Posts Tagged ‘National Park Service’
From the National Park Service, March 6, 2012:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced the designation of 13 new National Historic Landmarks in nine different states, including a site associated with the famed Apache scouts, the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world, and an early 18th-century parish church.
Five of the thirteen sites are in the Mid-Atlantic Region:
• Among seacoast lighthouses still in existence, the Montauk Point Lighthouse (Long Island, New York) was the most important for the nation’s foreign trade during the first eight decades of the United States lighthouse service;
• Located in Midtown Manhattan, the Town Hall (New York City, New York) represents the history of American radio broadcasting during the golden age of network radio from the 1930s through the 1950s;
• The destroyer escort USS Slater (Albany, New York) is a rare and extraordinarily intact example of an important class of mass-produced warships designed for convoy protection during World War II;
• Constructed in 1888-89 by a wealthy Troy couple as a memorial to their only child, the Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium (Troy, New York) is the most architecturally sophisticated example of early public crematoria in the United States. The building is an example of Romanesque Revival architectural composition with a rich detailed interior design that reflect its memorial nature;
• Built in 1888-1889, the Braddock Carnegie Library (Braddock, Pennsylvania) is the oldest intact library building in the United States funded by Andrew Carnegie;
On Thursday, February 23 the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC) presents a special Black History Month event, African-Americans as Militiamen During the American War of Independence. Dr. Robert Selig, an historian who specializes on the American Revolutionary War, will speak about the conditions within which militia service developed.
Historian Joe Becton (audio) will present his research on the history of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army. The 1st Rhode Island was known as the “Black Regiment.” The Rhode Island legislature, faced with dwindling recruitment numbers, extended enlistment (and freedom) to “able-bodied” slaves. In his research, Becton has identified 287 members of the unit.
The program will focus on Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in particular.
Additionally, Congressman Chaka Fattah, who serves as an Honorary Co-Chair on the FWWIC Advisory Council, will be recognized for his contributions to the creation of a new seven hundred mile National Historic Trail. In 2009, Congressman Fattah co-sponsored the legislation that created the trail, which runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Yorktown, Virginia.
Joseph DiBello, the National Park Service Superintendent for the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route (W3R) National Historic Trail, will present the new brochures and maps at the FWWIC.
For more information, see the flyer below (a few clicks are necessary), or call 215-685-0723
(From nps.gov)
To mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the National Park Service free winter lecture series in 2012 will explore events and personalities that figured prominently in 1862, and also return to the popular “Perspectives on the Gettysburg Campaign and Battle.” Programs will explore the great battles and campaigns of 1862, such as Shiloh, Antietam, the Monitor and Merrimac and others, as well as people and events that shaped the war. Speakers will include as a special guest Dr. Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, who will speak on the Emancipation Proclamation.
National Park Rangers will offer the programs on weekends beginning Saturday, January 7, and running through Sunday, March 11. They are free of charge and will be held at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center, in one of the film theaters through February 26 and in the Ford Motor Company Fund Education Center on March 4, 10, and 11. Programs begin at 1:30 p.m. and last approximately one hour.
For more information and a schedule of programs go to Gettysburg National Military Park’s website at www.nps.gov/gett or call 717/ 334-1124 x 8023.
You can find the full schedule here (PDF).
On November 7, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis will designate Great Falls in Paterson, New Jersey as America’s 397th National Park. The city of Paterson has donated four tracts of land around the Great Falls for this purpose. The National Park Service will hold a series of public meetings this month to identify stakeholders and determine their vision for the park. The full press release is available by clicking here.
The process began in 2009, when President Obama signed legislation authorizing the NPS to establish a historic site in Paterson, NJ. The site is meant to celebrate Paterson as the nation’s first planned industrial city, and includes the ruins of a number of industrial ruins known as the Allied Textile Printing site. There is $450,000 in federal funds available to facilitate the planning process.
(www.northjersey.com)
