National Historic Landmarks Program

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National Historic Landmarks Program

This account is archived for the National Historic Landmarks Program For future updates, follow . You can also visit nps.gov.

The National Historic Landmark (NHL) Program represents 2,500 landmarks designated by the Secretary of the Interior that exhibit exceptional significance in interpreting and illustrating our past and our nation's history and fall primarily outside the National Park System. An NHL may be a historic building, site, structure, object or district. Working with citizens throughout the nation, the Natio

nal Historic Landmarks Program draws upon the expertise of National Park Service staff to identify and nominate new landmarks and to provide technical assistance to existing landmarks.

02/24/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg, VA, is significant as the location of a seminal 1933-34 court case, Commonwealth of Virginia v. Crawford, that marked a turning point for both African American lawyers and for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) civil rights legal strategy.

George Crawford, a Black man accused of murder, was represented by an all-Black legal defense team, who received their education at Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Led by the now celebrated Civil rights attorney, Charles Hamilton Houston, their defense of Crawford centered on the unconstitutional exclusion of Black men on juries in the South during the Jim Crow Era, which violated the 6th Amendment right to a “jury of one’s peers.”

The trial attracted national attention and was one of the earliest and most high-profile demonstrations of Black legal expertise and professionalism. The case also helped establish the NAACP’s pattern of using test cases to not only legally dismantle racial segregation, but to shape public opinion and stimulate grassroots efforts.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

📷1: Loudoun County Courthouse, West facade. NPS Photo/Nancy Holst.
📷 2: Black and white newspaper image of Charles Hamilton Houston and the Howard Law School defense team, joined by NAACP executive Walter White. Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 13, 1933.

02/21/2025

Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823-1893) was a writer, newspaper editor, lawyer, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist. Her Washington, DC home became a in 1976.

In 1848, the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked in his newspaper, The North Star, how the movement for Black people’s liberation could be advanced most effectively. Shadd wrote in to Douglass’ paper say that the movement needed to “do more and talk less,” arguing that words without action were pointless.

Shadd lived by that creed. In 1851, she moved to Canada to open a school for Black children who had escaped slavery in the United States. She also started her own newspaper, the Provincial Freeman, becoming the first Black woman in North America to operate a paper. The Provincial Freeman’s motto was “Self-reliance is the true road to independence.” The paper published antislavery literature and news stories about events in the United States and in Canada.

When the Civil War broke out, Shadd Cary moved back to the United States. She worked as a military recruiter, encouraging Black men in the north to fight in the US military. After the war, she earned a legal education at Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Washington, DC and continued to defend people’s right to equal treatment under the law.

📷1: The exterior of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary House. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
📷2: Mary Ann Shadd Cary. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
📷3: Masthead of Shadd Cary’s paper, the Provincial Freeman. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

02/19/2025

The town of , Colorado is nestled high in the Rocky Mountains at 10,151 feet. Leadville’s downtown area was listed as a in 1961 for its history as an important gold and silver mining town from the 1860s to the early 1900s. After the mining booms, the town again grew during World War II, when nearby Camp Hale trained the ski troopers of the 10th Mountain Division.

Today most visitors enjoy the Victorian-era architecture and the surrounding vistas, but once a year in the late winter the town hosts an unusual sporting event – skijoring. The sport involves a skier being pulled by a horse, dogs, or sometimes a motorized vehicle like a motorcycle or snowmobile! Leadville first hosted an organized skijoring competition in 1949, with some competitions taking place right in the heart of the landmark district downtown.

If high-altitude, high-speed skiing sounds like your idea of fun, your next chance to catch this event is March 1 & 2, 2025. Otherwise, you can explore Leadville’s historic district year-round.

