How To Get Cemetery On National Register Of Historic Places

Historic Cemetery Preservation

View of a historic cemetery on Hooper'due south Isle, Dorchester County

Cemeteries and burying grounds are complex cultural landscapes. They hold information about our social, cultural, artistic and architectural heritage. They often are hidden away and undiscovered in woodlands or farm fields. Some graves may never have been marked, or may accept lost their markers, or may be marked with field stones; while more difficult to recognize, they are as worthy of protection. Native American prehistoric burial sites are commonly unmarked, and may include the remains of from 1 to hundreds of individuals. When burying grounds are located and recorded with canton governments, they tin exist protected and taken into consideration during planning activities.

Legal Protection for Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

Basis Disturbance, Disinterment, and Adventitious Discovery

Maryland police provides protection confronting disturbance of burial sites and human being remains and provides a basis for access. Should homo remains exist discovered accidentally, the constabulary requires notification of your county States Attorney.

Prehistoric, slave and other burials may be unmarked, including graves that may lie exterior the boundaries of known cemeteries; modern boundaries often fail to enclose an entire historic cemetery. Markers also may have fallen and become cached below form. Probing to identify unmarked graves may result in damage, and is discouraged unless conducted with the landowner'due south permission by an archaeologist trained in techniques for locating graves. Some cultural resources consultants offer the service of delineating graveyards.

No ground disturbing activities may exist conducted on country-owned or state-controlled belongings without obtaining a let from MHT.

» Maryland Burial Law

» Archaeology Permits

For information on starting a new cemetery or regulating an existing cemetery, please contact the State of Maryland Function of Cemetery Oversight, in the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR).

View of the Hopkins Cemetery – Anne Arundel County

Inventories

Efforts to inventory and provide for protection of cemeteries through local ordinances vary widely by jurisdiction. If y'all are concerned about a cemetery or burial site, MHT suggests y'all provide your local planning and zoning function with the resources'due south location to ensure it is recorded for planning and permitting purposes. A listing of local planning and zoning offices can be found on the Maryland Department of Planning web site. Some jurisdictions take adopted local celebrated area zoning ordinances, which in some cases may be used to provide sure protection for cemeteries.

Design Guidelines and Alterations

In those jurisdictions where a historic cemetery is designated under a local historic preservation ordinance, it may be useful to have in identify guidelines specific to cemeteries that would assistance direct local review of proposed alterations to designated historic cemeteries. Design guidelines outline the types of undertakings that may be appropriate, and those that may exist inappropriate, for historic resources, and in the case of cemeteries, they might establish certain types of activities, such as active burials and new marker placement, that practice non crave review.

Protection and Designation

Normally cemeteries are not considered eligible for list in the National Register of Historic Places, the nation's listing of cultural resource identified as worthy of preservation. The National Park Service (NPS) maintains the National Register. For information almost the National Register, run into our National Annals page or the National Park Service National Register page. Notation that some cemeteries are are found on the grounds of churches and other historic buildings, or are part of larger historic districts.

View of Annapolis National Cemetery

Cemeteries may qualify for National Register designation if they are integral parts of districts that meet the criteria for list. Every bit some cemeteries may embody values beyond the personal, family-specific, or religious, the National Register criteria allow for the listing of individual cemeteries and burial grounds under certain limited weather condition. A cemetery may be eligible if it derives its primary significance from:

graves of persons of transcendent importance,
the age of the burials,
distinctive design features,
association with celebrated events, or
if the resource has the potential to yield important information.

Regardless of whether a cemetery is listed in the National Register, the documentation of celebrated cemeteries and burial sites is a crucial stride in their protection and direction. MHT does not have a defended cemetery inventory. Notwithstanding, cemeteries and burial sites may be included in the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties (MIHP). Many cemeteries and burial sites are included equally resources within the boundaries of other historic properties, such equally churches, farms and historic districts. Some cemeteries are recorded in the MHT archaeology site files, although these are files not available to the public in order to protect often sensitive archaeological resources from disturbance. The MIHP is a research and documentation instrument. Listing of a cemetery in the MIHP has no regulatory bear on on that resource and does not convey a historic designation.

Funding and Technical Assistance

MHT tin can provide technical assistance on cemetery matters. However, MHT does not have dedicated funding for cemetery preservation projects. Uppercase grants are bachelor to eligible applicants (ordinarily not-profit organizations and local jurisdictions) for projects including acquisition, rehabilitation and restoration of historic holding included in or eligible for the National Register. Cemeteries eligible for list in the National Annals may be eligible for Capital Grants. Note, the grantee must donate a preservation easement on the property to MHT in order to receive a Capital Grant. Considering cemeteries frequently have multiple lot owners, the conveyance of an easement on cemeteries is often complicated.

Training Opportunities

The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training offers workshops and courses; the website also has grooming videos

The Association for Gravestone Studies offers conservation workshops at their annual conferences

The National Preservation Institute offers cemetery and cemetery landscape preservation seminars

The Association for Preservation Technology International (APT) offers cemetery preservation sessions at annual conferences

For Farther Help

For questions related to cemetery technical assistance, maintenance, and conservation consultation, or questions related to cemetery delineation through remote sensing or archæology, please contact the Office of Research, Survey, and Registration at 410-697-9550 and describe your project and so that we may direct y'all to the advisable staff member.