National Trust for Historic Preservation: Return to home page

National Historic Trail designation for Route 66 will bring greater public interest and investment to the communities along the iconic highway and encourage their economic revitalization. And most importantly, it will help preserve Route 66 as a vital, iconic, and evolving piece of Americana for generations to come. Join the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, and dozens of statewide and local organizations in calling for a National Historic Trail designation for Route 66.

In 1942, the U.S. government forcibly removed 13,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Northwest to what was known as Minidoka War Relocation Camp in rural south-central Idaho. Today, a proposed wind farm next to Minidoka National Historic Site could potentially create a visual wall of hundreds of wind towers and irrevocably change the landscape that still conveys the isolation experienced by Japanese Americans incarcerated there. Urge the Bureau of Land Management to protect and respect Minidoka National Historic Site and the Japanese American experience.

Sarah Elizabeth Ray was a Civil Rights activist who filed a successful discrimination case after the steamboat SS Columbia ejected her on the basis of race. Her 1948 case was eventually decided in Ray’s favor by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1967 Ray and her husband opened a community center called Action House in Detroit to stabilize the neighborhood, promote racial tolerance, and enrich the lives of local children. Ray died in near anonymity in 2006, and the home where she lived has since sat abandoned on Detroit’s east side. Inside, her personal photographs and letters still lie masquerading as garbage. Sign your name to encourage local decision-makers to assist preservation-minded stewards to protect the house and its contents from further decay.

Built in 1917 as a Rosenwald School, the two-room Pine Grove Elementary School served its African American agricultural community as a center for education, programs, and Civil Rights activities during the era of segregation. However, the proposed construction of a landfill now threatens the Pine Grove Elementary School. Send a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging them to require a thorough Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate all of the potential impacts to this historic school from the landfill.

The Ashley River Historic District is under threat. Annexation of an approximately 2,200-acre portion of the Historic District by the City of North Charleston could lead to zoning changes, likely ushering in intensive development (along with increased traffic, noise, and other impacts) that could irreparably damage the historic landscape and forever alter the integrity of this key piece of our nation’s history. Add your name to our petition to support the protection of the Ashley River Historic District.

The Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, better known as "the Domes," is a Milwaukee icon, a unique engineering marvel, and a nationally significant example of midcentury modern architecture. The three beehive-shaped glass domes, spanning 140 feet in diameter at the base and 85 feet high, were built starting in 1959; they feature the world’s first “conoidal”—or cone-shaped—domes, which the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has called “adventurous structures that remain unique in the world.” Despite the Domes’ significance and their continued role in the community, the Domes remain threatened. Add your name to our petition calling for a preservation solution for the Domes!