 So, what do you get out of the listing in the National Register? For most people, listing in the National Register is primarily an honorific. It's an acknowledgement by the federal government, by your state government, often your local government, that your property is important to our history. Its primary purpose is for the federal government to use the National Register listing in planning their projects when the federal government spends money, issues a license, or issues a permit for an undertaking, a project that may have a physical impact on a historic property. Listing in the National Register means that the federal government must take into account the effects of their actions. It's not a guarantee of preservation, but it is a guarantee that the federal government will evaluate their project as it relates to that historic resource. The benefits of listing in the National Register are frankly small. For the average property owner, the benefit is the acknowledgement that their property is important in our history. If that property is income producing, one benefit is that that property may be eligible for certain tax credits through the federal government. If that property owner wishes to rehabilitate their income producing property. Another benefit is eligibility for grants that may be available through the federal government, which there have not been in many years, or state government or even private nonprofits that have listing in the National Register as a key component to eligibility for their grants. Does National Register listing protect properties from being demolished? No. The simple answer is there is no absolute protection. If there is a federal agency involved in this potential demolition, whether it is a direct federal action or a federal license or permit, the federal agency is responsible for determining whether that action is going to be adverse to the historic property. And if it is adverse, are there any prudent and feasible alternatives to that action? Sometimes there aren't alternatives. Sometimes historic properties have to be demolished. And so the National Register is there to first make the federal government contemplate what they're doing. And it also serves as a document for a property that may no longer exist.