The Significance of Heritage Value: From Historic Properties to Cultural Resources

Abstract

Throughout history, the direct or indirect choice of preservation has resulted in the successful incorporation of tangible products of the human past into modern cultural environments. Within the current American historic preservation system, "significance" is used as a delimiter for identifying historic properties that are determined beneficial to the heritage of the American people. As defined under U.S. law, however, "significance" is attributed only to places and objects whose importance is limited within an historical or scientific framework. This thesis proposes that the significance of historic properties transcends the boundaries of these limited frameworks of importance, and demonstrates that the public benefits of preservation are maximized when history is reified through the modern-use of these places and objects as cultural resources for the current and future generations of the American people.