Program Announcements

Request for Proposals: Women’s History National Historic Landmarks Project

The National Park Service (NPS) seeks the services of a cultural resource consultant through a cooperative agreement with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO). In accordance with the Executive Order on Recognizing and Honoring Women’s History, the consultant would support the National Park Service (NPS) National Historic Landmarks (NHL) Program in developing guidance documents to support the designation of places significant in women’s history as National Historic Landmarks. The contract will be administered by NCSHPO. The work will be prepared for, and completed in coordination with, the NPS NHL program. Deadline: October 25, 2024.

Request for Proposals: Black High Schools 1870-1970

The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking the services of a historian consultant through a cooperative agreement with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) to support the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) Program in the identification and documentation of nationally significant properties associated with the history of segregated Black secondary schools (high schools) in the United States between approximately 1870 and 1970. The historian consultant will organize and moderate a scholars’ roundtable and community forum at the 2025 ASALH Conference in Atlanta, GA (September 24-27, 2025) on Black high schools and prepare a summary findings and recommendations report. Deadline: October 25, 2024.

Fall 2024 National Historic Landmarks Committee

The NHL Committee met virtually on September 18, 2024. The Committee considered three new nominations for National Historic Landmark designation and two updated nominations. The Committee recommended that these NHL actions be referred to the National Park System Advisory Board (NPSAB) for consideration.

Best Practices Review: Updating National Historic Landmark Nominations (July 2024)

A special edition of the National Register of Historic Places program's Best Practices Review series provides guidance on updating National Historic Landmark nominations.

Spring 2024 National Historic Landmarks Committee Meeting

The National Historic Landmarks Committee met virtually May 14-15, 2024, to consider eleven new nominations for NHL designation, three updated nominations, and one withdrawal of designation. The Committee recommended that these NHL actions be referred to the National Park System Advisory Board (NPSAB) for consideration.

New and Updated National Historic Landmarks

On December 13, 2023, Secretary Haaland announced designation of sixteen new NHLs and approval of updated documentation for six existing NHLs.

Secretary Haaland Announces National Park Service to Collaborate with Tribes on Theme Study of Native American History

Theme study on Indian Reorganization Period will help identify important places and events as part of broader effort to ensure Interior Department tells a more complete story of America

NHL Bulletin: Guidelines for Preparing National Historic Landmark Nominations (2023)

The 2023 NHL Bulletin replaces the 1999 version (National Register Bulletin: How to Prepare National Historic Landmark Nominations) as the core guidance for understanding NHLs and the process by which they are identified, nominated, and designated.

Fall 2023 National Historic Landmarks Committee Meeting

The National Historic Landmarks Committee met virtually November 15-16, 2023 and recommended that five new nominations for NHL designations, nine updated nominations, and two withdrawals of designations be referred to the National Park System Advisory Board (NPSAB) for consideration.

Request for Proposals: Tuskegee Veterans Affairs Medical Center NHL Nomination

The National Park Service is seeking a qualified consultant to prepare a National Historic Landmark nomination for the Tuskegee Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Tuskegee, Alabama. The Tuskegee VAMC was established in 1923 for the care of Black veterans and had a Black director and a Black medical and professional staff. This project is administered through the cooperative agreement with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). This RFP closed October 23, 2023.

African American Outdoor Recreation NHL Theme Study

This study examines the history and meaning of recreation in Black America in the period from emancipation to the early twenty-first century. Registration guidelines for evaluating potential NHLs and an inventory of existing African American outdoor recreation properties identified as nationally significant is included. Visit the "African Americans and the Great Outdoors" StoryMap for additional content.

Protecting America: National Historic Landmark (NHL) Cold War Theme Study

Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites is a theme study that examines the Cold War chronologically from the detonation of the first two atomic bombs and Japanese surrender in 1945 at the end of World War II to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, America’s principal nuclear adversary, in 1991. It examines how the international affairs and the political and military challenges of the Cold War-era influenced the weapons systems and defense programs of the United States.

Americans at Work - National Historic Landmark Theme Study on Labor History

The history of work and working people is interwoven through the stories of all America’s most significant places. Labor History in the United States, a theme study released in June 2022 by the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) Program, highlights the many stories of Americans at work through current scholarship on labor history and nationally significant places.

January 7, 2022

In response to questions received from our preservation partners, the National Park Service has developed a fact sheet and sample language document to supplement the letter from the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places distributed in November 2021. That letter identified an acceptable alternative to the traditional means for registering owner objection to listing one’s property in the National Register of Historic Places or its designation as a Historic Landmark.

Letter from the Keeper of the National Register re: Owner Objection Process (November 12, 2021)

— The attached letter, distributed on November 19, 2021 identifies an acceptable alternative to the traditional means for registering owner objection to National Register listing or National Historic Landmark designation.

Civil Rights in America: Racial Discrimination in Housing (2021)

In 1999, the US Congress directed the National Park Service to conduct a multi-state study of civil rights sites to determine their national significance. NPS partnered with the Organization of American Historians to develop an overview of civil rights history entitled, Civil Rights in America: A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites (2002, rev. 2008). The framework recommended that a National Historic Landmarks theme study based on provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 be prepared to identify potentially nationally significant sites related to desegregation of schools, public accommodations, voting rights, housing, and equal employment. Civil Rights in America: Racial Discrimination in Housing is the fourth chapter in this five-part Civil Rights series to be released.

21 New National Historic Landmarks Designated

National Historic Landmarks Program is pleased to announce the designation of 21 new National Historic Landmarks by the Secretary of the Interior on January 13, 2021.
In addition, the Secretary approved the additional documentation for two already designated NHLs.

These new and updated NHLs were recommended by the National Historic Landmarks Committee and the National Park System Advisory Board at two meetings in the fall of 2020. (September 2020 Meeting) and November 2020 Meeting)

NHL 2020 November Meeting

At their November 5, 2020 meeting, the National Historic Landmarks Committee recommended that 11 properties be considered for National Historic Landmark designation by the National Park System Advisory Board at their next meeting on December 10, 2020.
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