State Historic Preservation Office

The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a U.S. state or territorial governmental function described by the United States federal government in 1966 under Section 101 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).^[1] As described in that law, the purposes of a SHPO include surveying and recognizing historic properties, reviewing nominations for properties to be included in the National Register of Historic Places, reviewing undertakings for the impact on the properties as well as supporting federal organizations, state and local governments, and private sector.^[2][3] The Federal law cannot force a state to create a SHPO, but to obtain several benefits under the law, a state needs to do so (or designate one of its existing agencies for these tasks). As each state is responsible for setting up their own SHPO, each SHPO may vary in rules and regulations. To link these differences with the SHPOs, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO)^[4] was created as a "point of contact" according to the National Historic Preservation Act.^[5]