11 Endangered Destinations
Last week, we reported on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Great American Main Street Awards–five winning neighborhoods that are promoting local economic and cultural sustainability by reviving historic architecture, reopening storefronts, and integrating unique streetscape plans.
Still, as the five Main Street honorees demonstrate that the preservationist movement is alive and well, several historic treasures stand at the threshold of demolition. Today, the NTHP unveiled its 23rd annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, which highlights sites of historic, cultural, and natural significance which are at high risk of being lost to damage or destruction.
Included on this year’s list is Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, one of the last standing ballparks from baseball’s Negro League, where famed player Larry Doby once roamed the field.
It currently stands vacant and dilapidated.
Also at stake is the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia, where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first faced each other in the battle during the Civil War. Here, a commercial developer is closing in on the real estate. The complete list is below:
- America’s State Parks & State-Owned Historic Sites
- Black Mountain
- Hinchliffe Stadium
- Industrial Arts Building
- Juana Briones House
- Merritt Parkway
- Metropolitan AME Church
- Pågat
- Saugatuck Dunes
- Threefoot Building
- Wilderness Battlefield
“These endangered places– from a Civil War battlefield to the farthest U.S. territory in the Pacific–are enormously important to our understanding of who we are as a nation and a people,” said Richard Moe, president of the NTHP. In this spirit, the America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list strives to raise awareness and support to save these landmarks. Since its debut in 1988, nearly 200 threatened, historic treasures have been spotlighted, and in just two decades, only seven sites have been lost.
Visit www.PreservationNation.org/11Most to learn more about the endangered sites and find out what you can do to help.
Photos: Hinchliffe Stadium in its heyday (above) and current state of disrepair (below); photos courtesy of NTHP
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