Plumbing, Septics, Wells

The home of Carter G. Woodson, the father of the African-American history movement in Washington, D.C., sits abandoned and forgotten, an ironic legacy to a man who spent his life preserving culture. But that may change, thanks to the National Trust For Historic Preservation.

Woodson's deteriorated red brick, circa 1809s Victorian row house is one of 11 sites named by the Trust to this year's list of America's Most Endangered Places. The list is produced annually in hopes of saving places that are threatened by neglect, insufficient funds, inappropriate development or insensitive public policy.

"This list -- with its simple prairie churches, elaborate big-screen movie palaces and the site of an attack that plunged our nation into war -- speaks to what is essentially American - our diversity, " said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust. "The minute we take this heritage for granted, we risk losing it."

Since 1988, the Trust has identified more than 120 threatened, one-of-a-kind historic treasures. While listing does not ensure protection of a site or guarantee funding, the designation has been a powerful tool for raising awareness and rallying resources to save threatened sites in every region of the country.

For example, since Pittsburgh's Fifth and Forbes Historic Retail Area joined the list in 2000, threatened by widespread demolition as part of a redevelopment plan, developers have been working with the city to find more preservation-friendly solutions. And in the Nation's Capital, the Soldiers' Home had seriously deteriorated over the years. But two weeks after it was placed on the list, President Clinton named it a national monument, which will help raise funds to transform it into a world-class historic site.

New Mexico's Montezuma Castle, once threatened by years of neglect, has just completed a successful $10 million campaign and plans to reopen as an international study center. And thanks to the tireless work of its community leaders, the Atlanta neighborhood of Sweet Auburn, after decades of disinvestment and blight, is once again a flourishing center of African-American life.

Now the Trust is hoping the spots on its latest list will garner similar attention. Besides the home of one of the 20th Century's most important scholars and early champions of Black history and culture, they include historic movie theaters across the land and Pearl Harbor's Ford Island.

The theaters are being closed and demolished because they don't have the clout to compete with large theater chains and often can not obtain profitable blockbusters that would fill the house. And although Ford Island sits as a monument to the event that brought the United States into World War II, it is being threatened by a massive redevelopment initiative.

This year's sites also include the Jackson Ward historic district in Richmond, Va., a once- bustling center of music, nightlife and commerce called the "Harlem of the South," now needing immediate investment and protection from demolition; Los Caminos del Rio, a 200-mile corridor along the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, rich with history and culture but threatened with inappropriate development, lack of funding and neglect; and the Bok Kai Temple in Marysville, Calif., a rare 1880 example of Chinese sacred architecture which has fallen victim to weather and deterioration.

Other imperiled sites are the CIGNA Campus in Bloomfield, Conn., which was hailed as a milestone of 20th century architecture when the campus's two award-winning landmarks were unveiled in 1957, but is now threatened with demolition; Colorado's Telluride Valley, where a massive resort, including a large hotel complex, a gondola, golf course, commercial space and housing is planned for the valley floor; and the 1850s Miller-Purdue barn in Grant County, Ind., a striking English-style white beauty that - like hundreds of historic barns nationwide -- could disappear unless another use is found.

Large threatened areas also have been listed, including the prairie churches of North Dakota, where late 19th-century houses of worship, once staples of community life, are being burned or demolished in the face of declining congregations; and Lincoln, Neb.'s Stevens Creek Settlements, where many of the region's frontier farmsteads lie in the path of a proposed multilane highway.

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