National Trust Releases its 27th Annual List of America's Most Endangered Historic Places

"The National Trust for Historic Preservation today unveiled its 2014 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places®, an annual list that spotlights important examples of the nation’s architectural, cultural and natural heritage that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage. More than 250 sites have been on the list over its 27-year history, and in that time, only a handful of listed sites have been lost," according to a press release from the National Trust for Historic Preservation released on June 23, 2014.

"The National Trust’s 27th annual list includes: Tallahassee’s Spring House, the only private home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the state of Florida that is now badly deteriorating; Shockoe Bottom in Richmond, Virginia, a major slave trading center in the 19th century that includes remnants of the jail in which Solomon Northup—from “12 Years a Slave”—was held; The serene vistas of the Palisades in New Jersey, threatened by a proposed office tower that would permanently mar its viewshed; and for the first time in the 27-year history of the list, two sites from the same city are included: Cincinnati’s iconic Art Deco Union Terminal, as well as Cincinnati’s impressive Music Hall. Both of these buildings are integral pieces of Cincinnati’s historic fabric, and need large-scale restorations to return to their original grandeur."

Cincinnati shows up on the list twice, compelling local coverage from the Cincinnati Business Courier. In 2013, the same publication took an in-depth look at the efforts to save the Union Terminal.

Although the National Trust is right to claim success in most of the efforts to preserve the places that have appeared on the list, the 2013 list included one famous site that is still very much up in the air, the Houston Astrodome.