Leadville and Twin Lakes, Colorado

📸 1: Color image of a skijorer jumping at the top of a snow ramp. The skier is pulled by a man in a cowboy hat on a brown horse. In the background are the flat-roofed downtown commercial district buildings of Leadville. Photographer: Kaila Angello, 2009, courtesy of Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

📸 2: Black and white image of a horse and rider pulling a skijorer through cones on the skijoring course, 1964 Winter Carnival. Some of Leadville’s buildings, including the tall, pointed roof of what is now the National Mining Museum, can be seen in the background. Image courtesy of the Lake County Public Library, Leadville.

02/17/2025

On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

During National Engineering Week, the NHL Program is excited to welcome one of the newest !

The Mr. Charlie Offshore Oil Rig in Morgan City, LA is significant as the first, the longest operating, and the oldest surviving Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (MODU). Its design and success helped revolutionize the process of offshore oil drilling. Consisting of a portable oil rig atop a submersible barge, it was able to venture far out to sea to reach previously untapped oil fields. Mr. Charlie carried on board the equipment for drilling and the facilities to house a large crew of workers for extended periods.

Eventually drilling over 250 wells before being retired in 1986, Mr. Charlie illustrates the engineering ingenuity and creativity of a small business seeking to gain a foothold in a much larger industry. The newly formed company that developed Mr. Charlie, Ocean Drilling and Exploration Company (ODECO), grew to become, at one point, the largest drilling contractor in the world.

The rig was purchased in 1993 by the non-profit corporation International Petroleum Museum and Exposition Inc. and now preserved as The Rig Museum (https://www.rigmuseum.com/).

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

The Rig Museum

📷1: Aerial view of Mr. Charlie (stern), 2021. Courtesy of the International Petroleum Museum and Exposition.
📷2: Mr. Charlie in the process of submerging, with derrick lowered and stabilizers raised, 1954. The International Petroleum Museum and Exposition.

02/14/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth House and Studios, aka Sentinel Ranch in San Patricio, New Mexico, are nationally significant for the property’s association with renowned husband-and-wife painters Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth. Hurd was a Regionalist painter who created an extensive artistic record of the people and landscapes of south-central New Mexico. Wyeth was an accomplished Realist painter born into the Wyeth clan of artists in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. After moving to the ranch in the 1930s, Hurd painted and sketched ranch hands, neighbors, and landscapes of the region. Wyeth focused on portraits, painting some of the country’s wealthiest and most famous people, as well as still lifes that used flowers she grew at the ranch.

The couple supported each other’s artistic endeavors, and their working arrangement at the ranch reflected an unusual prioritization, particularly for the time, of both artists’ studio work. The highly productive careers of these two artists are exceptional examples of American art, encompassing the embrace of Realism and Regionalism in the depiction of Western-based landscapes, portraits, and still lifes.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

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📷1: Interior of Henriette Wyeth studio, a brown-painted space with a large multi-paned window to the left and a large-framed piece of art on an easel to the right. NPS/Astrid Liverman.
📷2: View of Sentinel Ranch, which is composed of several stucco buildings with red tile roofs set in a lush green landscape. Steven Moffson, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

02/12/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

Watkins Mill, located in Clay County, Missouri, was designated an NHL in 1976. The mill, a largely self-sufficient complex, consisting of a factory on an intact rural farm landscape, produced yarn and fabric from 1860 to 1886. Now operated as Watkins Woolen Mill State Park and State Historic Site, the property also retains an extensive collection of original milling machinery.

The updated nomination added information about mill and farm operations, including the workforce, comprised of men, women, and children. In the early years, enslaved labor was also used.

The update also confirmed the NHL boundary, provided more complete architectural and archaeological resource descriptions, and additional information regarding the interrelationship between family life and industrial life.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

Missouri State Parks

📷 1: Watkins Woolen Mill (exterior). Photo courtesy of the Watkins Mill Association.
📷 2: The second floor of Watkins Mill (interior) contains machines used for yarn production. Photo courtesy of the Watkins Mill Association.

