Step 1: How to make an application to the National Register of Historic Places

We have chosen the Post Office in Coldwater, Ohio as the place we would like to register, now we can begin to fill out the preliminary questionnaire from the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.  The Post Office is only one building, so we need to select the individual property and not a district submission.
The National Register has a glossary of terms.  It defines the word district this way:  District—a significant concentration, linkage, or continuity of sites, buildings, structures, or objects united historically or aesthetically by plan or physical development.
Step 1 involves answering some basic questions to check if the building qualifies on a basic level.

• Yes the Post Office is at least 50 years old – Sanborn maps confirm this (see map below)
• Yes it still has historical integrity – we can check this from photographs found online
  [Integrity – authenticity of a property’s historic identity, evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the property’s historic period. ]
• Yes, we believe that it has local, state and national history because of it’s connection with the African American architects, Samuel Plato and William Wilson Cooke

Expert tip – When researching Historic Places, Sanborn Fire Insurance maps can be a source of lots of useful information.

https://www.heritageohio.org/blog/2014/06/11/geek/

 

click on the thumbnail above to see the full size map of Coldwater, including the Post Office, from 1943