LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
1 Evaluation Criteria
The following discussion of significance and integrity generally guides the property type analysis and should be used to support future evaluation of historic resources in Mountain View. It is important to note that each property is unique; therefore, significance and integrity evaluation must be conducted on a case -by-case basis. These gu idelines should be implemented as an overlay to the particular facts and circumstances of each individual resource.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (National Register) is the nation’s most comprehensive inventory of historic resources. Administered by the National Park Service, the National Register lists buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts tha t possess historic, architectural, engineering, archaeological, or cultural significance at the national, state, or local level. According to National Register Bulletin No. 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, resources over fift y years of age are typically eligible for listing in the National Register if they meet any one of the four criteria of significance (A through D) and if they sufficiently retain historic integrity. However, resources under fifty years of age can be determined eligible if it can be demonstrated that they are of “exceptional importance,” or if they are contributors to a potential historic district. These criteria are defined in depth in National Register Bulletin No. 15.
The California Register of Historical Resources follows nearly identical guidelines to those used by the National Register but identifies the Criteria for Evaluation numerically.
The four basic criteria under which a structure, site, building, district, or object can be considered eligible for listing in the National or California registers are:
Criterion A (Event): Properties associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history;
Criterion B (Person): Properties associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; Criterion C (Design/Construction): Properties that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that r epresent a significant distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction; and
Criterion D (Information Potential): Properties that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
A resource can b e considered significant to American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture on a national, state, or local level. Perhaps the most critical feature of applying the criteria for evaluation is establishing the relationship between a pro perty and its historic context, which is defined as “those patterns or trends in history by which a specific Attachment 3
LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
2 occurrence, property, or site is understood and its meaning (and ultimately its significance) within history or prehistory is made clear.”
National Register Special Criteria Considerations
Certain types of properties are usually not considered for listing in National Register. However, these properties can be eligible for listing if it meets special requirements, or Criteria Considerations. If working with one of these excluded property types, an evaluator must determine that a property meets the Criteria Considerations in addition to one of the four evaluation criteria described above to justify its inclusion in the National Register. These considerations are defined as follows:
Criteria Consideration A: Religious Properties: A religious property is eligible if it derives its primary significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance.
Criteria Consideration B: Moved Properties: A property removed from its original or historically significant location can be eligible if it is significant primarily for architectural value or is the surviving property most importantly associated with a historic person or event.
Criteria Consideration C: Birthplaces & Graves: A birthplace or grave of a historical figure is eligible if the person is of outstanding importance and if there is no other appropriate site or building directly associated with his or her productive life.
Criteria Consideration D: Cemeteries: A cemetery is eligible if it derives its primary significance from graves of persons of transcendent importance, from age, from distinctive design features, or from association with historic events.
Criteria Consideration E: Reconstructed Properties: A reconstructed property is eligible when it is accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan and when no other building or structure with the same associations has survived. All three of these requirements must be met.
Criteria Consideration F: Commemorative Properties: A property primarily commemorative in intent can be eligible if design, age, tradition, or symbolic value has invested it with its own historical significance.
Criteria Consideration G: Properties that Have Achieved Significance within the Past Fifty Years: A property achieving significance within the past fifty years is eligible if it is of exceptional importance.
LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
3 California (State) Register of Historical Resources
The California Register of Historical Resources (California Register) is an inventory of significant architectural, archaeological, and historical resources in the State of California. Resources can be listed in the California Register through a number of methods. State Historical Landmarks an d National Register-listed properties are automatically listed in the California Register. Properties can also be nominated to the California Register by local governments, private organizations, or citizens.
The evaluative criteria used by the California Register for determining eligibility are closely based on those developed by the National Park Service for the National Register of Historic Places. In order for a property to be eligible for listing in the California Register, it must be found significant under one or more of the following four criteria. Resources listed in the National Register are automatically listed in the California Register.
Criterion 1 (E vents): Resources that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of local or regional history, or the cultural heritage of California or the United States.
Criterion 2 (Persons): Resources that are associated with the lives of persons important to local, California, or national history.
Criterion 3 (Architecture): Resources that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, region, or method of construction, or represent the work of a master, or possess high artistic values.
Criterion 4 (Information Potential): Resources or sites that have yielded or have the potential to yield information important to the prehistory or history of the local area, California, or the nation.
