Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philosophical concept that became popular in the twentieth century, which maintains that cities as products of centuries' development should be obligated to protect their patrimonial legacy. The term refers specifically to the preservation of the built environment, and not to preservation of, for example, primeval forests or wilderness.
Today, historic preservation often concerns itself with everyday, vernacular landscapes associated with marginalized communities, such as Barry Farm in Washington, DC (pictured here), as much as it does monumental properties.
The Basilica of Saint-Denis, which was among the first buildings to be registered by the conseil des bâtiments civils and subsequently among the first to be registered as a monument historique.
John Lubbock, MP was a moving force behind the implementation of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882.
Tattershall Castle, preserved at personal expense by Lord Curzon and a catalyst for broader heritage protection laws
The National Trust is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is the separate and independent National Trust for Scotland.
Octavia Hill by John Singer Sargent, 1898
The first building the Trust acquired was Alfriston Clergy House in 1896.
Bodiam Castle was acquired by the Trust in 1926.
Stourhead
