Before beginning a project on an historic building, it is important to understand the nationally observed framework of best practices in historic preservation. These standards and guidelines apply to four distinct approaches to the treatment of historic properties: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

• Preservation focuses on the maintenance and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property’s form as it has evolved over time.
• 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.
• Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods.
• Reconstruction re-creates vanished or non-surviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes.

The resources below are intended to provide guidance to owners, architects, contractors, and other project team members prior to beginning work on a historic structure. Preservation Society Advocacy Staff consults regularly with residents and design professionals to offer advice and technical expertise on historic preservation projects. Please contact us with any questions at advocacy@preservationsociety.org.

Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties 

• Standards for Preservation
• Standards for Rehabilitation
• Standards for Restoration
• Standards for Reconstruction

Guidelines for Implementing the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties

Preservation Briefs