The Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, is included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's new list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. (Lolly Rash/Mississippi Heritage Trust)
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation names these sites as the most
endangered cultural treasures in our country
BY
ELISSAVETA M. BRANDON
Acivil
rights landmark in Mississippi, a Native American site in California and a
public housing complex in Texas may have little in common at first glance, but
a recent list brings them all together in the name of preservation.
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation has unveiled this year's list of
America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The nominations bring a sliver of
hope to a diverse set of buildings, landscapes and historic neighborhoods,
which would be destroyed or face irreparable damage without immediate advocacy.
In
the 33-year history of this list, over 300 places have been declared under
imminent threat, and 95 percent of them have been saved. "One of our
priorities in all of our work at the National Trust is to utilize historic
places of all kinds to tell the full history of our country," says
Katherine Malone-France, the Trust’s chief preservation officer. "Because
a truer national narrative is a firmer foundation for our shared values and
identity."
To
build the list, the Trust combs through hundreds of applications, looking for
sites that are threatened but have strong local support fighting for their
survival. "We're looking for sites that have a solution or vision for
their future that allows them to be preserved, but also carries their legacies
forward," says Malone-France. "The purpose of the list is to elevate
these places, then also to elevate ways in which people can take action—signing
a petition, contacting a particular entity, learning more about the place
through different digital resources."
For
many of these sites, a lack of funding has been the biggest obstacle. "But
preservation is also about standing up for a place and then sharing why that
place is important and being joined by someone else, and someone else,” says
the chief preservation officer, “until there’s an army of people." By
building this list, the goal of the National Trust for Historic Preservation is
to build up these armies and preserve the nation’s architectural and cultural
heritage before many of these sites reach the point of no return.
Alazan-Apache
Courts, San Antonio, Texas
 |
| Alazan-Apache Courts (Sarah Zenaida Gould/Museo del Westside) |
Steeped
in rich history, the Alazan-Apache Courts, or Los Courts, is the oldest and
largest public housing complex in San Antonio. Opened in 1940 as
segregation-era housing for Mexican Americans, the three-building complex is
located in West Side, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
Today,
Los Courts houses 1,700 low-income families, yet the San Antonio Housing
Authority has targeted the site for demolition, paving the way for mixed-income
housing. "It's a particularly important time for the Alazan-Apachi Courts because
we are, as a country, challenged by needing to provide affordable
housing," says Malone-France. "It's a choice between demolition and
rehabilitation, and we would like to see these buildings rehabilitated so they
continue to be in service."
Malone-France
cites Austin's Santa Rita Courts as an example. The 1937-era public housing
development, which played a symbolic role in the desegregation of public
housing in Austin, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2006. Along with Austin’s Rosewood Courts, Santa Rita was the first African
American housing project in the U.S. A successful example of publicly funded
preservation, Santa Rita Courts was redeveloped by the local public housing
authority and currently provides 97 units of rental housing for low-income
families.
In
the same vein, Alazan-Apache is a crucial part of Mexican American history in a
city that cultural geographer Daniel Arreola calls the Mexican American culturecapital. "A combination of historic tax credits and rehabilitation
assistance programs can be combined to make [Alazan-Apache Courts]
environmentally sustainable," says Malone-France.
Hall
of Waters, Excelsior Springs, Missouri
 |
Hall of Waters (Kevin Morgan)
|
When
the mineral waters of the Siloam Spring were discovered in 1880, they provided
the only natural supply of iron manganese mineral water in the United States,
and one of only five known worldwide. As it turns out, the city of Excelsior
Springs, northeast of Kansas City, was built on about 40 different wells and
springs of water.
Constructed
in the 1930s and funded by the Works Progress Administration, the Hall of
Waters became the city's first mineral water health resort. For decades, the
facility bottled and sold four distinct types of mineral waters ranging from
calcium and saline to iron manganese water. Designed by the architectural firm
Keene & Simpson, the art deco building featured the world's longest water
bar, a polio pool and a two-story solarium.
The
popularity of health spas and hot springs took a nosedive in the 1960s as more
modern medical treatments took over. The Hall of Waters was eventually
shuttered, though it did make it on the National Register of Historic Places
list in 1983.
Today,
the art deco masterpiece operates as city offices and a tourism welcome center.
With over $16 million in rehabilitation needs, most crucially for a new HVAC
system and flood damage repairs, the Hall of Waters provides a unique
opportunity to learn about the history of Excelsior Springs.
Harada
House, Riverside, California
 |
| Harada House (Courtesy of Museum of Riverside staff) |
Known
as “The House on Lemon Street," the Harada House in Riverside, California,
is a symbol of the struggle of one immigrant family for American freedom and
citizenship. Around 1900, Jukichi Harada emigrated from Japan to the U.S.
Fifteen years later, knowing that Japanese nationals were barred from owning
property, he bought the house under the names of his three American-born children.
Challenged in court, the Haradas were accused of violating an act aimed at
restricting land ownership by Japanese immigrants. After a two-year trial, the
Harada family was granted the right to retain the house, making the Harada
House a powerful civil rights landmark.
