Honouliuli National Register of Historic Places Criteria
How Historic and Cultural Sites Get Registered and Receive Some Level of Protection
by John Bond, Kanehili Cultural Hui
Historic sites in Ewa Honouliuli already registered nationally currently include Ewa Field, Oahu Railway & Land Company Right Of Way and Honouliuli Internment Camp.
The HART Rail project, because it is Federally funded project via the Federal Transit Administration
has currently identified two important native Hawaiian cultural sites in Honouliuli as well as one historic structure- the Honouliuli Bridge.
While Historic Ewa Plantation Village was supposed to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) it never was. Instead it was listed on the Hawaii State historic register.
Some sites on Oahu are both State and Nationally registered.
National Register Criteria
To evaluate eligibility, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has promulgated National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility criteria at 36 CFR 60.4.
NRHP eligibility applies to districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects:
a) that are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or
b) that are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or
c) 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 and distinguishable entity whose
components may lack individual distinction; or
d) that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory
or history.
Criterion C is typically applied to the built environment and would not apply to natural
landforms or non-architectural resources. Criterion D typically applies to potential for
data recovery beyond what can be documented during recordation. Thus, wahi pana
identified in this effort do not meet criteria C and D, although all four criteria are
addressed in the eligibility determination below (Section 6).
2.2 Integrity
Establishing NRHP eligibility also depends on integrity of location, design, setting,
materials, workmanship, feeling, and association. Sites that meet one or more
NRHP eligibility criteria, but do not retain integrity are not eligible for the NRHP.
Assessing integrity can be very difficult. National Register Bulletin 38 provides the
following guidance (Parker and King 1998:11):
“In the case of a Traditional Cultural Property, there are two fundamental
questions to ask about integrity. First, does the property have an integral
relationship to traditional cultural practices or beliefs; and second, is the condition
of the property such that the relevant relationships survive?”
“If the property is known or likely to be regarded by a traditional cultural group as
important in the retention or transmittal of a belief, or to the performance of a
practice, the property can be taken to have an integral relationship with the belief
or practice, and vice-versa.”
The key is to assess whether or not the site retains that integral relationship with the
belief or practice. Guidance for assessing integrity is provided in National Register
Bulletin 15 (NRHP 2002), which defines the seven aspects of integrity. These seven
aspects are location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and
association. Most, but not all of the sites discussed here are non-architectural
properties, or natural landforms. For that reason, integrity of design, workmanship
and materials generally do not apply. Each is considered where appropriate in the
eligibility determination below. Guidance from National Register Bulletin 15 (NRHP
2002) is provided below:
Location - Location is the place where the historic property was constructed or
the place where the historic event occurred. The relationship between the
property and its location is often important to understanding why the property was
created or why something happened. The actual location of a historic property,
complemented by its setting, is particularly important in recapturing the sense of
historic events and persons. Except in rare cases, the relationship between a
property and its historic associations is destroyed if the property is moved. (See
Criteria Consideration B in Part VII: How to Apply the Criteria Considerations, for
the conditions under which a moved property can be eligible.)
Design - Design is the combination of elements that create the form, plan, space,
structure, and style of a property. It results from conscious decisions made during
the original conception and planning of a property (or its significant alteration)
and applies to activities as diverse as community planning, engineering,
architecture, and landscape architecture. Design includes such elements as
organization of space, proportion, scale, technology, ornamentation, and
materials.
Setting - Setting is the physical environment of a historic property. Whereas
location refers to the specific place where a property was built or an event
occurred, setting refers to the character of the place in which the property played
its historical role. It involves how, not just where, the property is situated and its
relationship to surrounding features and open space.
Setting often reflects the basic physical conditions under which a property was
built and the functions it was intended to serve. In addition, the way in which a
property is positioned in its environment can reflect the designer's concept of
nature and aesthetic preferences.
The physical features that constitute the setting of a historic property can be
either natural or man made, including such elements as:
Topographic features (a gorge or the crest of a hill);
Vegetation;
Simple manmade features (paths or fences); and
Relationships between buildings and other features or open space.
These features and their relationships should be examined not only within the
exact boundaries of the property, but also between the property and
its surroundings. This is particularly important for districts.
Materials - Materials are the physical elements that were combined or deposited
during a particular period of time and in a particular pattern or configuration to
form a historic property. The choice and combination of materials reveal the
preferences of those who created the property and indicate the availability of
Feeling - Feeling is a property's expression of the aesthetic or historic sense of a
particular period of time. It results from the presence of physical features that,
taken together, convey the property's historic character. For example, a rural
historic district retaining original design, materials, workmanship, and setting will
relate the feeling of agricultural life in the 19th century. A grouping of prehistoric
petroglyphs, unmarred by graffiti and intrusions and located on its original
isolated bluff, can evoke a sense of tribal spiritual life.
Association - Association is the direct link between an important historic event or
person and a historic property. A property retains association if it is the place
where the event or activity occurred and is sufficiently intact to convey that
relationship to an observer. Like feeling, association requires the presence of
physical features that convey a property's historic character. For example, a
Revolutionary War battlefield whose natural and man made elements have
remained intact since the 18th century will retain its quality of association with the
battle.
Because feeling and association depend on individual perceptions, their
retention alone is never sufficient to support eligibility of a property for the
National Register.
