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Historic Preservation is the act of maintaining and repairing existing historic materials and the retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time. "Preservation calls for the existing form, materials, features, and detailing of a property to be retained and preserved. This may include preliminary measures to protect and stabilize it prior to undertaking other work--or protection and stabilization may be an end in itself, for example, in an archeological project". Historic Preservation is a vital tool in the effort to save historic buildings and locales. It helps maintain a communities historical roots and provides various educational opportunites.

History
The adaptive reuse of obsolete structures dates to the end of the 4th century in Europe, when the Theodosian decrees had rendered pagan temples obsolete. Many of the pagan temples that were not destroyed were re-purposed for use as Christian Basilicas. Sacred wells from the 5th century were comverted to baptisteries. Adaptive reuse of historic structures remains a central issue of Historic Preservation today.

In England, Antiquarian interests had been a familiar gentleman's pursuit since the mid 17th century, developing in tandem with the rise in scientific curiosity. Fellows of the Royal Society were often also Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries. The UK's Ancient Monuments Act of 1912 officially preserved certain decayed and obsolete structures of intrinsic historical and associative interest, just as Modernism was lending moral authority to destruction of the built heritage in the name of progress. The UK's National Trust began with the preservation of historic houses and has steadily increased its scope. In the UK's subsequent Town and Planning Act (1944) steps were undertaken towards historic preservation on an unprecedented scale.

In The United States one of the first major Historic Preservation undertakings was the saving of George Washington's Mount Vernon in 1858. Founded in 1889, the Richmond, Virginia-based Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group. The US National Trust for Historic Preservation, another privately funded non-profit organization, began in 1949 with a handful of privileged structures and has developed goals that provide "leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our communities" according to the Trust's mission statement. In 1951 the Trust assumed responsibility for its first museum property, Woodlawn Plantation in northern Virginia. Twenty-eight sites in all have subsequently become part of the National Trust, representing the cultural diversity of American history. In New York City, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station in 1964 shocked many in that city into supporting preservation. Under the direction of James Marston Fitch, the first university historic preservation program was begun at Columbia University in 1964.

Historic districts
A Historic district in the United States is a group of buildings, properties or sites that have been designated by one of several entites on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some having hundreds of structures while others have just a few.

The U.S. federal government designates historic districts through the U.S. Department of Interior, under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Preserving historic landscapes
The United States led the world in the creation of National Parks, areas of unspoiled natural wilderness, where the intrusion of civilization and the apparent hand of history are intentionally minimal.

In addition to preserving the natural heritage, the U.S. Park Service also maintains the National Register of Historic Places to recognize significant buildings and places, including historic parks, battlefields, National Historic Landmarks, memorials and monuments.

Canadian approaches to heritage conservation
In Canada, the phrase “historic preservation” is sometimes seen as a specific approach to the treatment of historic places and sites, rather than a general concept of conservation. “Conservation” is taken as the more general term, referring to all actions or processes that are aimed at safeguarding the character-defining elements of a cultural resource so as to retain its heritage value and extend its physical life.

Two of the primary conservation tools of Canada's Historic Places Initiative are the Canadian Register of Historic Places and the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada. This document was the result of a major collaborative effort among federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, heritage conservation professionals, heritage developers and many individual Canadians. A pan–Canadian collaboration, it is intended to reinforce the development of a culture of conservation in Canada, which will continue to find a unique expression in each of the jurisdictions and regions of the country. In the document, conservation approaches are broken down in three categories: Preservation, Rehabilitation, and Restoration. As published in the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada, these conservation approaches are defined as follows: Preservation: the action or process of protecting, maintaining, and/or stabilizing the existing materials, form, and integrity of a historic place or of an individual component, while protecting its heritage value. Preservation can include both short-term and interim measures to protect or stabilize the place, as well as long-term actions to retard deterioration or prevent damage so that the place can be kept serviceable through routine maintenance and minimal repair, rather than extensive replacement and new construction. Rehabilitation: the action or process of making possible a continuing or compatible contemporary use of a historic place or an individual component, through repair, alterations, and/ or additions, while protecting its heritage value. Restoration: the action or process of accurately revealing, recovering or representing the state of a historic place or of an individual component, as it appeared at a particular period in its history, while protecting its heritage value.

Influential people

 * Ann Pamela Cunningham: saved Mount Vernon (plantation) from demolition and created the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.
 * John Ruskin: established the basic theory of preservation (retention of status quo).
 * Eugène Viollet-le-Duc: well known French architect that restored Gothic buildings; believed that restoration could improve on the past--especially with the introduction of modern technology.
 * William Morris: founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.
 * Charles E. Peterson: considered to be the "founding father" of historic preservation in the United States.
 * Walter Muir Whitehill: Chair of the Whitehill Report in the late 1960s which established the first guidelines for higher-ed historic preservation programs.

Careers
Although volunteers have traditionally engaged in historic preservation activities, since the 1960s the field has seen an increased level of professionalization. Today, there are many career options in historic preservation. Most notable are those who have attained a Masters Degree in Historic Preservation. Many universities also offer a certificate program to be completed with an architecture or urban planning degree.

Possible career fields include:


 * Consultant for Section 106 reviews in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
 * Historic preservation planner (local/county/state level)
 * State Historic Preservation Officer
 * Preservation Architect
 * Preservation Engineer
 * Resource interpreters
 * Public historian
 * Historic site administrator
 * Director or staff of a local, regional, statewide, or national preservation non-profit such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Education
Historic preservation can be broadly divided into 1) the professional advocation of planning, policy, design, interpretation, materials analysis/conservation, and advocacy and 2) vocational--e.g., the crafts or trades. The former category usually requires at least a four-year college degree and often a graduate-level degree in addition. Several two-year technical programs are available for the preservation trades such as carpentry, stone carving, and plastering.

The National Council for Preservation Education has an extensive list of associate, bachelor, and graduate degree programs in historic preservation.

As a rule, undergraduate and graduate professional architecture programs in the United States do not require historic preservation courses as part of their curricula. Many schools do offer the option of a certificate or coursework in historic preservation, such as University of Mary Washington, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Clemson University. NAAB, the main body that accredits professional programs in architecture, does not require training in historic preservation for certification. The Historic Resources Committee of the American Institute for Architects is currently conducting a study and has prepared a list of recommendations (PDF file) for adding historic preservation requirements to college and university architecture curricula.

Columbia University was the first school in the United States to specifically offer a degree in historic preservation in 1973 (the M.S.). It became the model on which most other graduate historic preservation programs were created. Many other programs were to follow before 1980: M.A. in Preservation Planning from Cornell (1975); M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont (1975); M.S. in Historic Preservation Studies from Boston University (1976); and M.S. in Historic Preservation from Eastern Michigan University (1979). The first undergraduate programs (B.A.) appeared in 1977 from Goucher College and Roger Williams College. The University of Pennsylvania established its first degree program in historic preservation (M.S.) in 1980.