Preserving our past for future generation is vitally important. Recognizing the impact of historic properties to a community is more important now than ever. Recently the Tennessee took action to help with restoration and preservation efforts.

In April 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly developed the Historic Development Grant Program (HDGP) and allocated $4.8 million to renovate and preserve the State’s historic buildings. The legislators recognized that historic buildings and their preservation expand the state’s economy, create new employment opportunities, revitalize and renew communities, create an environment for investment, and promote tourism and rural economic development. 

Eligible Properties:

• Certified historic structures that are:
  • listed individually in the National Register of Historic Places or are part of a National Register of Historic Places historic district and certified by the secretary of the United States Department of the Interior as being of historic significance to the district (Additional information on the National Register can be obtained from the Tennessee Historical Commission); and
  • are in a tier three (3) or four (4) county as determined by TNECD; federally qualified opportunity zone (see the TNECD Opportunity Zones directory for a map of opportunity zones in Tennessee); state and nationally accredited Tennessee Main Street community or Tennessee Downtown community (Information can be found here); or Certified Local Governments (Information can be found here) approved by the National Parks Service in counties with a population of no more than 200,000 persons. 
• The applicant must be the person or entity who holds legal fee or leasehold title to a certified historic structure or an identifiable portion of the certified historic structure.