What is preservation?

QAHS’s Preservation Committee supports and advocates for the landmark designation of Queen Anne sites and buildings. We partner with city and state preservation organizations to promote legislation that facilitates growth while protecting the historic fabric of our community.

Not all historic landmarks are protected equally. Recognition by the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) does not protect a site or property from alteration or demolition. While NRHP designation doesn’t offer protection, it can bolster local efforts to landmark properties.

Landmark designation by local preservation authorities can protect a property. In Seattle, that authority belongs to the Department of Neighborhoods Historic Preservation Office.

Watch a video to see a high-level overview of how the landmarking process works in the City of Seattle.

 
Bronze plaque recognizing the Wilke Farmhouse as a Queen Anne landmark, built in 1898.

Bronze plaque recognizing the Wilke Farmhouse as a Queen Anne National Register landmark, built in 1898.

You may have heard these terms used interchangeably. But what do they really mean?

  • Preservation focuses on the maintenance and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time. (Source)

  • Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods. (Source)

  • If remodeling and updating a kitchen and plumbing is not a restoration, what is it? It is a renovation. Renovation is the process of making something look and function like new. Replacing period HVAC, cast iron plumbing and knob-and-tube wiring or adding French doors is a renovation since you are making an historic building work and function like a new building. Although a renovation can be quite sensitive to the historic nature of a building and preserve as much as possible, it is a different act. (Source)

  • 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. It is defined as "the process of returning a property to a state of utility, through repair or alteration, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions and features of the property which are significant to its historic, architectural, and cultural values.”