Themes

Pursue Historic Designation or Expand Existing Designations to Include Protest Event

When a historic property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designated a National Historic Landmark, its period of significance, the timespan covering notable developments or events associated with a site, is defined and bracketed.

Factors that contribute to the period of significance might include the date(s): of construction and opening of a project such as a park or campus facility; associations with an important designer(s); associations with a notable individual(s); or historically significant events that transpired on that site.

Of the thirteen cultural landscapes included in this thematic Landslide report, only two sites are not designated (Levee Site, St. Johns Parish, LA; and Tent City Boston, MA), while eight were listed in the National Register in the 1960s or 1970s, including: Druid Hills, Atlanta, GA (1976); Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (1966, 1975); Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA (1970,1972); and, Washington Square Park, New York City, N.Y. (1979). It’s worth noting that at the time of those designations, the significant protest events now associated with each had either recently taken place recently or were yet to happen. The remaining sites were designated since 1990 and include Grant Park, Chicago, IL, (1992) whose period of significance and written narrative do not reflect the protests of 1968 that took place during the Democratic National Convention. By contrast, the National Chicano Moratorium March is the subject of a National Register of Historic Places Historic District designation and provides important context about the 3.7-mile protest march, including “the character of the neighborhood along the route, the contributing buildings along the route, and the park at the terminus of the route [that] retain sufficient integrity to convey the district’s significance.”

The National Register of Historic Places usually requires that a site be at least 50 years old to be considered eligible for listing. Many of the significant protest events were not previously eligible for consideration because they had yet to meet the fifty-year threshold. Since they now meet that requirement, these significant cultural landscapes should be re-evaluated with the goal of expanding their period of significance, which would enrich our understanding and afford each site more holistic valuation and stewardship.