United States National Park Service

This document sets forth in nontechnical language common-sense standards to be applied to all properties listed in the National Register of Historic buildings. The standards cover four distinct approaches to treatment of historic properties:

• preservation—focusing on maintenance and repair;
• rehabilitation—adapting the property to changing use while retaining its historic character;
• restoration—depicting the property at a particular period in its history;
• and, reconstruction—recreating vanished portions of a property for interpretive purposes.

The document also sets forth standards for choosing a suitable treatment for a historic building or landscape.