Brief History of the Firestone & Bloxham Annex Buildings · Brief History of the Firestone &...

Brief History of the Firestone & Bloxham Annex Buildings

(Former Leon County Jail, Leon County Health Unit and W.P.A. District Headquarters)

319, 325 and 409 East Gaines Street

Tallahassee, Florida

Prepared by

Jonathan Lammers

April, 2017

Firestone & Bloxham Annex Buildings 319-409 E. Gaines Street, Tallahassee, FL

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Introduction and Historical Summary The three buildings that are the subject of this report are all significant in the history of Tallahassee and Leon County. They are the former Leon County Jail (1937), the former Leon County Health Unit (1940), and the former WPA district headquarters (1940). While each has its own individual story, they are also part of a group which represents a distinct moment in both local and national history.

All three of these buildings were constructed during the latter part of the Great Depression. All were designed with similar architectural influences. And all were funded by either the Works Progress Administration (WPA) or the Public Works Administration (PWA).

The WPA and the PWA were two of the largest New Deal federal programs designed to create jobs and improve infrastructure during the Depression. These programs spent billions of dollars on projects located throughout the country, including schools, firehouses, post offices and parks. In Leon County, the PWA or WPA helped fund construction of Leon High School, the Leon County Armory, an addition to the old Florida Capitol, murals at the old Tallahassee post office, and a new Dining Hall at Florida State University.

Two of these properties hold special significance for their association with Civil Rights history. The former Leon County Jail is significantly associated with arrests that occurred in Tallahassee during the early 1960s following peaceful protests against Jim Crow segregation. The building was also associated with the lynching of two African American teenagers during the 1930s.

While the jail served a symbol of racial oppression, the Leon County Health Unit, built in 1940, symbolized a new progressive emphasis on public health. The County Leon Health Unit was the first of its kind in the state, and its interracial staff provided vital medical care, including vaccinations, prenatal training and other services for local residents. These included many residents of the nearby Smokey Hollow neighborhood, one of the city’s most important African American enclaves.

Finally, it is important to note that when these three buildings were constructed they were part of a larger collection of civic infrastructure in this neighborhood. This included the old city waterworks, the city power plant—today the Edison, the city gas works, the city incinerator, and the city farmer’s market. Just across the street was Caroline Brevard Elementary School, while one block to the west was Centennial Field—the city’s municipal athletic field.

What follows is a brief history of each building, including historic photographs and other background information. Included at the end is a discussion of the buildings’ architectural influences, and a brief summary of eligibility requirements for the National Register of Historic Places.


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Firestone Building (Former Leon County Jail)

Address: 409 E. Gaines Street

Parcel #: 2136250301170

Year Built: 1937

Style: Art Moderne

Architects: Malachi Leo Elliott and T. A. Monk

Sq. Feet: 71,310 (per Leon County Appraiser)

Leon County Jail ca. 1937-1938 (Florida Memory Image# RC12253)

History and Use: The Leon County Jail was constructed in 1937 at a cost of $100,000, replacing an older jail located immediately adjacent. The new facility was segregated by gender, proving spaces for 72 men and 26 women. The jail featured common areas on the lower level, and included its own laundry, hospital ward, and living quarters for the jailer.

Most sources state that the building was constructed using funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Another, however, states that the county had initially applied for funds from the PWA, but a


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delay in approval led the county to use its own funding. It is likely that PWA funding was used for its design, which is clearly attuned to an architectural style today known as PWA Moderne (see the end of this report for a discussion of PWA Modernism).

The jail was designed by the prominent Tampa architect, Malachi Leo Elliot, working with contractor T. A. Monk. This same team concurrently designed and built the PWA-funded Leon High School, which was completed in early 1937. Today Leon High School, as well as several other buildings completed by Elliot and Monk, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1940 Sanborn Company map showing the Leon County Jail and surroundings.

