Dec. 17 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Interior on Tuesday announced more than a dozen new National Historic Landmarks among a flurry of other new historical designations in recent weeks.
“These newly designated historic landmarks join a list of the nation’s premier historic and cultural places, all of which were nominated through voluntary and locally led stewardship,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a release.
According to the department, the 19 new NHL designations join a select group of more than 2,600 other “nationally significant” spots that have have “exceptional value” in illustrating the history and culture of the United States.
Haaland called the Interior Department “America’s storyteller” through the National Park Service to “tell our nation’s history and honor the many historical chapters and heroic communities that brought us to where we all are today,” she added.
An NHL designation is the highest federal recognition of a property’s historical, architectural or archeological significance.
Officials say this particular round of historic designations reflect nationally significant properties for LGBTQ+ and Black people, women’s history, Asian-American Pacific Islanders and other significant moments of note in the development of American technology, landscape design and art.
It arrived the same week President Joe Biden signed a proclamation establishing a national monument in Maine honoring Frances Perkins — the first woman to sit in the presidential Cabinet who was responsible for many of today’s social safety nets.
Meanwhile, the NPS updated info for its 14 current NHLs and withdrew designation of three NHLs due to demolition or destruction in addition to the new designations.
The National Park Service is “committed to helping preserve and share a fuller and more inclusive account of our nation’s history, a history that is not complete until all stories are represented. These 19 newly designated landmarks help do just that,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said Tuesday.
However, while the National Park Service maintains NHL listings, most are privately owned.
But among some of the newly-designated NHL locations is the Boulder County Courthouse in Colorado, the Lucy Diggs Slowe and Mary Burrill House in Washington, the Charleston Cigar Factory in South Carolina, New York’s Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, Westchester County and the Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg, V.a.