The
Harada family continued to live in Riverside until they were forced to leave
when the U.S. government ordered the internment of all people of Japanese
descent in 1942. They returned after the war, but after the last member of the
Harada family died in 2000, the house has fallen into such disrepair it is now
at risk of collapse.
"Lack
of active use is a tremendous threat to any historic place,” says
Malone-France. "It only compounds any other deterioration." Last
month, the Harada House received a $500,000 grant from the Save America’s
Treasures grant program. Now, the National Trust's designation will help local
advocates who want to turn it into a museum raise the remaining $6.5 million
needed to preserve the house. "Places are incredibly important in telling
the history of struggle for civil rights. They are primary sources that tell us
the truth about ourselves." says Malone-France. "You can read history
in a book, or watch a film about it, but to be in the place has an incredible power."
National
Negro Opera Company House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 |
| National
Negro Opera Company House (Young Preservationalists Association) |
The
National Negro Opera Company was the first African American opera company in
the United States. Sitting on top of a hill in Homewood West, a predominantly
black neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the Victorian-style manor, with its steeple
and wraparound porch, served as the Opera's headquarters until 1962. It has
lain vacant ever since.
The
NNOC was established by Mary Cardwell Dawson in 1941. Facing discrimination in
her aspiration for a career as an opera singer, Dawson turned to activism,
standing up against racial barriers of the period by becoming an advocate for
black musicians. Soon enough, the NNOC became a training ground for rising
black talent. The home also provided temporary rooming quarters for singer Lena
Horne and professional athletes, such as Steelers players Roy Jefferson, John
Nesby and Marvin Woodson and Pittsburgh Pirates legend Roberto Clemente.
Today,
the National Negro Opera Company House is severely deteriorated, its windows
boarded up and its roof falling in. Local advocates are working with community
partners to create a plan for stabilization and identify potential new uses
that honor the building’s legacy.
Ponce
Historic Zone, Ponce, Puerto Rico
 |
Ponce
Historic Zone (IPRC) |
Located
in southern Puerto Rico, Ponce, or "Pearl of the South," is the
island’s second largest city and a major contributor to its political, economic
and cultural development. Founded in 1692, the city was Spain's capital of the
southern region until it fell to the U.S. in 1898. Ranging from Spanish
Colonial and art nouveau to art deco and neoclassical, the city's architecture
reflects this rich history. With its Moorish-meets-Gothic Victorian style, the
red-and-black 1882 fire station known as Parque de Bombas is an instantly
recognizable icon of the city.
Ponce's
downtown is one of the island's first and largest Designated Historic Zones.
Over the past three years, two generation-defining natural disasters have
caused extensive structural damage to Ponce's historic architecture—Hurricane
Maria in 2017, and ongoing earthquakes this year. Local and government
organizations are working on a Recovery Plan for the Ponce Historic Zone but
they will need significant funding and support.
"This
is the third year in a row that we have listed cultural sites in Puerto
Rico," says Malone-Frances. "When we talk about telling the full
history, we mean telling the full history."
Rassawek,
Columbia, Virginia
 |
| Ponce Historic Zone (IPRC) |
In
1607, Captain John Smith set out to explore the Chesapeake Bay and its
tributaries. On the map he created, published in 1612, Smith recorded five
towns of the Monacan Indian Nation, including its historic capital Rassawek.
Located at the confluence of the Rivanna and James rivers, now known as Point
of Fork, Rassawek is the final resting place of Monacan ancestors—and a
potential site for the construction of a water pump station.
Despite
concerns that it could damage archaeological evidence of the historic Monacan
Indian settlement of Rassewek, the James River Water Authority claims that the
currently proposed location is logistically, and economically, the best option.
At
a meeting in February this year, multiple alternative locations ranging from
Bremo Bluff to Goochland County were put forward, but project consultants
agreed that Point of Fork remained ideal. "There's always time to consider
alternatives," says Malone-France. "These places that are deeply
sacred to Native Americans, they are a part of our shared narrative, and they
deserve protection and preservation."
Roberts
Temple Church of God in Christ, Chicago, Illinois
 |
| Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ (Sharon Robert Hayes) |
In
August 1955, Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was brutally murdered
while visiting relatives in Mississippi, after being accused of whistling at a
white woman. At the insistence of Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley, his body was
shipped back to Chicago for an open casket funeral. “Let the people see what
I’ve seen,” she told the funeral director.
The
open casket funeral drew as many as 100,000 mourners who gathered outside the
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, a sand-colored brick building in the
Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, to pay their respects.
Photographs
of the funeral, including one of Till's disfigured body by photographer David
Jackson, were published in Jet magazine and national and international media.
These images forced an otherwise disengaged public to reckon with the brutality
of racial segregation and helped catalyze the civil rights movement.
The
church suffers from severe structural damage and has not hosted a full Sunday
service in over a year. To ensure long-term viability, and the continuation of
Till's story, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ needs rehabilitation.
