SPHINX Access Introduction

The New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a bureau of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The SHPO houses and maintains a broad range of information relating to historic properties in New York State including historic buildings, structures, sites, districts, and objects. The SHPO includes in its mission a responsibility to provide this information to municipalities, state and federal agencies, and the general public for the purposes of planning and research.

The SPHINX program provides the user with access to a variety of data linked to more than 250,000 individual properties presently tracked in the system. Information concerning eligibility and listing status for the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places, involvement in federal and/or state project reviews, Investment Tax credit activity, and historic resources survey data can be found in this program. The data captured in SPHINX is based on the most current information retained at the New York State Historic Preservation Office.

The Appropriate Use of SHPO SPHINX Database in Environmental Review

The information contained in the SPHINX web pages can be useful to state and federal agencies, municipalities, planning and engineering firms in the early planning stages of a project. The Project Review section of SPHINX can provide interested parties with a tool to see if a project has been submitted to the SHPO for review. The USN (Unique Site Number) Report provides an address-based query for any municipality identifying properties that have been evaluated by the SHPO and assigned a State and National Register of Historic Places eligibility status. This report can also provide information on locally designated historic districts. The National Register section of the system provides detailed information on the state's more than 4400 State and National Register listed properties and historic districts. The Survey section of the system captures data generated by the state's on going cultural resource survey program. This system also tracks locally designated and federally certified local historic districts. The general information contained in the SPHINX web page can provide an early indication of the presence or absence of eligible and/or Listed historic properties in or near a project area.

Accessing SPHINX cannot serve as a substitute for consultation with the SHPO for projects reviewed under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 or Section 14.09 of the State Historic Preservation Act of 1980. For more detailed information on these programs please go to our Project Review section.