Contributing Versus Non-contributing
The line between contributing and non-contributing can be fuzzy. In particular, American historic districts nominated to the National Register of Historic Places before 1980 have few records of the non-contributing structures. State Historic Preservation Offices conduct surveys to determine the historical character of structures in historic districts. Districts nominated to the National Register of Historic Places after 1980, usually list those structures considered non-contributing.
As a general rule, a contributing property helps make a historic district historic. A 19th century Queen Anne mansion, such as the David Syme House, is a contributing property while a modern gas station or medical clinic within the boundaries of historic district is a non-contributing property.
Historic buildings identified as contributing properties can become non-contributing properties within historic districts if major alterations have taken place. Sometimes, an act as simple as re-siding a historic home can damage its historic integrity and render it non-contributing. In some cases, damage to the historic integrity of a structure is reversible, while other times the historic nature of a building has been so "severely compromised" as to be irreversible.
Read more about this topic: Historic District Contributing Properties
Famous quotes containing the word contributing:
“But then in what way are things called good? They do not seem to be like the things that only chance to have the same name. Are goods one then by being derived from one good or by all contributing to one good, or are they rather one by analogy? Certainly as sight is in the body, so is reason in the soul, and so on in other cases.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)