A Dynamic Inventory of Michigan's Built Heritage

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Properties of local, state or national significance may be eligible for listing in the National Register. National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), those properties recognized as the nation's most important historic and cultural resources, are part of the National Register. Michigan boasts thirty-four NHLs, including "Windemere," Ernest Hemingway's boyhood summer home on Walloon Lake near Horton Bay, and the Quincy Mining Company Historic District in Calumet.

National Register nominations are submitted to the SHPO, presented to the State Historic Preservation Review Board for approval, and then forwarded to the National Park Service. The Keeper of the National Register approves their inclusion in the Register. Listing in the National Register provides national recognition, eligibility for federal tax incentives and other preservation assistance, limited protection from federally funded, licensed or sponsored undertakings and support for cultural resource planning.  The National Park Service's National Register page and National Historic Landmarks page each provide additional information about these programs.

The State Register of Historic Sites and the Michigan Historical Marker Program were established in 1955. Application is made to the SHPO for a historical marker and then reviewed for listing by the Michigan Historical Commission. The criteria for a marker is similar to the national register criteria. There are also provisions for commemorating significant events, institutions, and people with a historical marker. The Michigan Historical Commission approves the wording and the placement of all state historical markers. State register designation and historical markers do not provide legal protection or financial benefits, however, they can be effective educational tools.

In 1999 the SHPO developed Michigan's Historic Sites Online under a grant from the National Park Service and the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. The project put over 3,000 of Michigan's National Register, State Register, and Historical Marker properties, current to December 1998, on the World Wide Web in a searchable database.

For information about any of the programs described on this site, write the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Michigan Historical Center, P.O. Box 30740, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, MI 48909-8240, or call us at (517) 373-1630.

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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