Historic Places in Communities

In 1966, "The Forty Acres," a parcel of land in Delano, California, became the headquarters for the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), the first permanent agricultural labor union in the United States.

Kake Cannery, containing over a dozen buildings constructed from 1912 to 1940, demonstrates trends and technology in the Pacific salmon canning industry.

Little Tokyo Historic District is a historic Japanese commercial district in downtown Los Angeles, California. Japanese immigrants settled the district in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before World War II, Little Tokyo was the largest Japanese community in the United States.

Kaunolu Village Site is located on the Island of Lanai. This ancient fishing community, occupied since at least the 1400s, consisted of a wide variety of religious structures, residences of priests, and isolated petroglyphs.

Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery in Desha County, Arkansas, also known as the Nisei Camp Cemetery, is one of only three extant Japanese American relocation center cemeteries in the United States.

On December 1, 2020, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced the recipients of the Foreign Minister’s Commendation for 2020. Seattle Japanese Garden and Panama Hotel (Japanese American Museum of Seattle) were among those selected for this honor.

The Harada House on Lemon Street in Riverside, California was the focus of a landmark court case brought by the State of California against Jukichi Harada, a Japanese immigrant living in Riverside. The case tested the constitutionality of laws preventing immigrants, primarily from Japan, from owning property in California.

The U.S. Immigration Station is located in Angel Island State Park on Angel Island, the largest island in California's San Francisco Bay. While the island is the home of 740 acres of pristine parkland, including beautiful beaches, picnic areas and hiking trails, it is most famous for its rich history.

Few historic places in the Pacific are as intriguing as Nan Madol. The city ruins are on a coral reef in a lagoon on the tiny island of Temwen, adjacent to the eastern shore of the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia.

The Central Utah Relocation Center (Topaz) Site, also known as the Topaz Relocation Center or Topaz, was located in west central Utah just north of the town of Delta and 140 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Topaz was one of 10 relocation centers constructed in the United States during World War II for the purpose of detaining Japanese Americans and people of Japanese descent. More than 11,000 people passed through the center and, at its peak, it housed over 8,000 internees.

Greenwich Village Historic District’s reputation for dynamism can be attributed to its history of emerging artists and writers as well as the political unrest and activism of its inhabitants. With the rise of the counterculture movement during the 1960s, Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park became a hub for writers and musicians. In 1969, LGB residents of Greenwich Village pushed back against police harassment at the Stonewall Inn.

The Japanese YWCA, also known as the Issei Women's Building, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. The property is being recognized for its association to the history of Japanese American Issei (first generation) women, the African American Civil Rights movement, and the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights movement.

On their many voyages to the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook and his crew became familiar with the aikane, a select group of men who had sexual relations with the king and other ali'i, or royals. Several journal entries from their extended stays at Kealakekua Bay describe the openness of these relationships.

At Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site on the Hawai'i Island coast at Kawaihae, influential Hawaiian figures lived and made decisions that changed the course of Hawaiian history and daily life.

Founded in 1786, Erasmus Hall Academy is one of the oldest schools in the country. It is one of the few remaining structures dating to immediately after the Revolutionary War. Among the students at Erasmus Hall was Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, an immigrant from China. Mabel’s experiences at Erasmus Hall provided the foundation for her commitment to social justice. By the age of 16, she had become a well-known figure in the New York City suffrage movement.

Vincent Chin was a Chinese American draftsman who lived in Detroit, Michigan during the deindustrialization of the Midwest. On June 19, 1982, Chin was the victim of an anti-Asian hate crime. White autoworkers Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz fatally beat him with a baseball bat. Vincent Chin’s life and the legal struggle for justice that followed his murder inspired the development Pan-Asian American community organizing in Detroit.

Curiosity Kits inspire exploration and learning of history through place. These multi-piece resources include articles that explore historic places and provide educational activities for life-long learners. This kit focuses on the life and work of Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, a suffragist. By the time she was 16, Lee was a known figure in New York’s suffrage movement. Learn more about her contributions to the movement.

The Stedman-Thomas Historic District in Ketchikan, Alaska was a cultural melting pot for Asians and Pacific Islanders working in Alaska's fishing industry from the early 1900s to the 1940s. The historic district was one of the earliest neighborhoods in Ketchikan and played an important role in the economic history of the city and in the lives of the district's residents.

The Filipino Christian Church in Los Angeles was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. Constructed in 1909 for the Union Avenue M.E. Church, the building was acquired by the Filipino Christian Church in 1950 and has been in a central focus of the the Filipino community since that time.

The Kotake Store Property, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, represents economic advancement for generations of Big Island (Hawaiʻi) residents, in this case Japanese. Kamekichi Kotake began his employment in Hawaiʻi as a plantation ditch digger. After his plantation service, he became a carpenter, and his wife Mika Kotake a retailer. They were financially successful enough in their retail operations to buy the building and raise their large family.