National Historic Lighthouse
Preservation Act of 2000

The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA), 16 U.S.C. 470, authorizes the disposal of historic lighthouses and stations. The Act amends the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and establishes a national lighthouse preservation program. The NHLPA recognizes the cultural, recreational, and educational value associated with these historic resources by allowing lighthouse properties to be transferred at no cost to federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofit corporations and community development organizations for park and recreation, cultural and historic, and educational uses.

For the first time, nonprofit entities are on equal footing with federal agencies and other public bodies to obtain historic lighthouse properties. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to organize and incorporate prior to the official notice of available lights being issued. A group's financial ability to maintain the historic lighthouses and adhere to historic covenants and other terms and conditions of the transfer will be given significant consideration in the review process.

Eligible lighthouses and stations will be announced through a Notice of Availability, sent directly to interested parties, published in local newspapers, and posted on the web. Interested parties who respond to the Notice within 60 days will be sent an Application to Obtain Lighthouse Station Property. Completed applications are to be submitted to the Department of Interior within 90 days from receipt. Applicants will be provided the opportunity to inspect the property during an open house. Applications will be judged on the merits of the preservation and use plan, and the financial and management plan. Conveyance documents will include covenants for historic preservation and public access. U. S. Coast Guard personnel will have the right of access to maintain and service the aids to navigation equipment for active lights.

For more information on the NHLPA transfer process, visit the National Park Service web site at www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/nhlpa/nhlpa.htm, or contact the Michigan Lighthouse Project.

Agency Roles in the Process

	U.S. Coast Guard identifies and reports excess light stations to General Services Administration (GSA).
	Department of the Interior issues application to interested parties; reviews and evaluates applicants; and selects no cost grantee.
	General Services Administration issues Notice of Availability to interested parties; develops and executes conveyance documents.

For More Information:
How to Apply for a Lighthouse Property under NHLPA
Full text of legislation
Flow chart of process
Application Criteria

Information on Pilot Program:
Pilot Program - List of light stations & their status

The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, 1995

ROOTED IN OVER 120 YEARS OF PRESERVATION ETHICS in both Europe and America, The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties are common sense principles in non-technical language. They were developed to help protect our nation's irreplaceable cultural resources by promoting consistent preservation practices. The Standards may be applied to all properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places: buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts. It should be understood that the Standards are a series of concepts about maintaining, repairing and replacing historic materials, as well as designing new additions or making alterations; as such, they cannot, in and of themselves, be used to make essential decisions about which features of a historic property should be saved and which might be changed. But once an appropriate treatment is selected, the Standards provide philosophical consistency to the work.

Four Treatment Approaches
There are Standards for four distinct, but interrelated, approaches to the treatment of historic properties--preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

Please Note:
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Introduction

Preservation focuses on the maintenance and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time. (Protection and Stabilization have now been consolidated under this treatment.)
Standards for Preservation

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.
Standards for Rehabilitation

Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods.
Standards for Restoration

Reconstruction re-creates vanished or non-surviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes.
Standards for Reconstruction

If you would like more information please visit The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, 1995.