 The National Register of Historic Places form can be intimidating to some people. It may seem like a lot of work, especially when you see a nomination for a historic district that may be 100-150 pages long. The nomination form is meant to be accessible. It's meant to be completed by people who have no real expertise in history or historic preservation. We require a nomination form to be completed and to make a compelling argument for why a property is important in our history. The National Register form tells us where a property is, what the historic property is called. It gives us some data categories, how many resources are located within the boundaries of this property, what were the historic and current functions of the property, what bibliography have you used, what sources have you used to identify and prepare a historic context. It tells us what the exact geographic area that is being nominated is and justifies why that boundary is chosen. But the meat of a nomination consists of two long narrative sections. Section 7, which is the physical description of the property. This is where you describe the characteristics of the property as it is now and as it was historically. Section 8 is the narrative statement of significance. This is where you are making your argument for why the property is important. Many people believe nominations are histories of properties. What they are really is a position paper, an argument for why a property is important in our history that uses historical information but is preparing a compelling contextual case for a property's importance.