How to Request and Submit a Study List Application
The First Step Towards National Register Listing
A successful Study List application requires thought and effort on the part of the applicant. The purpose of a Study List application is to enable people who may never actually visit your property (including National Register Advisory Committee members and HPO staff) to understand the property, both physically and historically, to the extent necessary to determine if it may be potentially eligible for the National Register.
Step 1:
Carefully review the following information about the National Register and the nomination process:
1: What is the National Register of Historic Places?
2: National Register Criteria for Evaluation
3: How Historic Properties are Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
4: The National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina: Facts and Figures
5: The Study List and the National Register of Historic Places
6: See the National Register Advisory Committee Meeting Calendar linked from the NR home page for the latest possible date that an application must be received by the HPO to be considered at the next meeting of the NRAC.
If you will be seeking federal or state investment tax credits for the rehabilitation of your property, you must be familiar with the requirements and procedures of tax credit programs. Call or e-mail the appropriate staff of the Restoration Branch if you have questions about tax credit programs.
Step 2:
By email or by telephone, contact the staff person in the National Register Branch of the State Historic Preservation Office who serves the county where the resource is located. Use this county list to contact the staff person who serves the county where the resource is located.
When you contact the staff person, please provide a street address or enough location information so that we can find the property on a map, as well as a brief history and description of the property. The staff person will work with you to help you determine if our office already has documentation about the property, whether there may be any special concerns about the property regarding its candidacy for the Study List, and whether you may need to address any special issues in your application.
Following this conversation, the staff person will email or mail you a copy of the Study List application. Note that the emailed application will not be an electronic form; it will be a Word document or a PDF, and it may be easiest to print the forma and complete the information by hand.
Step 3:
Carefully follow the instructions on the application.
Remember that the purpose of your application is to enable HPO staff and the NRAC to understand the property to the extent necessary to determine if it potentially meets the National Register criteria. Take enough pictures to show the property in its entirety. If it is a house, church, or other structure, include overall views from all four sides. If there are later additions, be sure to include them in your overall views. Provide close-up views of key exterior architectural features such as sample doors and windows in their frames, chimneys, porch posts and brackets, etc. If there are secondary structures on the property (such as outbuildings on a farm) include photos showing all of them -- not just the older ones. Include enough interior views to convey what the property is like inside, with pictures showing features such as mantels, doors and windows and their frames, staircases, etc. For a complex of buildings such as a farm or small industry, include a site plan -- it may be hand drawn and doesn't have to be to scale -- that shows all the buildings and their relationships to each other and to the road.
The HPO will now accept digital photographs on a CD with Study List applications. Please include a printout of the images included on the CD. To save paper and ink, as many as nine images may be placed on a single 8 x 10 sheet of paper, though images should be at least 3 ¼ “ x 2 ½ “. Proofs may be in black and white and on regular paper. You do not need to use expensive photographic paper for the proofs you include with your application. We will also accept color slides and prints (color or black and white) with a Study List application, which we will scan to use in the presentation to the NRAC.
Mail your completed application to the address shown on the form. Do not email the application to the HPO.