Civil Rights History The Leon County Jail is significantly associated with the Civil Rights Movement in Tallahassee. Primarily, this association stems from various Civil Rights protests during the early 1960s, when peaceful demonstrators were arrested and placed in the jail. However, the Leon County Jail is also associated with a tragic double lynching of two African American teenagers in 1937, which drew national attention, as well as vociferous protests from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (A.S.W.P.L.). According to historian Walter T. Howard, who wrote about the incident for the Florida Historical


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Quarterly, the lynching also “influenced wrangling over proposed federal anti-lynching legislation pending in Congress at the time.”1 Howard’s article is also the primary source for the following capsule history. On July 19, 1937 two African American teenagers from the Smokey Hollow neighborhood, Richard Ponder and Ernest Hawkins, were arrested by Tallahassee police officer, J.V. Kelley, for breaking into a business on South Adams Street. On the way to the jail, one of the prisoners attacked Kelley with a knife and the pair were able to escape—only to be recaptured within an hour. Ponder and Hawkins were charged with assault with intent to murder, as well as breaking and entering, and placed in the recently completed Leon County Jail. Officer Kelley was taken to the hospital where he soon recovered. Around 3:00 a.m. the following morning, four masked men entered the jail and captured the guard, forcing him to release the captives. The pair were taken away at gunpoint and driven about three miles east of Tallahassee on what is today Highway 90. The youths were then ordered to get out of the car and each was shot from 15 to 20 times with handguns. The lynching party then left several signs at the murder scene which variously stated: “His last crime,” “This is the beginning, who is next?” and “Warning, this is what will happen to all negroes who harm white people.” 2 At the time, approximately 40 percent of Tallahassee’s population of 12,000 residents was African American. The community was characterized by strict segregation of schools, theaters, restaurants, churches and other public spaces, and blacks were confined to only a few residential areas. As described by Walter Howard, “The killers' violent act of lynching Ponder and Hawkins carried an unmistakable message to Tallahassee's black community. White Tallahasseans would not tolerate an assault by men on a white police officer, the uniformed representative white authority.” 3

News of the lynching was published in newspapers across the country, along with editorial condemnations. A number of black newspapers, including the Chicago Defender and Atlanta Daily-World also reported heavily on the incident. Considerable suspicion was leveled at various law enforcement personnel for being involved with the lynching. Tallahassee officials took the unusual step of involving the F.B.I. to compare bullet slugs from the victims to guns owned by various law enforcement officers, but no match was made. In the aftermath of the disaster, proposed federal anti-lynching legislation failed to pass after being opposed by Florida’s two senators, Claude Pepper and Charles Andrews, as well as Governor Fred Cone. 1960s Civil Rights History As with most southern cities, Tallahassee was strongly segregated throughout the early 20th century. By 1960, the Congress of Racial Equality (C.O.R.E.) in Tallahassee had begun to organize demonstrations against Jim Crow segregation in public spaces. On February 20, 1960, eleven C.O.R.E. members sat down at the Woolworth's lunch counter on Monroe Street and attempted to order food. When they were ordered to leave the counter they refused and were arrested. The arrests led to eight sentences of $300 dollar fines or sixty days in jail. Ultimately, five FAMU students chose to remain in Leon County Jail for the full sentence and refused to pay the fine.

1 Walter T. Howard, “Vigilante Justice and National Reaction: The 1937 Tallahassee Double Lynching,” The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 67, No. 1 (July, 1988), 34. 2 Ibid: 43. 3 Ibid


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One of the students, Patricia Stephens Due, wrote a “Letter from Leon County Jail,” which described the attempts by local officials to punish peaceful demonstrators. The letter is credited as the Civil Rights Movement's earliest known student refusal to pay a fine, and instead accept a jail sentence, as a tactic against segregation. Martin Luther King, Jr. was given a copy of the letter, and wrote a telegram to Due that “Going to jail for a righteous cause is a badge of honor and a symbol of dignity.”

After the jail-in, Stephens became a national figure. As recalled in her obituary in the New York Times, “Jackie Robinson sent her a diary for her jail-time thoughts. James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte and Eleanor Roosevelt endorsed her efforts ... She fought beside John D. Due Jr., a civil rights lawyer, whom she married in 1963. For their honeymoon, they rode the Freedom Train to Washington to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give his “I Have a Dream” speech.”4

In March 1960, another group of students were arrested at a sit-in at Woolworth’s lunch counter. When hundreds of FAMU students began marching toward downtown Tallahassee to protest the arrests, they were met by tear gas and mobs armed with clubs. Dozens of demonstrators, both White and African American, were taken to the Leon County Jail. Patricia Stephens Due was struck in the face by a tear gas canister and had to wear large, dark glasses for the rest of her life due to the injury.

Patricia Stephens Due (in glasses) at a civil rights demonstration in Tallahassee, December 1963. (Florida Memory Image# RC11500)

4 “Patricia Stephens Due, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 72,” The New York Times, February 11, 2012.


