In the law regulating historic districts in the

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, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district significant. Government agencies, at the state, national, and local level in the United States, have differing definitions of what constitutes a contributing property but there are common characteristics. Local laws often regulate the changes that can be made to contributing structures within designated historic districts. The first local ordinances dealing with the alteration of buildings within historic districts was passed in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931. Properties within a historic district fall into one of two types of property: contributing and non-contributing. A contributing property, such as a 19th-century mansion, helps make a historic district historic, while a non-contributing property, such as a modern medical clinic, does not. The contributing properties are key to a historic district's historic associations, historic

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

qualities, or archaeological qualities. A property can change from contributing to non-contributing and vice versa if significant alterations take place.

History

According to the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government within the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of ...

, the first instance of law dealing with contributing properties in local historic districts was enacted in 1931 by the city of Charleston, South Carolina; it designated the "

Old and Historic District The Charleston Historic District, alternatively known as Charleston Old and Historic District, is a National Historic Landmark District in Charleston, South Carolina. The district, which covers most of the historic peninsular heart of the city, c ...

."Early Models
" Working on the Past in Local Historic Districts, National Park Service. Retrieved 23 April 2007. The ordinance declared that buildings in the district could not have changes made to architectural features that were visible from the street. By the mid-1930s, other U.S. cities followed Charleston's lead. An amendment to the

Louisiana Constitution The Louisiana Constitution is legally named the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and commonly called the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and the Constitution of 1974. The constitution is the cornerstone of the law of Louisiana ensuring the ...

led to the 1937 creation of the Vieux Carre Commission, which was charged with protecting and preserving the French Quarter in the city of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Columbia Law Review'' in 1963, indicate differing dates for the preservation ordinances in both Charleston and New Orleans. The ''Columbia Law Review'' gave dates of 1925 for the New Orleans laws and 1924 for Charleston.The Police Power, Eminent Domain, and the Preservation of Historic Property (in Notes)
" (

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

), ''Columbia Law Review'', Vol. 63, No. 4. (Apr., 1963), pp. 708-732. Retrieved 23 April 2007. The same publication claimed that these two cities were the only cities with historic district zoning until

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

adopted an ordinance in 1946. The National Park Service appears to refute this. In 1939, the city of

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, enacted an ordinance to protect the area of La Villita, the original Mexican village marketplace. In 1941 the authority of local design controls on buildings within historic districts was being challenged in court. In ''City of New Orleans vs Pergament'' (198 La. 852, 5 So. 2d 129 (1941)), Louisiana state appellate courts ruled that the design and demolition controls were valid within defined historic districts. Beginning in the mid-1950s, controls that once applied only to buildings within historic districts were extended to individual landmark structures.Pyke, John S. Jr.
Architectural Controls and the Individual Landmark
" (

), ''Law and Contemporary Problems'', Vol. 36, No. 3, Historic Preservation. (Summer, 1971), pp. 398-405. Retrieved 23 April 2007. The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

adopted legislation in 1950 that declared the Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, D.C. a historic district and protected. By 1965, 51 American communities had adopted preservation ordinances. In 1976 the National Historic Preservation Act was passed by Congress. By 1998, more than 2,300 U.S. towns, cities and villages had enacted

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

ordinances.

Definition

Contributing properties are defined through historic district or historic preservation zoning laws, usually at the local level.For a catalog of early historic district zoning ordinances, see "Further reading" number one, Morrison, J. ''Historic Preservation Law'', pp. 6-9, 12-15, 126, 1965 ed. Zoning ordinances pertaining to historic districts are designed to maintain a district's historic character by controlling demolition and alteration to existing properties.Hughes, L. Keith.
Use of Zoning Restrictions to Restrain Property Owners from Altering or Destroying Historic Landmarks (in Notes)
" (

), ''Duke Law Journal'', Vol. 1975, No. 4. (Sep., 1975), pp. 999-1019. Retrieved 23 April 2007. In historic preservation law, a contributing property is any building, structure, object or site within the boundaries of the district that contributes to its historic associations, historic architectural qualities or archaeological qualities of a historic district.Historic and Scenic Preservation Local Option Property Tax Reimbursement
, Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Retrieved 19 February 2007. It can be any property, structure or object that adds to the historic integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, either local or federal, significant. Definitions vary but, in general, they maintain the same characteristics.ORDINANCE NO. 2001-02
( PDF), Danville, California ordinance, California Office of Historic Preservation. Retrieved 19 February 2007. Another key aspect of a contributing property is historic integrity. Significant alterations to a property can sever its physical connections with the past, lowering its historic integrity.National Register Historic Districts Q&A
South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved 19 February 2007. Contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context and character of a historic district.Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook
, ( PDF), ''Iowa City Urban Planning Division''. Retrieved 26 March 2007. A property listed as a contributing member of a historic district meets National Register criteria and qualifies for all

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afforded a property or site listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places.Historic Districts
, ''Town of Wake Forest, North Carolina'', Official site. Retrieved 9 April 2007. Each property within a National Register historic district — contributing or non-contributing — is classified as one of four property types: building, object, structure, or site.How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation
.

, 1997, 10.

Contributing versus non-contributing

The line between contributing and non-contributing can be fuzzy. In particular, American historic districts nominated to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

before 1980 have few records of the non-contributing structures.

State Historic Preservation Office The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a state governmental function created by the United States federal government in 1966 under Section 101 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The purposes of a SHPO include surveying a ...

s conduct surveys to determine the historical character of structures in historic districts. Districts nominated to the National Register of Historic Places after 1980 usually list those structures considered non-contributing. As a general rule, a contributing property helps make a historic district historic. A well-preserved 19th-century mansion will generally contribute to a district, while a modern gas station generally will not. Historic buildings identified as contributing properties can become non-contributing properties within historic districts if major alterations have taken place. Sometimes, an act as simple as re- siding a historic home can damage its historic integrity and render it non-contributing. In some cases, damage to the historic integrity of a structure is reversible, while other times the historic nature of a building has been so "severely compromised" as to be irreversible.East Grove Street District
, ( PDF), National Register Nomination Form, HAARGIS Database, ''Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.'' Retrieved 26 March 2007. For example, in the East Grove Street District in Bloomington, Illinois, contributing properties include the Queen Anne-style

George H. Cox House The George H. Cox House is a historic house located at 701 E. Grove St. in Bloomington, Illinois. It is considered a particularly fine example of the residential work of architect George H. Miller. History George H. Cox was secretary-treasurer ...

(1886) and the Arts and Crafts-style H.W. Kelley House (1906), and non-contributing properties include the Italianate-style George Brand House (1886), whose original exterior has been covered with a sun room and asbestos siding, and a 1950s physician's office built in a style radically different from the surrounding neighborhood.

References

Citations

Sources

* Morrison, Jacob H. ''Historic Preservation Law'', New Orleans: Pelican Pub. Co., 1957. Further editions published in 1965, 1972 and 1974. , . {{Registered Historic Places *