Oldies But Goodies... What Does it Take to Get a Home On the Historic Registry? And Is it Even a Good Idea?

Have you looked up the year your home was built? If so, have you wondered what was going on in your community during that time? What was life like for the original inhabitants? It’s captivating to step into a residential time capsule, a home that’s been through more life events than you’ve had time to experience yourself.

Perhaps you’ve even been inside of a home that was considered “historic”. What that means is that the home must be more than fifty years old, have some historic significance (connection with a historic event or trend), and physical integrity must be maintained. There is, however, a difference between a home that simply meets these criteria, and a home that is on the Historic Registry.

So, what is The Historic Registry? Who gets to decide which houses can be on the registry? And perhaps more importantly, what does it mean for the homeowner when their home is registered?

The National Historic Registry is run by the Federal National Park Service, and administered on a local level by the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office. To become listed, the application process takes two steps. First, you must complete a Historic Resource Record (HRR). This is a form where you briefly note the history of your home, the architectural features, some known changes that have happened over the years, and interior and exterior photography. Once you’ve moved on from the HRR form and the State Historic Preservation Office has approved your first round application, it’s time to fill out a National Register Nomination. This is a federal document with much more specific and stringent requirements than the HRR. There is more information needed for this submission, and there are more photography requirements. The Oregon State Historic Preservation Office can assist as needed, but they do not complete nominations for homeowners.  Nominations are evaluated three times yearly to evaluate nominations: for example, if you turned your nomination in by the March 1st deadline, the State Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation will meet on your nomination in June of the same year.

If your nomination is accepted, what will that mean for you as a homeowner? Besides opening up grant eligibility to fix your home, there are also tax opportunities. These tax freezes are meant to keep property taxes from escalating for a period of time while the owner makes changes to their home and becomes comfortable financially. However, many assume this tax freeze is automatically applied when their home is accepted into the registry which is not true. This tax incentive must be applied for and then approved before your current property tax rate can freeze and remain the same for the next ten years. During this application process you must also prove that you are spending a certain amount on improvements to the property. If you’re still making improvements after that time, you can reapply for a second tax freeze when your first is up.

Another benefit that’s important to historic homeowners comes in the form of building code leniency. Think about it: 200, or even 100 years ago, when homes were built, a lot of the features that injected such character into the home have been since ruled out by building codes. While building codes are meant to provide safer, more livable homes, there are some building codes that may not make the space inherently safer, but they do overlap some historical details. The building code leniency benefit does not negate the need for building a safe space, it simply re-evaluates codes that cause the need to remove important historical features that are crucial in a historic home.

While there are many benefits that can come from registering your historic home, there are also some aspects that can be considered restrictive. For example, you can’t put your home on the registry and then paint the entire home a neon yellow, installing a rooftop bar and a hot tub. There will be restrictions for outside, and sometimes inside, improvements that you want to make on the home. If this would bother you as a homeowner, perhaps buying a home that is registered or registering your historic home isn’t for you. It’s also important to know that once your home is registered as a historic landmark, it will become next to impossible to move or demolish that property. This is the very nature of this registry, to protect historically significant properties. These protections can increase on a local level, so as a registered historic homeowner, you need to understand that these restrictions have the potential to become stricter as time goes on.

It’s worth noting that you can own a historic home and choose not to register it. While you may miss out on some perks of being on the registry, you will also be able to re-evaluate that rooftop bar and neon exterior.