02/10/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation NHL in the upper Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was designated an NHL in 1969. At that time, the historic district was recognized for association with the Cedar Creek Battlefield, site of a major Civil War engagement that occurred on October 19, 1864. Part of the district is included within the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park. Belle Grove Plantation is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The nomination update provides more information about Cedar Creek Battlefield and Belle Grove Plantation during the Civil War. It also looks at the development and transformation of the cultural landscape in the context of the social, cultural, economic, and architectural history of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The district contains 18th- and 19th- century architectural resources, mill ruins, historic cemeteries, and archaeological sites that collectively tell the story of colonization and settlement in the region.

The nomination also includes a boundary change and more accurate inventory of contributing resources.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

📷 1: View across Cedar Creek Battlefield, looking west towards the Red Hills plateau. Photo by Carleigh Hessian, EHT Traceries, April 2019.
📷 2: Belle Grove Plantation manor house, façade, looking north. Photo by John Gentry, EHT Traceries, June 2019.
📷 3: Log House at Smith Mill (private residence). Photo by Sarah Vonesh, EHT Traceries, April 2019.

02/07/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Ladd Field NHL was originally designated in 1985 and is within the boundaries of the Fort Wainwright Army base next to Fairbanks. It was the first US Army airfield in Alaska and was the site of important tests on how cold weather affects aviation technology.

Completed in 1940, Ladd Field played a vital role in World War II as the Alaska headquarters for the Alaska-Siberia Lend-Lease route. Nearly 8,000 aircraft were transferred from the United States to the Soviet Union for use in the Eastern front of the war in Europe.

The updated NHL nomination revises the boundary and provides more information on how Ladd Field and the US-Soviet Lend-Lease program contributed to Allied victory in Europe.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

📷 1: Aerial photo of Ladd Field (2020). US Army Photo.
📷 2: Hangar 1 with two B-17 bombers (1942). US Army Photo.
📷 3: Fighter planes undergoing cold weather testing at Ladd Field (ca. 1943). US Army Photo.

02/05/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Sitka Naval Operating Base and US Army Coastal Defenses was originally designated as an NHL in 1986. Established as an Advanced Seaplane Base in 1937, it was the navy’s first air station in Alaska, playing a key role in the defense of America during World War II.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Sitka was the only major military base in Alaska. After Pearl Harbor, PBY aircraft from Sitka patrolled southeast Alaska and far into the Gulf of Alaska. The US Army Coastal Defenses, including the causeway connecting the islands, were built west of Japonski Island to protect the air base. The Sitka base supported operations throughout most of the war but was decommissioned in 1944 following the successful Aleutian Islands Campaign. Today, many of the WWII structures are used and maintained by multiple owners.

The updated NHL nomination provides more information about the important role that the naval base and coastal defenses played in protecting Alaska during World War II, and how the surviving elements contribute to our understanding of this history.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place!

📷1: Sitka Naval Operating Base and US Army Coastal Defenses aerial photo. NPS Photo, May 2022.
📷2: Married Officers’ Housing on the Sitka Naval Operating Base. NPS Photo, May 2022.
📷3: The US Army Coastal Defenses being constructed on Nevski Island, circa 1942. John W. Failor Collection, Sitka History Museum.
📷4: Battery Emplacement No. 292 Bunker, Command Post on Makhnati Island. Part of the US Army Coastal Defenses section of the NHL. NPS Photo, May 2022.

02/03/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Pu'ukoholā Heiau Historic District, on the island of Hawai’i, is an important complex associated with figures and events related to the island’s political, social, and religious history, dating from the founding of the Hawaiian Kingdom to the annexation of Hawai‘i by the United States.

The name Pu'ukoholā Heiau not only references the site, but one of the specific heiaus, or temples located within the NHL boundaries. The Pu'ukoholā Heiau is a massive stone structure of hand-stacked lava rock that was completed by King Kamehameha I in 1791, marking his rise to power. It was dedicated to the war god, Kūkā‘ilimoku, who Kamehameha credited with helping him conquer and unite the kingdoms of the Hawaiian Islands.

