Summary: America’s heritage is at risk. From the storied waterfronts of Brooklyn to the neon-clad mom-and-pop motels of Route 66, some of America’s irreplaceable landmarks are threatened, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named 11 sites to its 2007 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. “The sites on this year’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places embody the diversity and complexity of America’s story, and the variety of threats that endanger it,” said Richard Moe, Hon. AIA, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “The places on this year’s list span the continent and encompass the breadth of the American experience. Each one is enormously important to our understanding of who we are as a nation and a people.”

Sites on the 2007 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places are:

Brooklyn’s Industrial Waterfront
New York
Once a booming 19th-century industrial waterfront supported by generations of immigrants, Brooklyn’s heritage is at risk as historic dockyards and factories are being demolished by developers anxious to cash in on the area’s newly hip status. Brooklyn’s real estate market is booming. The City’s Department of Buildings issued 1,740 new building permits and 1,924 demolition permits in Brooklyn in 2005. And the city is rezoning to make way for residential development without adequately planning for the preservation of Brooklyn’s industrial heritage, according to the Trust.
Photo © Municipal Art Society of New York.

El Camino Real National Historic Trail
New Mexico
The earliest Euro-American trade route in the United States, the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, known for its austere physical beauty, rural solitude, and remote isolation, is threatened by a $225 million commercial Spaceport, a venture planned adjacent to one of the most pristine and sacred segments of the trail. The proposed Spaceport site is within a 90-mile stretch of waterless desert located 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces—the Jornada del Muerto—and immediately adjacent to El Camino Real. The near-pristine quality of the air, animal habitats, and the public’s ability to visit, experience, and enjoy the trail and its environs will be compromised.
Photo © Jean Fulton, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro Trail Association.

H.H. Richardson House
Brookline, Mass.
The last home and studio of famed 19th-century American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, creator of Boston’s much loved landmark Trinity Church, is vacant and vulnerable to demolition unless a preservation-minded buyer comes forth to rescue the legacy of the man who created the “Richardsonian Romanesque” style. The house on Cottage Street stands in the Green Hill National Historic District, near the home of Frederick Law Olmsted, the great landscape architect who was Richardson’s close friend and frequent collaborator. It could be sold as a tear-down.
Photo © Allan Galper.

Hialeah Park
Hialeah, Fla.
The 1925 racetrack known for its stunning Mediterranean architecture and pink flamingos, Hialeah Park—frequented by celebrities such as Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and Seabiscuit—is threatened with a planned 3,760-unit condo and apartment complex with nearly a million square feet of retail and 200,000 square feet of office space, which would destroy much of the storied park. The park, designated a sanctuary for the American flamingo by the Audubon Society, has a lake with several islands inhabited by large flocks of 200-300 pink flamingos, direct descendants of those originally brought from Cuba and South America. Pictured is the Flamingo Stakes in 2001, Hialeah Park Race Course.
Photo © Alex Fuentes/The Citizens of South Florida for the Preservation of the Hialeah Race Track.

Historic Places in Powerline Corridors
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware
Seven states—many of them in the Mid-Atlantic region—are waging battles to protect everything that’s irreplaceable about their communities as massive 150-foot-tall, 75-foot-wide power lines are planned. Proposed lines would cut through private land, publicly held open space, neighborhoods, historic sites, historic districts, and magnificent view-sheds. For example, the National Park Service has identified at least 55 National Parks and 14 heritage areas within the proposed Mid-Atlantic powerline corridor, which also encompasses African-American historic sites, numerous scenic rivers and byways, and the nation’s greatest concentration of Civil War battlefields. Unfortunately, the fast-track approval process for the corridor is likely to preclude meaningful federal protection for historic resources as mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act, the Trust says. Pictured is Southern Fauquier Power Line in Virginia.
Photo © Piedmont Environmental Council of Virginia.

