ABSTRACT
For three decades the historic preservation movement in the United States was fundamentally shaped by the Historic Sites Act of 1935. It expanded the role of the National Park Service in the identification, recognition, stewardship, and presentation of historic properties across the country and created a range of programs, conventions, and policies that laid the foundation for the “new preservation” inaugurated with the National Historic Preservation Act after 1966. The Historic Sites Act established the National Park System Advisory Board and a new type of historic designation, National Historic Sites, followed in 1960 by another, National Historic Landmarks, and the historic district property type in 1965 as parts of a pyramid of federal recognition. It gave a legislative mandate to the Historic American Buildings Survey and the agency’s Historic Sites Survey of nationally significant historic properties.