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Similar protests continued throughout the early 1960s. In May of 1963, Patricia Stephens Due—acting in direct violation a court injunction which limited public demonstrations—led over 200 students in protest against the segregated Florida Theater. 157 students were arrested, and later in the day, another large group of FAMU students marched to the jail in protest. Of these, 91 were arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace.5

Another prominent civil rights action in Tallahassee occurred in June 1961, when a group of ministers known as the Interfaith Freedom Riders challenged segregated buses by traveling from Washington D.C. to Tallahassee. The group decided to fly home, but tested whether they would be served at the restaurant in the Tallahassee airport. They were arrested for unlawful assembly and taken to the Leon County Jail. They were convicted and sentenced later in the month. After years of legal appeals, the group returned in August 1964 to serve brief jail terms.

Civil Rights Demonstrators being marched from downtown to the Leon County Jail, May 30, 1963. (Florida Memory Image# TD01603D)

5 Glenda Alice Rabby, The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida, Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1999, 152.


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According to a Florida Master Site File form for the property, the jail was expanded in 1961 with an addition of another wing parallel to the first wing. The Leon County Jail closed in 1966 after a new facility was constructed by the county. In 1967, the building became the new home of the Florida Department of State’s Division of Archives, History and Records Management. The State Archives moved into R.A. Gray Building in 1976, and the building was subsequently used as the State Records Center. In the mid-1980s, the building was renovated and enlarged for use by the Division of Corporations, an agency within the Florida Department of State. At this time, it appears that most or all interior features of the old jail were removed. During the renovation there are reports that the Art Deco style ornament used at the building’s exterior entry had deteriorated, and was refabricated based on the original design. The building is today named for George Firestone, Florida’s Secretary of State from 1978 to 1987. The Department of State vacated the building in 2007.

Circa 1983 photo of the primary façade. (National Register Nomination Form: Florida Master Site File Records)


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Circa 1983 photo of jail cells used for storage. (National Register Nomination Form: Florida Master Site File Records)

Significance and Integrity Significance and integrity are two concepts that are essential to listing a building, site, structure or object on the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service and is the nation’s most comprehensive inventory of historic resources. (Please see the end of this report for a more detailed discussion of the National Register).

The National Register includes buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts that possess historic or cultural significance based on four criteria. These include association with historic events and persons, as well as architectural and archaeological significance.

In addition to historical significance, a building must also retain historic integrity to be listed on the National Register. According to the National Park Service, integrity is defined as “the authenticity of an historic resource’s physical identity evidenced by the survival of characteristics that existed during the resource’s period of significance.” In other words, a building or structure needs to retain those key physical features that existed when it achieved significance. Integrity is measured using seven characteristics, which include location, design, setting, materials, association, feeling and workmanship.

Florida Master Site File records show that in 1983, a National Register Nomination Proposal was prepared for the former Leon County Jail by Ann T. Pettengill, a Florida State University graduate student in historic preservation. It is unclear if this nomination was processed by the Florida Bureau of


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Historic Preservation. A subsequent form in the Site File records indicates that in October 1996, Florida Division of Historical Resources staff determined that the building was not eligible for listing on the National Register. A brief note on the form, prepared by Sharyn Thompson of Archaeological Consultants, Inc., states that the building’s architectural style is “uncommon in Tallahassee,” and that “it has been extensively altered on the interior and has a large addition.”

It is likely that the finding of ineligibility was made owing to the removal of the old jail’s interior features, as well as exterior alterations including the replacement of all windows, and the circa 1985 additions (see below). A limited tour of the building’s interior shows that no former jail features remain intact, and only the entry lobby appears to largely retain its original configuration.

Considered as a whole, the former Leon County Jail appears significant under National Register Criterion A for its association with the Civil Rights movement in Tallahassee, as well as its association with the efforts of the Public Works Administration in Tallahassee. However, various remodeling efforts and additions have significantly eroded its historic integrity. The 1961 addition to enlarge the jail is not problematic, as it was present during the Civil Rights era. However, the circa mid-1980s remodeling efforts and additions to the building have greatly compromised its ability to convey its historic associations.

1941 aerial photo with arrow pointing to the Leon County Jail


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1970 aerial photo of the Leon County Jail with arrow pointing to the 1961 addition to the jail.

2015 aerial photo of the Leon County Jail with arrows pointing to circa 1980s additions at the east and west ends of the building.


