National Historic Landmarks of the United States

National Historic Landmarks of the United States
Name	National Historic Landmarks of the United States
Established	1960 (program origins)
Governing body	National Park Service
Designation type	Historic designation

National Historic Landmarks of the United States National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) are places recognized for their exceptional significance to the history of the United States and its people, representing subjects as varied as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wright brothers, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, Lewis and Clark Expedition, Civil Rights Movement, American Revolution, War of 1812, and Spanish–American War through places associated with them. NHLs are designated by the Secretary of the Interior on the recommendation of the National Park Service and aim to conserve sites such as Monticello, Independence Hall, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Alamo, Gettysburg Battlefield, Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Bunker Hill Monument, Mount Vernon, and Yorktown Battlefield.

Overview and Definition

National Historic Landmarks are properties—buildings, districts, structures, objects, and sites—recognized for their outstanding contribution to United States history and for their ability to illustrate, interpret, or commemorate important people, events, and ideas. The program identifies places tied to figures and events including Benjamin Franklin, Dolley Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Betsy Ross, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Ida B. Wells, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jane Addams, Florence Nightingale, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, United States Supreme Court, and United States Capitol.

History and Development of the Program

The concept of recognizing nationally significant historic places evolved from early preservation efforts around Mount Vernon and Independence Hall and was institutionalized after passage of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 and later the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Influential moments include advocacy by Cecil B. Lyon and scholarship by historians at the National Park Service and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, interactions with preservation organizations like the National Trust for Historic Preservation and legal frameworks including the Antiquities Act and federal heritage policy. Landmark designations expanded through partnerships with state historic preservation offices such as the Texas Historical Commission, Massachusetts Historical Commission, and New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and through documentation projects involving the Library of Congress and Historic American Buildings Survey.

Criteria and Designation Process

Designation follows evaluation against criteria for national significance: association with prominent individuals like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, representation of major events such as the American Civil War, World War II, Civil Rights Movement, architectural distinction exemplified by Frank Lloyd Wright designs and Louis Sullivan works, or potential to yield information as in archaeological sites associated with Lewis and Clark Expedition or Ancestral Puebloans. Nominations are prepared by property owners, State Historic Preservation Officers, or organizations including the National Trust for Historic Preservation and are reviewed by the National Park Service and the National Park System Advisory Board before recommendation to the Secretary of the Interior. The process involves documentation comparable to records held by the Historic American Engineering Record and assessment of integrity relative to period of significance used in National Register of Historic Places listings.

Distribution and Statistics

NHLs are distributed across the United States and its territories, with concentrations in states with long colonial histories such as Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, and significant examples found in western states like California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The inventory includes sites in Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The program complements the broader National Register of Historic Places by recognizing a subset of properties of exceptional national significance, analogous to how UNESCO World Heritage Sites identify outstanding universal value internationally.

Preservation, Management, and Funding

Management of NHLs involves owners ranging from federal agencies such as the National Park Service and United States Forest Service to state parks, municipal governments, nonprofit organizations like the National Trust for Historic Preservation and private stewards including educational institutions like Harvard University and Yale University. Preservation activities draw on programs such as federal grants administered under the Historic Preservation Fund, tax incentives linked to rehabilitation standards promoted by the National Park Service, conservation guidance from the Smithsonian Institution, and technical documentation from the Historic American Buildings Survey and Historic American Engineering Record. Legal protections intersect with statutes like the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and review processes under Section 106 when federal undertakings affect NHLs.

Notable Landmarks and Representative Examples

Representative NHLs illustrate political history (e.g., Independence Hall, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Ford's Theatre, Alamo), military history (e.g., Gettysburg Battlefield, Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Fort Sumter, Yorktown Battlefield), civil rights and social movements (e.g., Rosa Parks Museum, Lincoln Memorial, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail), cultural and scientific achievement (e.g., Wright Brothers National Memorial, Smithsonian Institution Building, Carnegie Hall, Apollo 11 landing site), and architectural innovation (e.g., Fallingwater, Robie House, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Taliesin West). Lesser-known but illustrative examples include industrial sites documented by the Historic American Engineering Record, archaeological sites associated with Mississippian culture and Ancestral Puebloans, and landmarks commemorating figures like Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, and Ida B. Wells.

Category:National Historic Landmarks