Article Image and Credit(s): timber cabins, built for enslaved people, are on the Evergreen Plantation in the West Bank of St. John the Baptist Parish, La. Brian M. Davis/Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation
Malone-France, in heavy spectacles and a winsome air, is now describing the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States, per her organization’s annual survey. It relies, she quickly points out, upon nominations from the general public.
The National Trust has generated this list since 1988 to draw attention to places in danger of being torn down or irreparably damaged. Sometimes, she says, those places are aesthetically grand. Others are humble in appearance but not in history.
“The most endangered historic places list looks like America,” Malone-France says. “It tells our layered and interconnected stories. Each site on it, of course, is a powerful place in its own right. But I think there are also common themes, like creativity and entrepreneurship, perseverance, cultural exchange. There are sites that are deeply sacred. All of the sites have multi-generational narratives, and there are sites where descendants are stewarding the legacies of their ancestors. There are sites that include tiny villages in rural areas, and there are sites that include neighborhoods and buildings in large cities and everything in between.”
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