Travelers are always interested in historic neighborhoods and the structures within them that tell stories of their past. But saving historic places is often not an easy or inexpensive endeavor.  Earlier this year, The National Trust for Historic Preservation unveiled its 2023 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, an annual ranking that spotlights significant sites of American history at risk of destruction or irreparable damage.

© Courtesy of The Greater Southwestern Exploration Co.

Built in 1929, Osterman Gas Station along Route 66 in Peach Springs, Arizona, has been a focal point of the Hualapai Tribal community for generations. Extreme weather damaged the already deteriorated building, and it needs stabilization and rehabilitation in order to continue to serve its community and the next generation of travelers.

Little Santo Domingo, the cultural heart of Allapattah, is a key commercial corridor in one of Miami’s oldest neighborhoods. Growing development interest in Little Santo Domingo is currently leading to displacement, demolition and rising rents. The Allapattah Collaborative hopes to encourage a more balanced approach to development and preservation while protecting the neighborhood’s heritage and culture.

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Pierce Chapel African Cemetery, established circa 1828, is one of the oldest burial grounds for Africans enslaved at several plantations in Harris County, Georgia. The cemetery also holds their descendants. However, the cemetery has deteriorated over time and suffered damage due to recent use of heavy construction equipment.

Two iconic early skyscrapers along Chicago’s historic State Street, Century and Consumers Buildings contribute to the architectural significance of the area known as “the Loop.” Yet they have been vacant since the General Services Administration bought them in 2005 and are now being considered for demolition.

© Courtesy of Brian M. Davis/Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation

An 11-mile stretch along the Mississippi River, along the West Bank of  St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, includes historic villages, agricultural fields and two plantations where the lives of enslaved people are studied and interpreted. But now, port facility Greenfield Louisiana LLC applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to build one of the largest grain elevators in the world amid the area’s nationally significant cultural resources.

Built around 1880 in New Orleans’ 7th Ward, this building was first home to the Perseverance Benevolent and Mutual Aid Society, with its main hall doubling as a jazz venue, and later, the Holy Aid and Comfort Spiritual Church of Eternal Life. Impacted by repeated hurricane damage, the remaining portions of the building face collapse.

© Courtesy of Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection

African American artist L.V. Hull transformed her Kosciusko, Mississippi, home into a creative wonderland that attracted visitors from around the world. Though her artwork was relocated after her death in 2008 and recently conserved by Kohler Foundation, her unoccupied house, L.V. Hull Home and Studio, suffers from neglect, vandalism and weather exposure. Filmmaker and Hull’s friend Yaphet Smith purchased the house and partners with other advocates to create an arts campus celebrating Hull’s legacy.

Built in 1871, this North Philadelphia rowhouse was home to Henry Ossawa Tanner, an internationally recognized African American painter, along with many other Tanner family members with significant achievements. But gentrification is putting the neighborhood’s Black cultural legacy and heritage landmarks such as Henry Ossawa Tanner House, already seriously deteriorated, at risk of demolition.

As one of the oldest remaining active Chinatowns in the United States, Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood has been a vibrant community since 1871. But with the 76ers basketball team proposing to build an arena abutting Chinatown, advocates — including Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation — are concerned the development could further disconnect the neighborhood.

© Courtesy of Brent Fortenberry/Tulane University

Union Pier, one of Charleston’s Historic Neighborhoods, is a 65-acre waterfront site along the Cooper River in downtown Charleston, a former marshland used for maritime shipping, industrial production and port operations since the early 18^th century. The pier’s current owner, South Carolina Ports Authority, proposed selling the land to a private developer for a new mixed-use district that could threaten the area’s historic character, viewsheds and climate resilience.

As one of the oldest Asian American neighborhoods on the West Coast, the Seattle Chinatown-International District has been a center of the city’s Asian American life for more than a century. However, Seattle’s Sound Transit is considering several transit expansion options that could impact transportation access and cultural preservation in the CID.