The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 empowered the National Park Service to create the National Register of Historic Places, a listing of landmarks and historic districts considered to be of significance beyond merely local or regional levels.
Regulations serve to protect the buildings' original appearance and the district's historic culture.
Historic District statutes vary in the stringency of their provisions from district to district. Design Overlay Districts are intended to protect and enhance the design character of a designated area by regulating development, including new construction, additions and demolition. Design Overlay Districts are adopted as a new zoning overlay category within a zoning ordinance. The Town of Blacksburg has two National Register Historic Districts which were registered in 1990. After a reconnaissance level survey of Montgomery County's architecturally significant buildings in October 1986 produced 625 sites in the Town of Blacksburg alone, several formal nominations were made to the National Register of Historic Properties resulting in two historic districts and ten individually-listed properties.