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Wheeling's Downtown Historic District is now bigger and includes even more structures, Wheeling Heritage announced this week.
The district's original boundaries, added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 1979, are bound by 10th Street to the north; Eoff Street to the east; 17th Street to the south; and Water Street to the west. The period of significance for this historic district has been expanded to include buildings that are 50 years or older.
This means that buildings in downtown Wheeling built as recently as the 1970s will now be listed as contributing to the historic district.
Before this time period expansion, the cutoff date for buildings in the downtown district was the mid-1930s.
"This is particularly significant for our mid-century buildings looking to undertake historic rehabilitation and need to access historic tax credits to finance their projects," said Betsy Sweeny, Director of Heritage Programming. "Helping Heroes and the Kaufman's building are two examples of architecturally significant buildings that were not included in the previous period of significance, and thereby ineligible for tax credits. Now that is no longer the case."
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of buildings, structures, objects, and sites recognized by the National Park Service on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior for their importance to local, state, or national history. Properties must retain their historic integrity and may be recognized for their connections to American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture.
Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archaeological resources. In each state, the program is administered through the State Historic Preservation Office.