The U.S. Department of the Interior announced the designation of 13 new National Historic Landmarks earlier this spring. This designation signifies the importance of these sites in representing the nation’s heritage. Although the list contains many historic sites, such as the Japanese internment camp at Topaz, Utah, it also includes architecturally significant structures. Three buildings, for instance, showcase how Frank Lloyd Wright’s style changed during the course of his career. For more about the individual sites, please see the accompanying slideshow at left.
A Baker's Dozen New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Frank Lloyd Wright’s first commission in Los Angeles, this 1921 house marked a shift away from his Oak Park period and toward a new California style.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Fig Island is an archeological site consisting of plazas articulated with concentrically ringed walls made of shells. Attributed to various archaic coastal cultural groups, the plazas were built between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
This 345-acre cemetery was the original model for the landscape-lawn scheme that dominated American cemetery design from the mid-19th century to the 20th century. Opened in 1858, it is located four miles north of Cincinnati’s central business district.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
A seven-level, 57-room house built in 1876 for the zinc smelting tycoon Edward Hegeler, this mansion is a rare surviving example of the celebrated Chicago architect W.W. Boyington.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
The Department of the Interior originally designated the Beacon Hill neighborhood as a National Historic Landmark in 1962. This year, the agency has expanded the area covered by landmark status. The district now includes 19th and early 20th century architecture on the hill’s south slope, adding to the storied Federal and Greek Revival architecture that characterized the original area.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Built in 1956 as the headquarters for oil pipeline company H.C. Price, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 19-story tower created a strong corporate identity within a small townscape. All of the floors and walls cantilever from four vertical shafts of reinforced concrete.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to convey the two metaphors of tent and mountain, the 1959 glazed pyramid on a base of reinforced concrete and steel represents an innovative merger of formal innovation and traditional meaning.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Designed by McKim Mead & White, and built between 1855 and 1886, this country estate is a noteworthy example of Gilded Age architecture. Also significant about this property are its gardens, which were designed by the landscape architect Fletcher Steele between 1929 and 1958.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Field House was the residence of attorney Roswell Field, who represented Dred Scott before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit to earn his freedom from slavery. The 1857 decision, which declared that slaves could not be U.S. citizens, escalated tensions that resulted in the Civil War.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
John Nolen designed this planned community beginning in 1920 and it grew to represent the preeminent American example of Ebeneezer Howard’s Garden City concept.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Restored in 1909 by Joseph Everett Chandler, Seven Gables represents historic preservation practices of the early 20th century. Reworking The House of the Seven Gables with portions of other houses, Chandler created a building that represents an idealized Colonial Revival style—and reflects the vision popularized by author Nathaniel Hawthorne in his eponymous 1851 romance.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Home to Hawaiian Queen Lili’oukalani from 1862 to her death in 1917, Washington Place served as the executive mansion for the U.S. Territorial Governors from 1918 to 1959. When Hawaii became a U.S. state in 1959, it was the Governor’s Mansion until 2002.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
New U.S. Landmarks Unveiled
Located in the desert 140 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, this 730-acre complex was one of 10 camps for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior
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