Valley Approved For National Register

The National Park Service has approved effective immediately the “Water Valley Main Street Historic District” as an official district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That word was received by the Water Valley Main Street Association Wednesday.

The purposed district was approved in January by the Mississippi Historic Preservation Professional Review Board.

The district was one of seven items up for approval during the meeting at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson. The nomination went to Washington, D.C. to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, who had 45 days to act.

In November of last year, Michelle Jones, Northern Director for the MDAH, was in town to promote a better understanding of the National Register and to debunk some myths about the program. For one thing, being listed to the National Register does not diminish a property owners rights, she said.

Jones said that there are usually a small number of objections from those who don’t want the federal government to have any say over their property or they believe their property rights are going to be infringed upon.

“They can tear it down, it can burn. It doesn’t change what the individual owner’s rights are to that property,” she emphasized.

Among the benefits is that property owners who are doing substantial renovations could get tax credits of up to 45 percent by being listed on the National Register.

“There are no cons with the NR program,” Jones said.