Secretary Jewell, Director Jarvis Announce $500,000 in Matching Grants to Support Diversity in National Register of Historic Places

WASHINGTON – On the heels of a meeting of the American Latino Scholars Expert Panel and in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced $500,000 in matching grants to help fund 13 projects across the country to increase the number of listings in the National Register of Historic Places (National Register) associated with Latinos and other underrepresented communities including African Americans, Asian Americans and LGBT Americans.

“Our American heritage is a tapestry made up of threads from many nations and communities, and we are working with public and private partners to help ensure that our National Register of Historic Places reflects this remarkable diversity,” Jewell said. “These matching grants will enable us to add important sites that haven't yet been recognized and more fully tell the story of our country.”

“As America's storyteller through place, the National Park Service is using the leadership of groups like the Latino Scholars and resources like grants to develop and share more deeply the stories of underrepresented groups," said Jarvis. “Looking ahead to the National Park Service's Centennial in 2016, we are committed to telling a more complete and diverse story of America's history in our second century.”

The Historic Preservation Fund is supported by revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, providing assistance for a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars. The survey, inventory and nomination grants announced today are paid for with 60 percent federal and a match of at least 40 percent state or other nonfederal funds. The $500,000 federal investment is expected to leverage more than $450,000 in nonfederal funds.

The American Latino Scholars Expert Panel was established in 2011 to provide recommendations on expanding representation of Latino sites in the National Park System and on the National Register.

Grant-supported projects include surveys and inventories of historic properties associated with communities underrepresented in the National Register, as well as the development of nominations to the National Register for specific sites.

Survey projects receiving grants include those that will inventory African American heritage sites in Montana, Pueblo Nations in New Mexico, LGBT sites in New York City, Latino properties in Washington's Yakima Valley and Asian American sites in Utah. Nominations to the National Register of Historic Places will be prepared for LGBT sites in Kentucky, African American Civil Rights resources in Baltimore and sites associated with Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in Boston.

The projects are:

• California: Preserve 20th-Century Latino History -- $30,079 to enable the State Historic Preservation Office to nominate seven to 20 Latino properties to the National Register.
• Idaho: Complete Nomination of the Rapid River Fishery in Partnership with the Nez Pierce Tribe -- $25,090
• Kentucky: Historic Context and Nomination of LGBT Heritage -- $25,000 to nominate the Whiskey Row Historic District and the Henry Clay hotel in Louisville
• Massachusetts: Chinese Immigrants and Chinese Americans in Boston -- $25,000 to develop a National Register Historic Context statement for the city's Chinese community in late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Maryland: Multiple Property Nominations of African American Civil Rights Resources in Baltimore -- $60,000.
• Montana: Identifying African American Heritage Places -- $27,788
• New Mexico: Tribal and Pueblo Nations Preservation Summit -- $59,620 to develop a customized computer program for inventorying and mapping Pueblo villages.
• New York: LGBT Sites in New York City -- $49,999 to survey and document historic and cultural sites associated with LGBT heritage.
  
  
• Rhode Island: African American Heritage from College Hill -- $25,000 to amend the nomination for the College Hill Historic District to reflect the role of African Americans in its history.
• South Dakota: Architectural Surveys of Shannon County -- $26,000 to research potential Native American sites of historical significance.
• Utah: Asian and Pacific Islander Survey and Nomination of Historical Resources -- $42,050 for completion of nomination of Iosepa Polynesian Archeological District and archaeological survey of railroad sites associated with Chinese labor.
• Virginia: Virginia Indians National Register Project -- $70,000 to increase representation of historic properties associated with Native American tribes since European contact.
• Washington: Inventory Latino Properties in Yakima Valley and Seattle -- $34,374.