The National Park Service (NPS) has partnered with experts on historic preservation and the Cold War to identify two dozen locations across the country to review as possible National Historic Landmarks.
The NPS released the theme study "Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites," which looks at historical events between the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 and the 1991 disintegration of the Soviet Union, the NPS announced Oct. 7. The NPS produced the study with the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers and the Cold War Advisory Committee, the announcement reports. The study names "24 properties with nationally significant connections to the Cold War," the NPS reports, that deserve NHL designation.
"The history of the Cold War is told in just a handful of our national parks and National Historic Landmarks, but there are many opportunities to learn about and discuss this complex and recent history," NPS Director Chuck Sams said in the announcement. "This study provides a framework for scholars, researchers, and educators to share a deeper history through the power of place."
To be considered eligible for NHL designation or listing in the National Register of Historic Places, a property must be either 50 years or older or considered "exceptionally important," according to the announcement. However, many Cold War-era sites are less than 50 years old, have been demolished, or have been reconstructed and "no longer possess a high degree of integrity for designation or listing."
Sams said he is "grateful" for the efforts of the study participants "for their tremendous efforts in compiling this study."
"As a former Cold War Veteran," Sams said, "I understand this study meets an urgent need to identify Cold War properties that are rapidly disappearing."
The sites mentioned in the study are:
Atlas ICBM Launch Facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Vandenberg, Calif.; Atlas D Launch Facility 565th SMS Complex A outside Cheyenne, Wyo.; Atlas E Facility in Weld County, Colo.; B-29 Serial No. 45-21847, Heavy Bomber, Clark County, Nev.; Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site in the U.S. Marshall Islands; Bush Compound, Kennebunkport, Maine; Camp David in the Catoctin Mountains in Maryland; La Casa Pacifica, San Clemente, Calif.; Cheyenne Mountain Complex, outside Colorado Springs, Colo.; Defense Early Warning Line across Alaska and Canada; Nike Missile Facilities, SF-88L Nike Site, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Calif.; NM-69, Battery A Nike Site in Everglades National Park, Fla.; Site Summit Nike Site in Arkansas; Porter County Nike Site in Indiana; Fort Hancock and the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, Monmouth County, N.J.; General Purpose Laboratory, Building 9400, Camp Evans, Wall Township, N.J.; Little White House, Key West Naval Base, Monroe County, Fla.; Nevada Test Site and the Sedan Crater, Nye County, Nev.; USS New Jersey, BB-62, Camden, N.J.; Office of Strategic Services/Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C.; Pierce-Mill Barn, Rock Creek Park, Wash.; Presidential Bunkers for John F. Kennedy, Nantucket, Mass. and Peanut Island, Palm Beach, Fla.; Rancho del Cielo, Santa Barbara, Calif.; Raven Rock, Site R, Waynesboro, Pa.; Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's Apartment in New York; Stanley R. Mickelson Safeguard Anti-Ballistic Missile Complex near Grand Forks, N.D.; Strategic Air Command Ground Alert Facility, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Mountain Home, Idaho; Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and USS Turner Joy, DD-951, Bremerton, Wash.
"National Historic Landmarks represent outstanding aspects of American history and culture, possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States, and have a high degree of integrity of location, design, setting, material, workmanship, feeling, and association," the NPS states in the announcement. "Identifying eligibility is an initial step in nominating a property for designation."
