Owning a listed property

Can I renovate, add on or demolish a National Register building?

John HarrisonUpdated October 2026

National Register listing on its own does not restrict a private owner. Federal regulation says listing does not prohibit, under federal law, anything the owner could otherwise do, and the National Park Service puts it plainly: no federal restriction, up to and including destruction, as long as no federal money, permit or licence is involved. Restrictions, where they exist, come from other layers.

Those layers are local landmark ordinances, recorded easements, the five-year conditions attached to the federal rehabilitation tax credit, state law, and Section 106 review when a federal agency is involved. This guide walks through each so you can tell which, if any, applies to your building. Facts are as of October 2026.

What listing itself permits

The National Register is kept by the National Park Service, which describes it as a planning tool rather than a regulatory one. The governing regulation, 36 CFR 60.2, states that listing private property does not prohibit under federal law or regulation any action the owner may otherwise take. The NPS FAQ says a non-federal owner may do as they wish with the property within the framework of local laws or ordinances.

Listing also does not:

• require you to open the building to the public;
• lead to public acquisition;
• automatically create local historic district zoning or landmark status (the NPS lists this separately as something listing does not do).

So if you are paying for the work yourself and the project needs no federal permit, licence or grant, the Register is not the thing standing between you and the renovation. Something else may be. Read on.

Where the restrictions actually come from

Local historic districts and landmark commissions

The binding rules on most private historic buildings are municipal. Cities and counties adopt preservation ordinances and appoint commissions that review exterior changes, additions and demolition within locally designated districts or on locally designated landmarks. The National Park Service runs a Certified Local Government program for such municipalities, which it describes as a written, legal commitment to protect and designate historic properties; states must pass at least 10 percent of their federal Historic Preservation Fund money to these local governments as subgrants.

Local designation and National Register listing are separate decisions, often with different boundaries. A building can be in a National Register district but outside the local district, or the reverse. Before any exterior work, ask the planning or preservation office whether the parcel is locally designated and what the ordinance requires. The commission’s design guidelines, not the Register, decide what you may do.

Preservation easements

An owner who has donated a preservation easement on the building has given up certain rights in perpetuity, usually to a nonprofit or government body, and the restriction binds every later owner. The NPS notes that owners of listed properties may be able to grant such easements, and 36 CFR 60.2 refers to the federal tax provisions for charitable contributions of partial interests in historic structures. If an easement is recorded against your title, the easement-holding organization, not the SHPO, approves changes. Our historic preservation easements guide covers how they work and how to find one.

Tax-credit conditions during the five-year period

The 20 percent federal rehabilitation credit is available only for income-producing buildings; owner-occupied houses do not qualify. The NPS says the building must remain depreciable, income-producing property for at least five years after the work, and the IRS states the credit is claimed ratably over five years and may be recaptured in whole or part if the property stops qualifying or you dispose of your interest during the recapture period. In practice that means alterations within five years of a certified rehabilitation carry tax risk. Check with the SHPO and a tax adviser before touching a building that recently received the credit. See the federal historic rehabilitation tax credit guide.

State law

Some states have their own review laws for state-funded or state-permitted projects, and some state tax-credit programs carry their own conditions. These vary, and this guide does not catalogue them. Your State Historic Preservation Office can tell you whether anything at state level applies; our SHPO directory has contacts.

When federal involvement brings Section 106

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act applies when a federal agency carries out, funds, permits, licenses or approves a project that could affect a property listed in or eligible for the Register. The regulations at 36 CFR 800 define such an undertaking to include projects carried out with federal financial assistance and those requiring a federal permit, licence or approval.

For a private owner that can mean a federally insured or guaranteed mortgage used for rehabilitation, a federal grant, or a permit from a federal agency. If any of these are in the picture, the agency, not you, must consult the SHPO, identify historic properties, assess adverse effects and seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate them. Section 106 is a consultation requirement, not a veto: 36 CFR 60.2 says that once the agency has given the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a reasonable opportunity to comment, program decisions rest with the agency. Our Section 106 review guide explains the steps and timelines.

The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards: the yardstick

Whenever a program does apply, the measure is almost always the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The NPS publishes four treatments: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration and reconstruction. The Standards are codified at 36 CFR 68, and the Standards for Rehabilitation separately at 36 CFR 67, where they are the regulatory test for certified rehabilitations under the tax-credit program. The accompanying Guidelines are advisory.

The Standards for Rehabilitation, in summary, expect a project to:

• keep the historic use or choose a new one needing minimal change;
• retain the materials, features and spaces that give the building its character;
• avoid conjectural features that create a false sense of history;
• keep later changes that have become significant in their own right;
• repair rather than replace deteriorated features, and match the original where replacement is unavoidable;
• avoid harsh chemical or physical treatments;
• protect archaeological resources;
• make new additions distinguishable from the old yet compatible in massing, size and scale;
• design additions so that removing them later would leave the building’s essential form intact.

Local commissions commonly borrow these Standards for their own guidelines, and under 36 CFR 800.5 work that is not consistent with them is one of the listed examples of an adverse effect. If you follow the Standards voluntarily, you will rarely have trouble with any of the reviewing bodies.

Examples from the database

• Engine House No. 18, Los Angeles. The nomination summary records that at the time of listing in 1982 this 1904 to 1905 fire station stood vacant, had been vandalized, and was considered at risk of sale and demolition. Listing recognized the building; it did not by itself protect it.
• New Bedford Historic District, Massachusetts. Listed in 1966 and also a National Historic Landmark, the district was later covered by a local historic district ordinance adopted in 1971. The local ordinance, not the Register listing, is the layer that reviews changes.
• Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company, Chicago. The summary notes later alterations, including a replaced cornice and a 1960 addition, alongside recognition by Chicago’s landmarks body in 1957 and National Register listing in 1970.
• Tecumseh Building, Springfield, Ohio. A ten-storey office building recorded as vacant in its nomination, the kind of income-producing property for which the federal credit, and its five-year conditions, are designed.

Before you start: a short checklist

1. Confirm the listing and its boundary with the address lookup and the property page.
2. Ask the city whether the parcel is locally designated and what the ordinance covers.
3. Pull the title and look for a recorded preservation easement or covenant.
4. Ask the SHPO whether the building received a state or federal tax credit in the last five years.
5. Check whether any federal money, permit or licence is involved; if so, expect Section 106.
6. Design to the Standards for Rehabilitation whichever answer you get.

For the broader picture of what listing means day to day, see what National Register listing means for homeowners.

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.