Historic Building Preservation

Historic building preservation is the practice of protecting and maintaining buildings, structures, or sites that have significant historical, architectural, cultural, or social value. The goal of preservation is to ensure that these important places are conserved for future generations, allowing them to continue to tell their stories and contribute to our understanding of the past.

Preservation efforts often involve activities such as:

1. Documentation: Thoroughly researching and documenting the history and significance of the building or site.
2. Stabilization: Ensuring that the structure is structurally sound and preventing further deterioration.
3. Restoration: Returning a building or site to a specific time period, often its original appearance.
4. Rehabilitation: Making necessary repairs and alterations to adapt the building for contemporary use while preserving its historic character.
5. Conservation: Carefully maintaining and protecting historic features and materials to prevent damage or loss.
6. Education: Promoting awareness and understanding of the building's historical and cultural significance.
7. Legislation: Enacting and enforcing laws and regulations to protect historic properties.

 

For a formal citation on historic building preservation, you can refer to various academic sources, books, or articles on the subject. One widely recognized source is "The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties" by the U.S. National Park Service. These standards provide guidelines for preserving and rehabilitating historic buildings and are considered a key reference in the field of historic preservation. Additionally, academic institutions, libraries, and online databases like JSTOR, Google Scholar, or specialized preservation organizations can provide numerous scholarly articles and publications on this topic.

 

The U.S. National Park Service has developed a comprehensive set of guidelines and standards known as "The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties." These standards provide detailed guidance on how to approach the preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction of historic buildings and sites. They are widely recognized and used as a model for historic preservation legislation and codes in the United States.

These standards are organized into four treatment approaches:

 

1. Preservation: Focuses on the maintenance and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time.
2. Rehabilitation: Acknowledges the need to alter or add to a historic property to meet continuing or changing uses while retaining the property's historic character.
3. Restoration: Focuses on accurately depicting the form, features, and character of a historic property as it appeared at a particular period of time by removing features from other periods.
4. Reconstruction: Re-creates vanished or non-surviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes.

 

States and local governments often use these standards as a foundation when developing their own historic preservation legislation and codes. By adopting these widely accepted guidelines, they ensure a consistent and effective approach to preserving historic properties.

 

 All proceeds from the sale of the "House of the Messenger" support the Joseph Greer Chapter and the Tennessee Society, Sons of the American Revolution. The funds will be allocated to historical and educational programs dedicated to the founding principles of the republic and the Constitution of the United States.