• Buildings: A building, such as a house, barn, church, hotel, or similar construction, is created principally to shelter any form of human activity. "Building" may also be used to refer to a historically and functionally related unit, such as a courthouse and jail or a house and barn.

• Sites: A site is the location of a significant event, a prehistoric or historic occupation or activity, or a building or structure. While the buildings and structures on a site may be standing, ruined, or simply non-existent at this time, the location itself possesses historic, cultural, or archeological value. A site might be a battlefield.

• Structures: Structures are those constructions intended for uses other than creating human shelter. A structure might be a chicken coop, a ship, or a bridge.

• Objects: An object is distinguished from buildings and structures; objects are primarily artistic in nature or relatively small in scale. They are simply constructed. Although the object may be, by nature or design, movable, an object is usually associated with a specific setting or environment. An object might be a fountain or a monument.

• Districts: A district is a collection of sites, buildings, structures, or objects. These resources are either historically connected or connected aesthetically by a plan or physical development.

Taken together, we refer to buildings, sites, structures, and objects as “resources.”

photograph by anthonyturducken via Flickr Evergreen Plantation, LA: Located on the west bank of the Mississippi, this 39-building plantation complex includes a grand "big house" with its various dependencies and a double row of 22 slave cabins (pictured above). All but eight of the structures are antebellum. Surrounded by cane fields, the restored Evergreen remains an amazing image of the South's plantation landscape. Included in the National Historic Landmark are the slave cabins as well as the “big house.”