Sun-n-Sand
Motor Hotel, Jackson, Mississippi
 |
Sun-n-Sand
Motor Hotel (Lolly Rash/Mississippi Heritage Trust) |
Sun-n-Sand
Motor Hotel (Lolly Rash/Mississippi Heritage Trust)
In
the summer of 1964, at the peak of the civil rights movement, an interracial,
interfaith group of women came together to bridge the widening racial divide in
Jackson, Mississippi. Conceived by Dorothy Height and Polly Cowan, and
sponsored by the National Council of Negro Women, the group, which came to be
known as Wednesdays in Mississippi (WIMS), brought black and white women from
Northern cities to Mississippi, and worked woman to woman, opening lines of
communication between black and white Mississippi women.
Many
of the group's members stayed at the Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel, where WIMS
regularly hosted integrated lunches. A vibrant part of Jackson's downtown for
40 years, the hotel closed its doors in 2002. The midcentury modern building,
with its metal screens, large expanses of glass and Googie-style sign, has now
sat vacant and deteriorating for nearly two decades. And while the Mississippi
Heritage Trust has been advocating for the building's preservation for more
than 15 years, in 2019, the State of Mississippi purchased the Sun-n-Sand with
plans to raze it, and, as Joni Mitchell once sung, put up a parking lot.
Preservationists are advocating for reuse, emphasizing not only the economic
benefits of its rehabilitation, but also its cultural significance as a civil
rights icon.
Terrace
Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio
 |
| Terrace Plaza Hotel (Ezra Stoller) |
Completed
in 1948, the Terrace Plaza Hotel was one of the first post-war hotels in
America. The 21-story, red brick hotel tower was designed by Natalie de Blois,
a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of architecture. A partner at
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill—one of the most influential architecture firms
today, then just over 10 years old—de Blois went on to design several
landmarks, most notably the Lever House in Manhattan and the Equitable Buildingin Chicago.
The
Terrace Plaza Hotel is a testament to de Blois's trailblazing accomplishments,
yet it has sat in a state of abandonment since 2008. Local advocates believe
that rehabilitating the Terrace Plaza will not only preserve a key early modern
landmark but also provide economic benefits for downtown Cincinnati. At a
hearing earlier this year, the Cincinnati Historic Conservation Board voted 5-1
to recommend Terrace Plaza for landmarking—a crucial first step towards the
preservation of a modernist landmark that has been mired in lawsuits over its
crumbling facade.
"[The
Terrace Plaza Hotel] tells important stories about the role of women in
architecture, particularly post-war architecture," says Malone-France.
"It's an innovative building. How can its new uses continue that legacy of
innovation and great design?"
West
Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site, Berkeley, California
 |
| West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site (Brooke Anderson) |
The
West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site was the first Ohlone village on the
shores of San Francisco Bay. Founded 5,700 years ago, the Ohlone settlement
served as a burial and ceremonial ground, as well as a repository of shells,
ritual objects and artifacts forming a massive mound.
After
Spanish missions forced villagers to flee, and Gold Rush settlers later removed
shell material to fertilize farms and line streets, the shellmound was leveled
in the 1950s. The last remaining portion of the village, at 1900 Fourth Street,
was landmarked by the City of Berkeley 20 years ago, but it is now threatened
by the prospective construction of a five-story retail and apartment complex
that would excavate 10-feet into the earth. Currently a paved parking lot, the
site remains an active place of Ohlone prayer and ceremony, with burials likely
remaining under the surface.
Advocates
like the Coalition to Save the West Berkeley Shellmound would like the site to
return to a more natural state, with native flora. Local Lisjan Ohlone leader,
Corrina Gould, has even led a four-year effort to create a park by daylighting
Strawberry Creek, which was historically used for bathing, and as a food and
water source. Obstructions covering parts of Strawberry Creek, particularly
around the UC Berkeley campus, have already been removed. The Trust's decision
to include the West Berkeley Shellmound and Village Site is set to bring
national recognition to the Coalition's cause.
Yates
Memorial Hospital, Ketchikan, Alaska
 |
| Yates Memorial Hospital (Yates Memorial Hospital/Historic Ketchikan) |
Ketchikan
is known as Alaska's "first city" for its location at the southern
tip of the Inside Passage—a wildlife-filled water route between the Gulf of
Alaska and Puget Sound. The Yates Memorial Hospital, built in 1905, is one of
the oldest buildings in downtown Ketchikan's historic district.
Originally
a clergy house for the Episcopal Mission, the two-story, Colonial Revival-style
manor was repurposed in 1909, to serve as a 12-bed hospital during Ketchikan's
growth. Nurses worked under very difficult conditions to care for the sick and
injured, overcoming challenges in obtaining supplies and securing funds.
Despite
local support to raise funds and restore the building to include a museum
featuring the nurses' stories, the building has been vacant for 15 years and is
now suffering from a failing roof, interior deterioration and crumbling
foundations, which were built in tidewater. But with many of its original
features, like operating rooms, a fireplace and the stairway, still intact, the
Yates Memorial Hospital has many stories left to tell.
"I
think the list is a vivid reminder and a vivid demonstration that great
preservation work is going on all across this country," says
Malone-France.
This
article was originally published by shared Read the original article here.
