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NPS Focus allows you to search the National Register Information System a database of over 85,000 historic buildings, districts, sites, structures and objects listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The information is downloadable in a variety of formats, including simplified versions of the data. Below are downloadable files, some of which may be useful to you in your own computer environment.

Finding Aids
Simplified Data
Spatial Data
All Data
Forms

Finding Aids

Multiple covers are in Focus. Multiples.xlsx has a list of them to assist you in doing Focus searches.

Federal determinations of eligibility are not included in Focus at this time. You can download a spreadsheet of them, FED_DOE.xls.

Federal agency searches are not yet available in Focus. You can download a spreadsheet of them, FED_LI.xls.

Simplified Data

You may download the Main.xlsx spreadsheet of all the listed properties. If you just need to see what is listed on the National Register this may be the easiest way to search. You will need MS Excel 2007 or later to view these properties since earlier versions of Excel cannot accommodate this number of records.

Download a simple MS Access 2000 database Main.accdb of listed properties. It is just the "what is where" basic information and it has been collapsed into one file so it is easier to use.

Spatial Data

For those of you who are interested in working with data spatially here is a database that includes the basic information plus geographic information such as UTM coordinates for points, centroids and polygons. Our coordinates come to us on USGS maps so, generally speaking, the datum used is NAD 27. We will include datum information for each property at a later time. Our information is imperfect at this time.

Use of this information in meeting a federal agency’s responsibilities under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act does not in itself constitute compliance with Section 106, which requires agencies to consult with the appropriate State and/or Tribal Preservation Offices in the identification and evaluation of historic properties. You may send suggestions for particular coordinate corrections to waso_nrhe_nris_info@nps.gov as we are well aware than many of our points need to be improved upon.

Download the database, spatial.mdb.


Google Earth layers from properties listed on the National Register are divided by region of the country as determined by the Census. To use a layer, make sure you have Google Earth installed on your machine and then download the layer(s) of interest. The information represented here is far from perfect but you may find this a useful tool. While we have required geographic coordinates since the program began in 1966, most of the building locations have been geocoded through a project undertaken with TeleAtlas which generally provided the most accurate locations (these have a "1" in the geocode match field). Locations that could not be geocoded, were plotted from the existing points in the database. Centroids have been computed where we had polygon data--typically historic districts. The address information clarifies the district boundaries. Listed properties with sensitive locations, typically archeological sites, are not shown here. As compared to the coordinate data in spatial.mdb, the Google Earth layers are more accurate but, given the time-consuming nature of the conversion process, are not as up-to-date and do not provide polygon information. Information is current through the beginning of 2007. This information can also be transferred to GIS files with the appropriate utility.

Midwest Region
Northeast Region
South Region
Territories Region
West Region

All Data

These database files are compressed into a self extracting archive file that can be downloaded and then uncompressed by clicking on it. To manipulate these files you will need MS Access 2000 or later. All data is included here (not just listed properties) so you may write your own queries against any subset. These are normalized database files and some familiarity with database manipulation is helpful. While a brief file guide is included, Bulletin 16, the “How to Complete” in the publications section of our web site is the best overall reference to how we categorize properties.

The one to one files are Propmain and Doemain--the remaining files are one to many files. You may, of course, use all or only selected data files, depending upon your need. Many users may prefer to work with a subset of the data, for example a particular state. Typically you would make a file of unique reference numbers for the subset of interest and then use this file to extract the information from all of the other files. For example, if you are interested in just a particular state then go to the county file and build a file of reference numbers where statecd is equal to the state of your choice (a property may be in more than one county so to eliminate duplicates, it is import to select the nonblank primary flag, or primeflg <> blank). If you want only listed properties reported make sure you select propmain.cert = ' LISTED' only. After you have a table of unique reference numbers available that allows you to extract attributes from all the related one to many files joined on the basis of the reference number in files such as apcrit (applicable criteria) and/or archtect (architect). Note that while these fields have been translated to the more generic Dublin core format in NPS Focus that format is not represented here.

Download file guide
Download entire database will be available again soon.

Forms

Always begin the nomination by consulting with your State Historic Preservation Office since the process begins there and they will give you specific instructions on what you should be using to prepare a nomination that is acceptable to them. While this Forms software program is no longer officially supported it does demonstrate a way to prepare a nomination in a database package as well as provide Word and WordPerfect templates for continuation sheets. This run-time version will run on a PC independently of any installed versions of Access. If you get an error after you install it that says the system.mdw the file cannot be found, not to worry--this is a known Microsoft problem with a simple workaround. Just copy the system.mdw file into the folder where the application is installed--for example c:\forms. Forms must be downloaded in its entirety before it can be run on a target machine. It does not require an internet connection after it has been downloaded.

Forms program
System.mdw file
Word Continuation Page template
WordPerfect Continuation Page template