Historic Structures
Mark Twain National Forest, Mo.
Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, the 1.5-million-acre Mark Twain National Forest is known for rocky bluffs, pastoral views, and historical sites that speak to the region’s rich heritage—from intact 19th-century frontier farmsteads to New Deal-era fire lookouts and ranger stations. Today, due to U.S. Forest Service budget limitations, many properties are vacant, unsecured, deteriorating, and threatened with demolition. According to the Trust, the Forest's Facilities Master Plan, developed in 2005 without public involvement or consultation with the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office, demonstrates a clear preference for new construction over retention of existing historic structures, contrary to several federal mandates. Pictured is Ava Ranger Station in Mark Twain National Forest, Ava, Mo.
Photo © Jennifer Sandy, National Trust for Historic Preservation Midwest Regional Office.

Historic Route 66 Motels
Illinois to California
Affectionately called “The Mother Road,” Route 66 is known for quirky roadside attractions and unique mom-and-pop motels, often clad in neon, that were constructed between the late 1920s and late 1950s. In recent years, Route 66 motels in hot real-estate markets have been torn down at record rates, while in cold real-estate markets, motels languish and are being reclaimed by the forces of nature. The final decommissioning of Route 66 in 1985 coincided with a renewed appreciation for this American icon and recognition that the remaining significant structures, features, and artifacts associated with the road should be preserved. Pictured is Boots Motel, Carthage, Mo.
Photo © Jim Ross.

Minidoka Internment National Monument
Jerome County, Idaho
From 1942 to 1945, thousands of Nikkei (Japanese-American citizens and immigrants of Japanese ancestry) were sent to south central Idaho to live in camps under armed guard at the Minidoka Relocation Center. More than two-thirds of internees at the 10 relocation centers were American citizens by birth. Those who came to the Minidoka Relocation Center, also known as the Hunt Camp, found a hastily constructed facility ill-suited for the extreme climate of south central Idaho. Today a national monument, the site, which once contained more than 600 buildings, offers scant visitor services or interpretive information and is routinely looted of artifacts. The monument also is threatened by insensitive local land-use planning, including the proposed siting of a massive animal feed operation just over a mile away.
Photo © National Trust for Historic Preservation Western Regional Office.

Philip Simmons Workshop and Home
Charleston, S.C.
Beloved master blacksmith Philip Simmons has spent the better part of 80 years adorning his hometown of Charleston with intricate ornamental ironwork—gates, fences, stair rails, and window grills—that help shape the city’s distinctive architectural character. But, with no plans to preserve his home and studio, the legacy of this 95-year-old artisan is in jeopardy. In the early 1930s, Simmons was one of 15 blacksmiths operating in the community, but now his forge is one of only two on the Charleston peninsula. Pictured is Simmons in his workshop.
Photo © The Philip Simmons Foundation, Charleston, S.C.

Pinon Canyon
Colorado
In southeastern Colorado, under uninterrupted blue skies, Pinon Canyon is an area of scenic buttes, river valleys, family ranches, and historic and archeological sites that span 11,500 years. The area is threatened by the U.S. Army’s plans to expand its maneuver training ground by as much as 408,000 acres, a move that could lead to forced condemnation of private lands and damage or destroy historic Santa Fe Trail monuments and ranches. Additionally, this rugged and scenic area contains historic and prehistoric archeological sites, most of which have remained almost completely undisturbed. Pictured is Rancher Steve Wooten on his ranch, Purgatoire Valley.
Photo © Jim Lindberg, National Trust for Historic Preservation Mountains Plains Office.

Stewart's Point Rancheria
Sonoma County, Calif.
The Kashia Pomo Native American tribe has inhabited this Northern California land for thousands of years. But because a federal program to protect tribal historic resources is seriously underfunded, the Kashia, like many tribes, is losing its sacred and historic sites to looters, vandals, and the elements. The Kashia’s Regalia House, where cultural items are stored for use in religious ceremonies, has been looted on several occasions. The house, which is in desperate need of repair, contains items that are important to Kashia religious ceremonies dating back centuries. Pictured is the current Kashia Roundhouse.
Photo © Bambi Kraus.