With its wide range of cultures, histories, and geographies, the 2022 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places illustrates the expansiveness of the country’s history and helps tell the full American story.
… reflect communities that have been historically underrepresented…
The National Trust for Historic Preservation writes:
….many of the sites on this year’s list also reflect communities that have been historically underrepresented in what we collectively preserve and interpret, which means society has often devalued or deemphasized the places connected to those stories. And without sustained recognition, preservation, interpretation, and funding, places like these are often at greater risk of loss and erasure—losses that would diminish us all.
This year’s 11 sites include community anchors and sacred ground, sites of injustice and activism, and places of creative expression, with threats as varied as their types: neglect, inappropriate development, and climate change, just to name a few. As you read more about the places below, you’ll see we have chosen to connect each one to a particular theme, with the understanding that each place contains multitudes, demonstrating history’s interwoven layers as well as the present’s interconnected threats.
What unites these places, however, is this: All of them are at a turning point, a critical moment when we as a nation either recognize their significance and fight to protect them, tell their full stories, and harness their ongoing relevance, or watch them disappear from our cultural landscape and fade into memory. Read more to learn about these irreplaceable sites.
