Preservationist Group Pinpoints 11 Endangered Sites

National Trust list includes a fort, a mountain and an alleyway

July 29, 2011

Most of the buildings in China Alley, a sort of rural Chinatown in California, are decaying and unprotected by any area preservation organization or regulations.

We hear a lot about endangered species. But each year for 24 years, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been spotlighting 11 endangered places in the United States - from battlefields to state and national parks to the deteriorating homes of legendary Americans. Even eccentric old motels and gas stations have made the list.

The nonprofit trust was chartered by Congress in 1949. Ever since, it and some of its almost 400,000 members have been campaigning to spare architectural treasures from the wrecker's ball and natural sites from destruction.

Hundreds of American Indian archaeological and cultural sites in New Mexico are threatened by increased oil and gas exploration and extraction.

The trust also bought 29 historic properties itself, including an entire Indian pueblo in New Mexico and President Abraham Lincoln’s one-time summer cottage in Washington, D.C.

Each year, it focuses special attention on 11 “Endangered Places." Eleven rather than 10 because, several years ago, a trust president could not decide between two of the final candidates.

This year’s finalists include the now-vacant and severely damaged Long Island, New York, home of jazz legend John Coltrane; Fort Gaines, a Civil War fortress on Alabama’s Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay and China Alley, a dilapidated former immigrant neighborhood in California’s San Joaquin Valley.