California Register Special Criteria Considerations
The California Register does not have the same strict Criteria Considerations as the National Register and is more flexible about integrity, moved properties, and properties less than fifty years of age. The “Special Criteria Considerations” for the California Register are as follows:
Moved buildings, structures, or objects. The State Historical Resources Commission (SHRC) encourages the retention of historical resources on site and discourages the nonhistoric grouping of historic buildings into parks or districts. However, it is recognized that moving an historic building, structure, or object is sometimes necessary to prevent its destruction. Therefore, a moved building, structure, or object that is otherwise eligible may be listed in the California Register if it was moved to prevent its demolition at its former location and if the new location is compatible with the original character and use
LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
4 of the historical resource. A historical resource should retain its historic fea tures and compatibility in orientation, setting, and general environment.
Historical resources achieving significance within the past fifty years. In order to understand the historic importance of a resource, sufficient time must have passed to obtain a scholarly perspective on the events or individuals associated with the resource.
A resource less than fifty years old may be considered for listing in the California Register if it can be demonstrated that sufficient time has passed to understand its historical importance.
Reconstructed buildings. Reconstructed buildings are those buildings not listed in the California Register under the criteria stated above. A reconstructed building less than fifty years old may be eligible if it embodies traditional building methods and techniques that play an important role in a community’s historically rooted beliefs, customs, and practices (e.g., a Native American roundhouse).
Mountain View (Local) Register of Historic Resources
The eligibility criteria for local listing in the City of Mountain View’s Register of Historic Resources are similar to the National Register and California Register criteria described above. Specifically, as described in the City of Mountain View’s Historic Preservation Ordinance (Municipal Code §36.54.65), a building, structure, site, or other improvement may be designated as a historic resource and placed on the Mountain View Register of Historic Resources if the city council finds that it meets one or more of the following criteria:
a. Is strongly identified with a person who, or an organi zation which, significantly contributed to the culture, history, or development of the City of Mountain View. b. Is the site of a significant historic event in the city's past. c. Embodies distinctive characteristics significant to the city in terms of a type, period, region or method of construction or representative of the work of a master or possession of high artistic value.
d. Has yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important to the city's prehistory or history (Ord. No. 18.13, § 1, December 10, 2013)
Comparison of Mountain View Register Criteria with National and State Criteria
Although phrasing differs slightly, the designation criteria established by City of Mountain View’s Register of Historic Resources are similar in content and spirit to the National Register and California Register criteria described above. In all cases, historic resources may be significant for their association with events, social and cultural trends, important people, architecture, and/or a notable architect or builder. It should be noted that the City of Mountain View’s municipal code does not include an age requirement, nor does it outline integrity requirements or thresholds.
The eligibility requirements in this document therefore apply the National Register integrit y
LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
5 thresholds (described in the following section) to properties that may be considered for the Mountain View Register of Historic Resources. Thus, the eligibility requirements presented throughout this document for eligibility in any of the three registers use a consistent approach.
Historic Integrity
In addition to qualifying for listing under at least one of the National Register, California Register, and/or local criteria, a property must be shown to have sufficient historic integrity. The concept of integrity is essential to identifying the important physical characteristics of historic resources and in evaluating adverse changes to them. Integrity is defined as “the authenticity of an historic resource’s physical identity evidenced by the survival of characteristics that existed during the resource’s period of significance.” The same seven variables or aspects that define integrity — location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association—are used to evaluate a resource’s eligibility for listing in the National Register and/or the California Register. According to the National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, these seven characteristics are defined as follows:
• Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred. The original location of a property, complemented by its setting, is required to express the property’s integrity of location.
• Design is the combination of elements that c reate the form, plans, space, structure and style of the property. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of design are its form, massing, construction method, architectural style, and architectural details (including fenestration pattern).
• Setting addresses the physical environment of the historic property inclusive of the landscape and spatial relationships of the building(s). Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of setting are its location, relationship to the street, and intact surroundings (e.g., neighborhood or rural).
• Materials refer to the physical elements that were combined or dep osited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern of configuration to form the historic property. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of materials are its construction method and architectural details.
• Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of workmanship are its construction method and architectural details.
• Feeling is the property’s expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period
LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL EVALUATION CRITERIA
6 of time. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of feeling are its overall design quality, which may include form, massing, architectural style, architectural details, and surroundings.
• Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of association are its use and its overall design quality.