Delphi Preservation Society and Delphi Main Street Association recently hosted a program about the National Register of Historic Places.

The program was in celebration of the Delphi Courthouse Square Historic District being named to the National Register earlier this year.

The speaker was Paul Diebold of Indiana’s Division of Historic Preservation & Archaeology (DHPA). He explained the meaning and benefits of National Register designation. The DHPA, a division of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, administers the National Register in Indiana. On the federal level, it is administered by the National Park Service.

Diebold explained that structures, sites, and districts on the National Register have local, state, or national significance.

“They’re properties that we want to save,” he said.

“Properties are not eligible until they’re proven eligible,” Diebold explained. He said proving eligibility is like writing a college research paper, including maps and photographs.

The Delphi historic district nomination was written by Greg Abell, then a graduate student at the Center for Historic Preservation at Ball State University and funded by a Downtown Enhancement Grant from Indiana Main Street and co-sponsored by Delphi Main Street and Delphi Preservation Society. Anita Werling of DPS and Diebold are also listed on the application as editors.

Criteria

Diebold said National Register eligibility is tied to significance in one or more of the following categories: events, persons, design/architecture, information.

Diebold mentioned design/architecture as one of the criteria met by the Delphi Courthouse Square Historic District. He said a historic district is a collection of structures that give “a feeling of being immersed in time or place.”

Delphi’s district includes the downtown and surrounding commercial blocks. Diebold said a historic district can also be neighborhoods, villages and towns, and farmsteads.

Delphi’s historic district also qualified on the criterion of events. Significant events that affected commerce and the development of Delphi included the city being named as the county seat, the building of the Delphi section of the Wabash & Erie Canal, and the introduction of the first railroad through Delphi.

Diebold said the Delphi Courthouse Square Historic District is one of 350 National Register historic districts in Indiana. Within Delphi’s district are three buildings that had previously been named individually to the National Register. These are the Carroll County Courthouse, Delphi City Hall (Assion-Ruffing Building), and the Niewerth Building.

Historic design/architecture also includes engineering. Diebold gave, as examples, two Carroll County bridges that are on the National Register – Carrollton Bridge and Wilson Bridge.

Diebold said the information criterion includes archaeological sites that give information about prehistoric or historic settlements. He gave, as examples, canal-related sites in Carroll County that are on the National Register. They include Delphi Lime Kiln site, Lock 33 and the Lock Keeper’s House site, and Sunset Point (canal construction camp site).

Diebold said that most of the National Register properties are “everyday places where people still work, play, live, and where persons of the past lived and interacted.”

Generally, properties on the National Register are at least 50 years old. Diebold said they also must have integrity (authenticity) to qualify.

Benefits

In naming benefits to structures listed on the National Register, Diebold said they include state and federal tax benefits and grants to local governments and nonprofits. Delphi Preservation Society recently received a grant for roof replacement on the Opera House building. Grants are awarded annually.

Diebold said requirements for tax credits include: extensive projects, projects that meet preservation standards, buildings that are for commercial use or income-producing, and for the most benefit, be a “contributing” historic resource structure.

“Listing on the National Register does not restrict private owners from altering their property, restrict the sale or use of private property, or force private owners to open their doors to the public,” Diebold explained. “But, if you want federal money, you have to follow guidelines.”

Diebold added that there are also intangible benefits to having National Register structures and sites in a county or community. One of these, he said, is community pride.

As of the latest listing, Carroll County has 21 properties on the National Register of Historic Places.

To see all of Carroll County’s listings on the National Register, go to the DHPA website or Google Historic Preservation Indiana.