The site is recognized for both architecture and archeology and the nomination has been updated to include recent archeological finds that shed light onto Hawaiian national history. Pu'ukohola Heiau remains a symbol of unification and lasting peace for Hawaiians today. Every August, the site hosts the Ho’oku’ikahi event, which means “to unify as one.”

The site was originally designated as an NHL in 1962 and became a unit of the National Park Service in 1972.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site

📷1: Pu'ukoholā Heiau sits on a hill overlooking the harbor. NPS, 2014.
📷2: Pu'ukoholā Heiau, showing landscape of the heiau to the west. Robert A. Pacheco and M.J. Tomonari-Tuggle, 2014.
📷3: Pu'ukoholā Heiau, northeast corner. The dark brown stones mark the last original face of the exterior north wall; the lighter sections adjacent to this face have been stabilized. Adam Johnson, July 2015.
📷4: Pu'ukoholā Heiau, 1880s. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

02/01/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, the Secretary of the Interior announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

Designation of the F.W. Woolworth Company Building in Greensboro, North Carolina, as an NHL recognizes its significance as the location of a pivotal event in the civil rights movement. in 1960, in peaceful protest against racial segregation and discrimination, four Black students from North Carolina A&T College sat down at the Whites-only lunch counter in the Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro. The White manager refused to serve them. The four students—David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), and Joseph McNeil—remained in their seats.

Over the next five months, the Greensboro sit-ins continued and spread to other downtown businesses. The original four were joined by classmates from NC A&T as well as students from Bennett College (an HBCU for women) and from Dudley High School, the Black high school in Greensboro’s segregated public school system. Community members of both races and some White college students lent support as well. In order to curb the negative impact of the sit-ins on the local economy, many of the businesses agreed to desegregate.

The Greensboro sit-ins attracted nationwide media attention and sparked a wave of sit-ins demanding racial equality in businesses and public places across the country. Often organized and led by college students, the sit-ins marked the emergence of a new generation of youthful leadership in the civil rights movement. The Greensboro sit-ins played a key role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and inspired other protests of the 1960s.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

International Civil Rights Center & Museum

📷1: F. W. Woolworth Company Building, East (front) facade. Photo by Anne Farrisee, December 2023.

📷2: Lunch counter of the F. W. Woolworth Company Building. Photo by Anne Farrisee, December 2023.

01/20/2025

The NHL Program is excited to welcome the newest ! On December 16, 2024, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the designation of 19 new NHLs and 14 updated NHLs. We are thrilled to share these important places and stories!

The Charleston Cigar Factory in Charleston, SC, identified through the Labor History in the United States NHL theme study (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/americans-at-work.htm), is nationally significant for its association with a strike led by African American women, October 1945-April 1946. Workers in the Charleston Cigar Factory went on strike to protest discrimination in pay, working conditions, and treatment on the job. The strike is emblematic of the post-World War II national strike wave - the largest in the history of the U.S. labor movement - and demonstrates the intersection between labor and civil rights activism that would shape both movements during the mid-20th century.

Workers who participated in the strike regularly sang “We Will Overcome,” a modified version of the gospel song “I’ll Overcome Someday.” They introduced the song at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, TN, an in*******al training facility for social activists, where it was subsequently adapted into the civil rights protest anthem “We Shall Overcome.”

After visiting Highlander and hearing the song for the first time, Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked, “There’s something about that song that haunts you.”

The former factory is currently used as a commercial and educational facility. Although it has undergone several alterations, the main mill building remains intact, and the current property owners have restored historical features.

Designation honors both the landmark itself and the individuals and organizations who created and used it. Congratulations to the site stewards and advocates who preserve this historic place.

📷1: Charleston Cigar Factory Building, East (front) Facade. Rachel Donaldson, 2021.
📷2: Workers outside of the Cigar Factory, 1940s. Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
📷3: Interior of Main Mill. Wecco Development, LLC., 2015.
📷4: Second floor of the former Picker House. Wecco Development, LLC., 2015.

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