There are many terrific sites on the web that provide in-depth information about all aspects of historic preservation. A few stand-outs are noted here (and we hope you'll share your own favorites with us as we look to build a comprehensive resource directory!).
« This article and quiz on Caring for the Skin of Your Old House is part of an excellent long-distance learning program put together by the National Park Service.
« Did you know that "rehabilitation" and "restoration" are two different concepts in the world of historic preservation? The Secretary of the Interior's Guidelines set forth four distinct paths to projects involving historical structures, and each treatment has a different relationship to the historical timeline and a different scope of work. For example, if you want to stabilize and preserve a historic building to keep it the way it looks now, you use the Standards for Preservation. Most homeowners looking to update a building for a continuing or new use through repair, alterations, and additions will want to use the Standards for Rehabilitation. If you want to backdate it consistently to an earlier period by removing later features, you use the Standards for Restoration. (The Jacksonville Historical Society's outstanding restoration of the Merrill House is an excellent example of this approach.) Finally, if you want to reconstruct a historic building that has vanished, you use the Standards for Reconstruction. The NPS helps illustrate the differing approaches in this guide to Working on the Past in Historic Districts.
« Another offering from the NPS is the Yes-No program, which has been specially designed to make a point about how careful planning prior to rehabilitation work can result in choosing approaches that preserve the character of historic buildings in our nation's communities. Ten YES projects met the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, while ten NO projects did not. In an abbreviated format, you can evaluate the existing condition and appearance of the historic building before work, learn what repairs, alterations, and additions were undertaken, then see firsthand how the historic character was either preserved or lost during rehabilitation.
« In Walk Through, another long-distance learning program, you'll learn to identify the visual characteristics, both interior and exterior, that make historical structures so unique; it is the careless replacement or alteration of such features that contributes to the loss of historical fabric in our districts.
« Electronic Rehab is a web-based class that seeks to educate homeowners about the Standards for Rehabilitation set forth by the United States Secretary of the Interior. These ten standards are what Jacksonville's own Historic Preservation Commission bases its decisions on when determining whether proposed additions or modifications in the historic districts are appropriate. Anyone thinking of rehabilitating a historic structure needs to be familiar with them.
« Are you a contractor or investor who's interested in learning about what tax credits might be available for your project? Federal Preservation Tax Incentives reward private investment in rehabilitating historic properties; in many cities, abandoned or under-used schools, warehouses, factories, churches, retail stores, apartments, hotels, houses, and offices have been restored to life in a manner that retains their historic character. The Preservation Tax Incentives have also helped to create moderate and low-income housing in historic buildings.
« The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation is Florida's only statewide preservation organization. The mission of the Florida Trust is to promote the preservation of the architectural, historical and archaeological heritage of Florida through advocacy, education and historic property stewardship. Its website contains links to valuable resources for historic homeowners, as well as information on financial incentives for historic preservation projects.