The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the nation^' s cultural resources worthy of preservation. The National Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate and protect our historic and archaeological resources. The National Register is administered in Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Resources listed on the National Register contribute to an understanding of the historical and cultural foundations of our state and nation.

THE NATIONAL REGISTER CRITERIA

In order to be determined eligible for the National Register, a property must be significant according to one or more of the National Register Criteria. The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, 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 (Exceptions):

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 or if they fall within the following categories:

A. a religious property deriving primary significance from architectural or artistic distinction of historical importance; or

B. a building or structure removed from its original location hut 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 other appropriate site or building directly associated with his or her productive life; or

D. a cemetery which derives its primary significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, 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 historical significance; or

G. a property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it is of exceptional importance.

INTEGRITY

To be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a property must possess integrity. Integrity is the authenticity of a property's historic identity and significance, evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the property's historic period. If a property retains the physical characteristics it possessed in the past, then it has the capacity to convey association with historical patterns or persons, architectural or engineering design and technology, or information about a culture or people.

All properties change over time. The retention of integrity depends upon the nature and degree of alteration or change. It is not necessary for a property to retain all the physical features or characteristics that it had during its period of significance. However, the property must retain the essential physical features that enable it to convey its past identity or character and therefore its significance.

The principal test to establish whether a property retains integrity is to ask whether or not the property still retains the identity or character for which it is important.