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Former Leon County Health Unit (a.k.a. Bloxham Annex)


Parcel #: 2136250301180

Year Built: 1940

Style: Art Moderne

Architect: Unknown at present

Sq. Feet: @ 4,800

Leon County Health Department Health Unit Building, ca. 1949. (Florida Memory Image# RC24112)


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History and Use: The Leon County Health Unit was completed in 1940 as a $40,000 project jointly funded by Leon County, the City of Tallahassee, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was the first permanent home for the Leon County Health Unit—which was the oldest in the state—and the first specially designed health unit built as a county-WPA project in the state of Florida.

The facility was a direct result of the Florida Health Unit Law of 1931, which authorized counties in Florida “to cooperate with the State Board of Health in the establishment and maintenance of full-time local health units for the control and eradication of preventable diseases, and to inculcate modern scientific methods of hygiene, sanitation and the prevention of communicable diseases.”6 In 1939, Florida had the fewest health units among 14 southern states.

The new Leon County Health Unit in 1940. From Florida Health Notes, September, 1940, p. 116.

6 “Florida Health Unit Law,” Florida Health Notes, Vol. 31, No. 8, August 1939, 89.


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Excerpt discussing the new Leon County Health Unit from Florida Health Notes, September, 1940, p. 115.

When it was completed, the Leon County Health Unit was located adjacent to one of Tallahassee’s most important African American enclaves known as “Smokey Hollow.” For many in the community, the health unit represented an unprecedented advancement in medical care. The health unit was staffed by interracial nurses and provided prenatal treatment for pregnant women, childhood vaccinations for smallpox, diphtheria and typhoid, dental examinations, and treatment for common ailments such as hookworm. The building’s modern exterior was meant to reflect efficient technical and scientific medical work, and was described The Daily Democrat in July 1940 as “a great monument of progress of Floridians over disease, ill health, poor sanitation, and poverty.”


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Prenatal training at the Leon County Health Unit, ca. 1950. (Florida Memory Image# N034196)

City directory listings from the 1940s show that in addition to the Health Unit, the building also housed the Leon County Welfare Association and the State District Welfare Board. The city directories also indicate the building was important to the treatment of tuberculosis, and by the 1960s it appears to have been used exclusively by the Tuberculosis and Health Association. In 1967 the building was converted for use as the State Division of Child Training Schools, and later for the State Division of Youth Services. Beginning in 1975 it was used as overflow storage for the Florida Division of Archives, History and Records Management.

Significance and Integrity Based on the limited information presented above, the former Leon County Health Unit building appears significant under National Register Criterion A for its association with the delivery of public health services in Tallahassee, as well as its association with the works of the WPA. It was the first purpose-built health unit constructed as a county-WPA project in the state of Florida and was one of the few government offices in Leon County which employed an interracial staff.

The building likewise appears significant under National Register Criterion C for its architecture. The building is a clear and well-preserved example of Streamline Moderne design carried out under the aegis of the Public Works Administration (see following discussion of PWA Modernism). The building features many hallmarks of the style, particularly the use of vertical and horizontal grooves or lines


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(speedlines) on the exterior as well as “porthole” style openings. The buildings also shares similarities with other health related buildings funded by the PWA, including the Florida State Tuberculosis Sanitarium in Orlando.

The building retains excellent exterior integrity. The only notable exterior alteration is the replacement of the original multi-light steel sash casement windows. Such alterations are relatively minor as all buildings are expected to undergo some degree of change over time. The interior has been completely remodeled and no longer conveys clear association with its use as a health unit. However, interior alterations are likewise expected in a building that was used for a variety of governmental services.

It should be noted that its design is very similar to the adjacent Works Progress Administration District Office at 319 E. Gaines Street, and in that sense could be considered one of two contributors to a historic district based on association with New Deal services and Streamline Moderne architecture. Similar quality examples of this style are virtually unknown both in Tallahassee and Leon County as a whole.

Undated photo of Health Unit staff. (Florida Master Site File Records)

View of the building in 1969. (Florida Master Site File records)


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Works Projects Administration District Offices (a.k.a. Bloxham Annex A, or DNR Douglas Building)


Parcel #: 2136250301180

Year Built: 1939

Style: Art Moderne

Architect: Davis/Folsom contracting company.

