Preservationist Group Pinpoints 11 Endangered Sites


July 29, 2011
Preservationist Group Pinpoints 11 Endangered Sites
Photo: Steve Banister, Taoist Temple Preservation Society
Most of the buildings in China Alley, a sort of rural Chinatown in California, are decaying and unprotected by any area preservation organization or regulations.

We hear a lot about endangered species. But each year for 24 years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been spotlighting 11 endangered places in the United States - from battlefields to state and national parks to the deteriorating homes of legendary Americans. Even eccentric old motels and gas stations have made the list.

The nonprofit trust was chartered by Congress in 1949. Ever since, it and some of its almost 400,000 members have been campaigning to spare architectural treasures from the wrecker's ball and natural sites from destruction.

Jonathan Poston for the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Hundreds of American Indian archaeological and cultural sites in New Mexico are threatened by increased oil and gas exploration and extraction.

The trust also bought 29 historic properties itself, including an entire Indian pueblo in New Mexico and President Abraham Lincoln's one-time summer cottage in Washington, D.C.

Each year, it focuses special attention on 11 "Endangered Places." Eleven rather than 10 because, several years ago, a trust president could not decide between two of the final candidates.

This year's finalists include the now-vacant and severely damaged Long Island, New York, home of jazz legend John Coltrane; Fort Gaines, a Civil War fortress on Alabama's Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay and China Alley, a dilapidated former immigrant neighborhood in California's San Joaquin Valley.

Dauphin Island Park & Beach Board
Fort Gaines, whose batteries unsuccessfully attempted to defeat Union Admiral David Farragut's forces in Mobile Bay during the US Civil War, is severely endangered by erosion of the Dauphin Island shoreline.

Sometimes the threat to such places is direct and acute, as in the Coltrane home situation. Other times, the site may be stable but threatened by encroaching development.

For instance, a few years ago, the National Trust helped blunt the giant Walt Disney entertainment corporation's plan to create a theme park near Virginia's Civil War battlefields.

The trust says wind-farm and oil exploration threatens Bear Butte, one of this year's sites. The low mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota is a place of prayer and meditation for as many as 17 American Indian tribes.

City of Minneapolis
Once the world's largest and most advanced milling facility, the Pillsbury 'A' Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota, stands vacant and in need of rehabilitation.

The proposed development, in the trust's words, "will negatively impact the sacred site and further degrade the cultural landscape."

According to the trust's calculations, financial contributions from its members and others have helped save just over half of the threatened sites from destruction since the endangered list started in 1988.