History of the National Register of Historic Places
The History of the National Register of Historic Places began in 1966 when the United States government passed the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), which created the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Upon its inception, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) became the lead agency for the Register. The Register has continued to grow through two reorganizations, one in the 1970s and one in 1980s and in 1978 the NRHP was completely transferred away from the National Park Service, it was again transmitted to the NPS in 1981. In April 1966, six months before the National Register of Historic Places was created the National Park Service’s history research programs had been centralized into the office of Robert M. Utley, NPS chief historian, in Washington, D.C.,[2] as part of an overall plan dubbed “MISSION 66.” On October 15, 1966 the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices.