Sq. Feet: @ 3,100 on main level

The building in use as the Comptroller of Florida Annex, 1969. (Florida Memory Image# PR25021)

History and Use: The building was originally constructed as the Works Projects Administration (WPA) District Offices. The WPA was created in 1935 as the largest and most ambitious of the New Deal programs designed to provide jobs and improve infrastructure during the Great Depression. It worked in tandem with similar federal programs, including the Public Works Administration (PWA). At its peak in 1938, the WPA


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employed more than 8 million people. The program was disbanded in 1943 as employment in defense industries during World War II provided millions of jobs. In Tallahassee, the WPA or PWA funded numerous civic projects, including the Leon County Jail, Leon High School, the Leon County Health Unit, the Leon County Armory, an addition to the old Florida Capitol, and the Dining Hall at Florida State University. Numerous other projects in the North Florida region were also completed, including the Apalachicola River bridge between Blountstown and Bristol, the original John Gorrie Memorial Bridge between Eastpoint and Apalachicola, improvements to the Jefferson County Jail in Monticello; a new main post office in Perry; and the airport and Florida Caverns golf course in Marianna.

In addition to funding infrastructure projects, the WPA touched all corners of society. It employed architects, engineers, artists and writers—the latter including Zora Neale Hurston who wrote for the Federal Writer’s Project in Florida. In Tallahassee, the WPA also funded murals by Eduard Buk Ulreich at the downtown post office.

319 East Gaines at the time it was rented by the Crippled Children’s Commission, ca. 1959 (Florida Memory Image# RC12456)

After the WPA was disbanded, the building appears to have been used as administrative offices by Leon County. It was rented by the Crippled Children’s Commission during the late 1950s, and in 1967 the building was used as the Comptroller of Florida Annex. It was at this time that both 319 and 325 East


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Gaines Street were renamed the Bloxham Annexes, with this building designated as Bloxham Annex A. In the recent past, the building was leased to Florida State University.

Significance and Integrity Based on the limited information presented above, the former WPA District Office appears significant under National Register Criterion A for its association with works of the WPA in Florida. It was used to coordinate WPA-funded projects in the region, and demonstrates the immense reach of what is arguably the most important federal works program ever undertaken.

The building likewise appears significant under National Register Criterion C for its architecture. As with the former Leon County Health Unit, of which it is a semi-twin, the building is a clear and well-preserved example of Streamline Moderne design, particularly as it was carried out under the aegis of the Public Works Administration (see following discussion of PWA Modernism). As such, the building could be considered one of two contributors to a historic district based on association with New Deal services and Streamline Moderne architecture. Similar quality examples of this style are virtually unknown both in Tallahassee and Leon County as a whole.

The building appears to retain excellent exterior integrity. The only notable exterior alteration is the replacement of the original windows, and potentially the alteration of a wall at the basement level on the east facade. Such alterations are relatively minor as all buildings are expected to undergo some degree of change over time. The interior has been completely remodeled and no longer conveys clear association with its original use. However, interior alterations are likewise expected in a building that was used for a variety of governmental services.


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Art Moderne Architectural Style and PWA Modernism All three of the buildings discussed in this report display architectural features of the Art Moderne style. Sometimes called “Streamline Moderne” for the frequent use of speed line accents on the exterior of buildings, Art Moderne architecture is a late variant of Art Deco architecture that emerged during the 1930s. The style’s simple, clean lines reflected both the economic realities of the Great Depression, as well as influences from industrial design to “streamline” buildings with aerodynamic curves. Typical features of the style include smooth exterior finishes, typically stucco; horizontal grooves or lines (speedlines) on walls; porthole windows, rounded edges, flat roofs with coping, and the use of glass blocks. One of the most famed collection of the Art Moderne buildings in the United States can be found in Miami Beach.

Federal relief projects created during the Great Depression, such as the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and the Public Works Administration (PWA) adopted Art Moderne conventions for hundreds of civic projects across the United States. Generally speaking, the design of these buildings, which included schools, post offices, court houses and other civic buildings, combined stripped-down Classical architectural features (e.g., columns, pilasters, cornices) with the streamlined aspects of Art Moderne. The PWA used this convention so frequently that today the architecture of many civic buildings from the 1930s and early 1940s is described as “PWA Moderne” or “PWA Modernism.” Below are examples of several such buildings from across the United States.

