Capitol Historic Trust - Our Mission and History

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Our Mission
Letter from the President

Our Mission

Preservation of Historic Communities
The Capitol Historic Trust is dedicated to the preservation of our architectural heritage in the areas in and surrounding our nation's capital. We are a not-for-profit organization founded to encourage historic property owners to permanently protect their historic properties while enjoying a tax incentive. The Trust favors the voluntary preservation enabled by the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program enacted by Congess. The pragmatic approach of the Program allows preservation efforts to effectively coexist with the full social and economic use of historic properties.

Letter from the President

Mario Leonel, President

The mission of Capitol Historic Trust is the preservation of historic communities. We accomplish this mission primarily through the acceptance of donations from historic property owners of preservation conservation easements. By making such a donation, property owners voluntarily protect their property`s historic architecture in perpetuity.

Capitol Historic Trust is committed to monitor easements and review proposals for changes to the exterior of the property to ensure that the architectural integrity of the façade is maintained. We not only pledge our full commitment but are actively expressing our commitment by:

Conducting annual property reviews for all donated easements;

Building our monitoring database following tried and tested monitoring and enforcement practices; and

Creating a Stewardship Endowment that will always have sufficient funds to pay for the perpetual monitoring and enforcement of the easements currently held by the Trust.

Our easement deed allows for no changes to the protect exterior of the historic property without our specific approval. Our headquarters is located in Washington, DC, where we have experts to review photographs taken at the time of easement donation and during our annual property review. We also engage local architectural historians to assist in the change approval process.

We welcome all questions and inquiries about the Trust and its approach to the protection of historic properties. You may contact us by calling at our number below or sending us an email to info@capitoltrust.org. We consider our website to be an excellent source of information on the Trust and the easement program.

Your interest in the Trust and the historic preservation is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Mario Leonel
President
Capitol Historic Trust