Historic restoration and conservation · Lesson 1 of 4

Historic restoration and conservation: principles and terminology

The four treatments of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards (preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, reconstruction), how a treatment is chosen, who decides and who fabricates, the metals found on historic buildings, and the lead rule that covers old paint.

You will be able to: Name the four federal treatments for historic buildings, say which one a project is using and who decides, identify the historic sheet metals a fabricator meets, and state the lead-safety boundary for old coatings.

11 min · 11 slides · 9 questions

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Slide 1 of 11

Why a historic project is different

The Standards address four treatments: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

The Standards are regulatory only for projects receiving Historic Preservation Fund grant assistance and other federally assisted projects.

The Standards for Rehabilitation are also codified in 36 CFR Part 67 and are regulatory for the Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program.

Sources

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring & Reconstructing Historic Buildings, Part 1: Preservation and Rehabilitation (2017) - U.S. National Park Service, Technical Preservation Services
The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation (tax incentives page) - U.S. National Park Service

Glossary

Preservation: The treatment that sustains the existing form, integrity and materials of a historic property, focusing on maintenance and repair rather than extensive replacement.
Rehabilitation: The treatment that makes a compatible use possible through repair, alterations and additions while preserving the features that convey a property's historical, cultural or architectural values.
Restoration: The treatment that depicts a property as it appeared at a particular period by removing features from other periods and reconstructing missing features from that period.
Reconstruction: The treatment that uses new construction to depict a building that no longer survives, replicating its appearance at a specific period in its historic location.
Terneplate: Sheet iron or steel coated with a lead and tin alloy, a common historic roofing metal.