US Post Office, Santa Monica, CA


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Lincoln County Court House, Pioche, NV

Fresno Fire Department, Fresno, CA


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Iberia Parish Courthouse, Baton Rouge, LA

US Post Office, Richmond, CA


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Alameda County Court House, Oakland, CA


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The National Register The National Register is administered by the National Park Service and is the nation’s most comprehensive inventory of historic resources. It is designed to recognize buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts that possess historic, architectural, engineering, archaeological, or cultural significance at the national, state, or local level. Typically, resources over fifty years of age are eligible for listing in the National Register if they meet any one of the four criteria of significance and if they sufficiently retain historic integrity. However, resources under fifty years of age can be determined eligible if it can be demonstrated that they are of “exceptional importance.”

Generally speaking, listing on the National Register is honorific. It does not provide any guarantee of protection for a building, although federal agencies are required to take into account any actions which may adversely affect such properties. One of the primary economic benefits of National Register listing is the use of federal tax credits for the rehabilitation of commercial properties. The National Register is also often used by local and state municipalities as the basis for their historic preservation programs. In Florida, the Division of Historical Resources oversees a preservation grant program which provides matching funds for the rehabilitation of historic properties. A property does not have to be listed on the National Register in order to be eligible, but those properties which are listed on the National Register are considered “highly competitive” by the grants program.7

Significance National Register criteria for historic significance are defined in depth in National Register Bulletin Number 15: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. There are four basic criteria under which a structure, site, building, district, or object can be considered eligible for listing in the National Register. These criteria are:

Criterion A (Event): Properties associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history;

Criterion B (Person): Properties associated with the lives of persons significant in our past;

Criterion C (Design/Construction): Properties that embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction; and

Criterion D (Information Potential): Properties that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. This is more frequently associated with archeological sites.

As discussed by the National Park Service, Perhaps the most critical feature of applying the criteria for evaluation is establishing the relationship between a property and its historic context, which is

7 Florida Division of Historical Resources, “Grants,” accessed 04/28/17 from: http://dos.myflorida.com/historical/grants/faqs/#90

http://dos.myflorida.com/historical/grants/faqs/#90


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defined as “those patterns or trends in history by which a specific occurrence, property, or site is understood and its meaning (and ultimately its significance) within history or prehistory is made clear.”

Integrity In addition to qualifying for listing under at least one of the National Register criterion, a property must be shown to have sufficient historic integrity. The concept of integrity is essential to identifying the important physical characteristics of historic resources and in evaluating adverse changes to them. Integrity is defined as “the authenticity of an historic resource’s physical identity evidenced by the survival of characteristics that existed during the resource’s period of significance.”

According to the National Register Bulletin: How to Apply the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, these seven characteristics are defined as follows:

Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or the place where the historic event occurred. The original location of a property, complemented by its setting, is required to express the property’s integrity of location.

Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plans, space, structure and style of the property. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of design are its form, massing, construction method, architectural style, and architectural details.

Setting addresses the physical environment of the historic property relative to its surroundings. Features which must be in place to express a property’s integrity of setting are its location, relationship to the street, and intact surroundings.

Materials refer to the physical elements that were combined or deposited during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern to form the historic property. Features that must be in place to express a property’s integrity of materials are its construction method and most of its original architectural details.

Workmanship is the physical evidence of the crafts of a particular culture or people during any given period in history. Features that should be in place to express a property’s integrity of workmanship are its construction methods and architectural details.

Feeling is the property’s expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a particular period of time. Features that must be in place to express a property’s integrity of feeling are its overall design quality, coupled with materials and setting.

Association is the direct link between an important historic event or person and a historic property. Features that should be in place to express a property’s integrity of association are its overall use and design quality


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While it is understood that nearly all properties undergo change over time—and thus minor alterations or changes are common—a building must possess enough of its original features to demonstrate why it is significant. Evaluators look closely at characteristics such as massing, roof forms, fenestration patterns, cladding materials, and architectural ornament when evaluating a property’s integrity.

A property that has sufficient integrity for listing in the national, state, or local historical register will generally retain a majority of its character-defining features. However, the necessary aspects of integrity also depend on the reason the property is significant. High priority is typically placed on integrity of design, materials, and workmanship for properties significant for architecture, while for properties significant for association with historic events or people, these aspects are only necessary to the extent that they help the property convey integrity of feeling and/or association.

For properties significant under any of these criteria, it is possible for some materials to be replaced without drastically affecting integrity of design, as long as these alterations are subordinate to the overall character of the building. For example, minor alterations such as door and window replacement are often common in residential districts. Evaluations of integrity should also include some basis of comparison. In other words, the evaluator should understand the relative levels of integrity associated with each property type. For instance, increased age and rarity of the property type may also lower the threshold required for sufficient integrity.

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