Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 44 - Historical societies and historical preservation.
44.36 - State register of historic places.

44.36 State register of historic places.
(1) State register. The state historical society shall maintain, publish and disseminate the state register of historic places.
(2) Criteria of significance.
(a) The state register of historic places shall include districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects which are significant in national, state or local history, architecture, archaeology, engineering and culture. The quality of significance is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association and that satisfy any of the following conditions:
1. Association with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of history.
2. Association with the lives of persons significant in the past.
3. Embodiment of the distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction or that represent the work of a master or that possess high artistic values.
4. Representation of a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.
5. Yielding, or likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history.
(b) No cemetery, birthplace or grave of a historical figure, property owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes, reconstructed historic building, property primarily commemorative in nature or property that has achieved significance within the past 50 years may be considered eligible for the state register of historic places unless it is an integral part of a district that meets the criteria of significance under par. (a) or unless it falls within at least one of the following categories:
1. A religious property deriving primary significance from architectural or artistic distinction or historical importance.
2. A birthplace or grave of a historical figure of outstanding importance if there is no appropriate site or building directly associated with his or her productive life in the vicinity of that birthplace or grave.
3. A cemetery which derives its primary significance from the grave of a person of transcendent importance, age, distinctive design features or association with historic events.
4. A reconstructed building when accurately executed in a suitable environment and presented in a dignified manner as part of a restoration master plan and when no other building or structure with the same association has survived.
5. A property primarily commemorative in intent if design, age, tradition or symbolic value has invested it with its own exceptional significance.
6. A property achieving significance within the past 50 years if it is of exceptional importance.
(3) Procedures. The state historical society shall promulgate by rule procedures for nominations to and removals from the state register of historic places. The procedures shall be consistent with and, to the extent possible, shall be coordinated with the procedures for nominations to and removals from the national register of historic places maintained by the U.S. department of the interior. The rules shall include standards for documenting nominations to the state register.
(4) Nominations.
(a) Any person may nominate a district, site, building, structure or object to the state register of historic places.
(b) The state historical society may reject any nomination which is not adequately documented.
(c) A nomination to the state register of historic places does not constitute a nomination to the national register of historic places.
(5) State register of historic places.
(a) The state historical society shall include in the state register of historic places:
1. Any property listed in the national register of historic places in Wisconsin on January 1, 1989.
2. Any property nominated and approved under this section.
3. Any property nominated under this section if the nomination is accompanied by a request for interim listing and the officer determines, based on evidence submitted with the nomination, that the state review board is reasonably likely to approve the nomination under s. 44.33 (1). An interim listing under this subdivision expires on the first day of the 12th month after it is first included in the state register of historic places and is not renewable.
(b) The list of properties in the state register of historic places is not a rule under s. 227.01 (13). The state historical society shall publish the list of properties on the state register of historic places in the Wisconsin administrative code as an appendix to the rules promulgated under this section.
History: 1987 a. 395.