that cannot succeed;
• research the chain of title, construction dates, architects or builders, occupants and the local context, from deeds, maps, newspapers and archives;
• write Section 7 (description) and Section 8 (significance) to the standard the National Park Service, which keeps the Register, expects, with a bibliography in a recognized citation style;
• take and log photographs under the NPS photo policy and prepare the USGS and sketch maps;
• respond to SHPO staff comments and revise;
• in some states, present the property to the review board (Georgia expects a 10-to-15-minute presentation from the sponsor).

New York’s office tells sponsors that hiring a good consultant can expedite the process and that staff cannot do the research for you. North Carolina’s office encourages owners to hire a professional and requires it for districts.

Where to find one

SHPO consultant lists. This is the right starting point. North Carolina posts a consultants list on its National Register pages, arranged by firm or principal. Virginia’s Department of Historic Resources keeps a Trades and Consultants Directory of preservation professionals. Ohio’s office keeps lists of consultants who work in the state and says it does not endorse or recommend any of them. Pennsylvania links a Consultants List from its National Register page. New York takes a different approach: its office will not recommend specific consultants and suggests asking your regional preservation nonprofit.

Every office makes the same point in different words: being on the list means the person asked to be on it, not that the state vouches for them.

Previous nominations. Section 11 of every nomination form names who prepared it. Find recently listed properties near you of a similar type (our address lookup and the county pages on this site will get you there) and read Section 11. A consultant who has already written a successful nomination for a 1920s bungalow in your county knows the local context and the SHPO reviewers.

Local preservation organizations and Certified Local Governments. City preservation offices and nonprofits hire these consultants for surveys and district nominations and know who delivers on time.

The qualification standards

The federal benchmark is the Secretary of the Interior’s Professional Qualification Standards, published as Appendix A to 36 CFR Part 61. They are not a license, and nothing in the regulations requires a nomination preparer to meet them, but SHPO staff and state review boards are required to meet them, and they are the standard the reviewers will have in mind. The NPS summary gives the minimums:

• History: a graduate degree in history or a closely related field; or a bachelor’s degree plus at least two years of full-time experience in research, writing, teaching or interpretation with an academic institution, agency, museum or similar body; or a substantial published contribution to the field.
• Architectural history: a graduate degree in architectural history, art history, historic preservation or a closely related field with coursework in American architectural history; or a bachelor’s degree plus two years of full-time experience in American architectural history or restoration architecture; or a substantial published contribution.
• Archaeology: a graduate degree in archaeology, anthropology or a closely related field, plus at least one year of full-time professional experience, at least four months of supervised field and analytic experience in North American archaeology, and a demonstrated ability to carry research to completion.
• Architecture and historic architecture: a professional degree plus two years of experience or a state license, with an additional year of preservation study or experience for historic architecture.

For a house or commercial building, you want someone who meets the history or architectural history standard. For a site nominated under Criterion D, you want the archaeology standard. Ohio’s guidance adds that significant work experience can substitute for a graduate degree in some cases.

What to ask before you sign

Ohio’s SHPO fact sheet on choosing a consultant is the most direct official checklist we found. Combined with New York’s advice, the questions come down to these:

1. Have you written a listed nomination for this property type in this state? Ask for two or three completed nominations and read them (see below). New York’s office says to make sure the applicant has completed a project of similar size or complexity.
2. Who will do the work? Firms sometimes sell a principal and deliver a junior. Ask who researches, who writes, who photographs.
3. What is included? Site visits, archival travel, photography, maps, the owner-notification spreadsheet some states require, responses to SHPO comments, attendance at the board meeting.
4. What is the schedule? Ohio says a proposal should give a time frame with beginning and ending dates and deadlines for drafts. Tie it to a specific review board meeting and its submission deadline.
5. What happens if the SHPO sends it back? Is one round of revisions included? Two? At what rate after that?
6. References. New York’s office says to check them. Ohio says to ask previous clients whether work was thorough, neat, submitted on time and otherwise acceptable.
7. Can you tell me now whether this property is likely to qualify? A good consultant will give you an honest read before you commit to the full fee, and some sell the eligibility assessment separately.

Red flags

• A guarantee of listing. No one can promise it. Even consultants who publish rate cards state that the decision rests with the National Park Service.
• A fee to the government. There is none. The NPS FAQ page says the Register will never ask for money, and warns of letters demanding payment to remain listed.
• No completed nominations to show you, or only ones that were never listed.
• A nomination mostly assembled from secondary sources with no deed research, no primary documents and no comparison with similar properties. Bulletin 15 expects a historic context and, for rare types, a comparison with other survivors.
• Boilerplate description. If Section 7 could describe any house of that style, reviewers will notice.
• Not knowing the state’s process. A consultant who cannot tell you when the next board meets, what the notification window is, or whether the state wants a Word document rather than the PDF form has not done this recently in your state.

How to read a sample nomination

Ask each candidate for a nomination they wrote that was listed, then read it against the NPS sample nominations, which the Park Service publishes as models for specific problems: integrity, significance statements, comparative analysis, district boundaries, Criterion Consideration G. Things to look for:

• Section 8 names the criteria and argues them. It should say which criterion, which area of significance, what period, and why this property and not its neighbors. Compare it with how the Zane Grey House nomination ties the period of significance to the years the author lived and wrote there, or how the Colfax Passenger Depot nomination counts the surviving depots of its type.
• Section 7 is specific. Dimensions, materials, plan, alterations with dates. The Lindstrom House nomination lists later changes (a 1995 verandah, an enclosed corridor) and explains why they do not defeat integrity.
• The bibliography has primary sources. Deeds, maps, period newspapers, interviews, archives, not just a county history and a style guide.
• Photos and maps are complete. A photo log, views of every elevation and the setting, a keyed sketch map for anything with more than one building.
• It was not sent back. Ask whether the nomination was returned by the SHPO or the Keeper and why.

Our guide to reading a nomination form explains each section in more detail.

Contract basics

Put the scope, deliverables, schedule, number of revision rounds and payment stages in writing. Ohio’s guidance recommends defining the project carefully in writing before approaching anyone, inviting several proposals, and selecting on competence and price together. Pay by milestone (eligibility opinion, complete draft, SHPO acceptance, board approval) rather than all up front. Keep copies of the research files and photographs; you may need them later for a tax-credit application or a boundary change.

If you decide to write the nomination yourself instead, start with how to nominate a property and the four criteria.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Researched from the sources above and drafted with AI assistance; published under the editor's name, corrections welcome. See the editorial policy.