Statement | Washington, DC | April 01, 2025

Preservation Serves All Americans

For 75 years, the National Trust has collaborated with many partners, public and private, to protect our nation’s heritage. This work benefits people and communities across the country—in every state and every county. As the incoming Administration looks to reshape the federal government, we will ensure that our nation’s cultural resources are protected and that places where our history happened remain active, vibrant sites of learning and engagement for all Americans.

The National Trust stands resolutely for the power of historic preservation to serve the public good. Together with the broader preservation community, we’re demonstrating how preservation improves people’s lives, promotes economic opportunity, and enables a more just and humane future. Our community—made up of preservationists, architects, engineers, developers, historians, curators, designers, landscape architects, urban planners, community leaders, advocates, conservationists, and storytellers—must now focus its attention on showing policy makers and the broader public why preservation matters and how it benefits all Americans.

To that end, the National Trust is communicating regularly with Members of Congress to build support for key legislation and policies, including historic tax credits, the Historic Preservation Fund, and other federal programs that support our work. Thus far, advocates convened by partners from Main Street America, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers, and Preservation Action have made 350 Congressional office visits and mobilized thousands of voters to reach out. The number of subscribers to the National Trust’s advocacy newsletter now numbers more than 47,000, and we invite you to join them in taking action.

We’re reaching out to federal leaders and the Executive Branch to demonstrate the benefits preservation delivers to the American people. We’re affirming how preservation enables us to experience stories, events, and places that define us as a nation. Along with our colleagues at National Trust Community Investment Corporation and Main Street America, we’re sharing evidence on how preservation creates jobs, energizes regional downtowns, expands housing, and promotes energy efficiency and sustainability.

Our goal remains to shape a regulatory, legislative and policy landscape that facilitates preservation work because this work helps people. All Americans are served when we expand our commemorative and cultural landscape. All Americans are served when we protect our collective cultural heritage. Repurposing underutilized or vacant buildings serves everyone. We’re making the case for the good preservation does and for the infrastructure that makes that work possible.

We will continue to update you on our work, progress, and when we need your help at critical junctures. In the meantime, we thank you deeply for your continued support.

###

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization, works to save America’s historic places.
SavingPlaces.org | @savingplaces

Join us in protecting and restoring places where significant African American history happened.

Learn More