Travel and background

How the National Register works: the law, the agencies and what listing means

John HarrisonUpdated October 2026

The National Register of Historic Places is the federal government’s official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects judged significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture. The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 created it, and the National Park Service keeps it. Listing is mainly recognition: it triggers federal project review and tax incentives, but it gives the federal government no control over what a private owner does.

This guide is current as of October 2026 and uses the NPS list of listed properties dated May 22, 2026. This site is independent and not part of the National Park Service.

The law behind the Register

The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) became law on October 15, 1966. In December 2014 the Act was moved, with no substantive changes, from title 16 to title 54 of the U.S. Code, so modern citations read “54 U.S.C.” rather than the older “16 U.S.C. 470”.

The core sentence is short. Section 302101 says the Secretary of the Interior may expand and maintain a National Register of Historic Places made up of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering and culture. The Secretary delegates the work to the National Park Service, which keeps the Register, and the regulations that govern it are in 36 CFR Part 60. Part 60 is where you find the definitions (60.3), the effects of listing (60.2), the nomination procedure (60.6), appeals (60.12) and removal (60.15).

The same Act set up the rest of the system: the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the Section 106 review process for federal undertakings, the State Historic Preservation Officers, and the Historic Preservation Fund grants that pay for much of the work. Later amendments added Certified Local Governments (1980) and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (1992).

Who does what

The National Park Service and the Keeper. NPS runs the program and reviews every nomination. The official who signs a listing is the Keeper of the National Register. Under 36 CFR 60.6(r) a nomination is normally listed within 45 days of reaching the Keeper unless it is returned, appealed or blocked by owner objection.

State Historic Preservation Officers (SHPOs). Every state, the District of Columbia, five territories and three freely associated states has one, 59 offices in all, each headed by an officer appointed by the governor. The duties listed in 54 U.S.C. 302303 include running a statewide survey of historic properties, nominating eligible ones to the Register, preparing a statewide preservation plan, administering federal preservation grants, consulting with federal agencies under Section 106, advising on rehabilitation projects seeking federal assistance, and helping local governments become certified. For most owners the SHPO is the only office they will ever deal with. See the SHPO directory.

Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs). The 1992 amendments let a federally recognized tribe take over any or all SHPO functions on its reservation and trust lands by submitting a tribal resolution and a program plan to NPS. An NPS statistics page counted 208 THPOs in 2022. Nominations for properties on tribal land start with the THPO.

Federal Preservation Officers (FPOs). Federal agencies nominate the properties they own through their own preservation officers under 36 CFR 60.9, with a 45-day comment period for the SHPO and local officials.

Certified Local Governments (CLGs). A city or county can be certified if it enforces a preservation ordinance, has a qualified historic preservation review commission, keeps a survey and provides for public participation, including in recommending properties for nomination (54 U.S.C. 302503). States must pass at least 10 percent of their annual Historic Preservation Fund grant to CLGs. NPS puts their number at over 2,000.

What listing does

36 CFR 60.2 lists four effects, and they are all federal:

1. Section 106 review. Before a federal agency funds, licenses or permits a project that could affect a listed or eligible property, it must give the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a chance to comment. This is a consultation requirement, not a veto. See Section 106 review.
2. Grants. Owners may become eligible for federal historic preservation grants-in-aid when Congress funds them. The Register itself has no grant program.
3. Tax provisions. Income-producing listed buildings can qualify for the federal rehabilitation tax credit, and the code limits deductions for demolishing them. NPS says the credit program has leveraged more than $45 billion in private investment. See the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit.
4. Surface coal mining. Permit decisions for listed land must weigh its historic values.

What listing does not do

The NPS FAQ is direct about this: listing places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner does with the property, including demolition, unless the project involves federal funding, a federal license or a federal permit. The Register does not require you to open your house, restore it or put up a plaque. NPS does not issue plaques and never charges a fee to list or remain listed; it warns about letters claiming otherwise.

Restrictions, where they exist, come from somewhere else: a local historic district ordinance, a state law, a preservation easement you or a previous owner signed, or a grant agreement. The homeowner-focused version is in what listing means for homeowners, and the three tiers of designation are compared in local landmark vs. National Register vs. National Historic Landmark.

The five categories

36 CFR 60.3 defines what can be listed:

In the May 2026 list the split is 69,314 buildings, 18,565 districts, 7,121 sites, 5,297 structures and 469 objects, with 100 rows that carry no category. A single district can contain hundreds of contributing buildings, which is why NPS speaks of two million contributing resources inside roughly 100,000 listings.

National Historic Landmarks are a subset

National Historic Landmarks are the properties the Secretary of the Interior has designated as nationally significant, on the recommendation of the National Park System Advisory Board. NPS puts their number at over 2,600. Under 54 U.S.C. 302102 every Landmark is included in the National Register, so a Landmark is always a Register listing but a Register listing is rarely a Landmark; most entries are significant at the state or local level. In the May 2026 list, 2,754 rows carry a Landmark designation date, a figure that includes a few boundary and documentation updates for the same Landmark. Bacon’s Castle in Surry County, Virginia, is a typical example: a 1660s brick house that was both a Landmark and a Register listing on the Register’s first day.

How many listings there are

The 807 entries dated October 15, 1966 are the Landmarks and national park units that were placed on the Register the moment it came into existence. Everything else has been added one nomination at a time since; 2024 and 2025 each added about 900 rows.

How a property gets listed

The full process is in how to nominate a property and the standards are in the four criteria and seven aspects of integrity. In outline:

1. Anyone can prepare a nomination, but it must be submitted through the SHPO (or THPO or FPO). Properties are generally at least 50 years old; younger ones must be exceptionally important. See the 50-year rule.
2. The SHPO notifies owners and local officials and takes comment. Owners must get written notice between 30 and 75 days before the state review board meets (36 CFR 60.6).
3. The state review board votes. NPS says the state stage typically takes at least 90 days.
4. If the private owner, or a majority of private owners in a district, objects in writing, the property is not listed; the Keeper instead issues a determination of eligibility, which still triggers Section 106 review.
5. The SHPO forwards the nomination to NPS, and the Keeper lists it, normally within 45 days.

Properties come off the Register under 36 CFR 60.15, mainly when the qualities that justified listing have been destroyed; anything listed before December 13, 1980 can be removed only on that ground.

How to look a property up

• This site. Use the address lookup to see whether an address falls on or inside a listing in the ten states covered so far, then open the property page, which summarizes the official nomination and links to the original document.
• The NPS database. The NPS research page offers a searchable table, downloadable spreadsheets of listed properties and an address-searchable map. NPS cautions that the map has errors, especially around large districts, and that the database does not list every address inside a district.
• The nomination documents. The National Archives Catalog holds scanned nomination files through the end of 2012; NPS’s own NPGallery holds later ones and some that are missing from NARA. Files for restricted properties are never posted online. If a file has not been digitized you can email NPS with the property name, state and reference number; NPS says turnaround is about three weeks. Reading a nomination form explains what you will find.

A property that does not appear by name may still be listed as a contributing building inside a historic district, so when the name search fails, check the district that covers the neighborhood or ask the SHPO.

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.