The Department of Historic Resources is the Commonwealth’s official historic preservation agency, and its director is designated as the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO). Department staff administers both federal and state mandated activities. Specific programs and services of DHR include the following: Survey and Inventory; the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Landmarks Register; State and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits; Certified Local Governments; State and Federal Government Project Review; Threatened Sites Archaeological Research; Historic Preservation Easements; Historical Highway Markers, and a wide range of Technical Assistance on the above and other preservation topics. Additionally, the department maintains an open-to-the-public research center with both paper and electronic archives for its inventory of more than 247,000 historic properties (including more than 40,000 archaeological sites) and library for students, researchers, scholars, consultants, or anyone interested in the archaeological and architectural history of Virginia. The department curates more than six million objects in the Commonwealth’s archaeological collections and makes these collections available to researchers and to the public through loans to museums across the state. Educational programs include Virginia Archaeology Month, Teaching with Historic Places, an Archaeology Resource Kit, tours of the department’s curation and conservation center, and other changing programs for adults, children, and educators. The department also produces several reference publications, most available for downloading from its website.
