National Trust for Historic Preservation

Background

The very late 19^th and beginning of the 20^th centuries were a period of increased popular and federal interest in preserving sites within the United States of significant historical character. The public demand resulted in federal legislation such as the Antiquities Act and Historic Sites Act. Preservation activists, including David E. Finley Jr., George McAneny, Christopher Crittenden, and Ronald Lee, sought to create a national-level historic preservation organization resembling the British National Trust. In 1946, these activists met at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to discuss the notion. Later, in continuation of that discussion, those same activists and others representing various local- and state-level historical societies met on April 15, 1947. Afterwards, attendees of that second meeting created the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings, which had its first office in Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. ¹

To further pursue interest in creating a National Trust-like organization for the United States, the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings lobbied Congress for a bill which would make that vision possible. Eventually, U.S. Representative J. Hardin Peterson (D-FL) offered up such a bill, H.R. 5170. In short order, the bill was signed into law by President Harry Truman on October 26, 1949, chartering the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a nonprofit organization charged with the acquisition and preservation of historical sites and objects of national significance, as well as the submission of an annual report of its activities to Congress. ¹

History

Initially, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings existed alongside one another. However, in 1952, the boards of both organizations approved a merger into the Trust, which became effective in 1956. ¹

Following the merger, beginning in 1957, the National Trust began acquiring a portfolio of historical sites, and in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Historic Preservation Act, which created the National Register of Historic Places, the list of National Historic Landmarks, and the State Historic Preservation Offices. Additionally, the act provided for significant funding to the National Trust, which allowed the organization to broaden its scope to include financially supporting various local and state-level preservation societies though a newly-created Preservation Services Fund. Additionally, the Trust opened field offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. Notably, in 1996 during the Clinton administration, federal funding for the organization ceased, at which point the organization became fully privately funded. ^{1 2}

In 2013, the National Trust moved its offices to the Watergate Office Complex in Washington, D.C. ³

Advocacy

In addition to its preservation programs, the National Trust for Historic Preservation advocates in support of various pieces of aligned legislation. For Instance, the trust supports the Creating American Prosperity through Preservation Act, which continues funding for the historic tax credit, a federal program which provides tax incentives for the preservation and rehabilitation of historic sites; Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act of 1996, which stipulates that transportation planners avoid when possible historic sites; as well as the Green Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act, which prevented the United States Forest Service from removing a lookout structure in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area of Washington State. ^{4 5 6}

Preservation

The National Trust for Historic Preservation publishes a quarterly magazine, Preservation, available to members of the organization, that features articles on historic sites and preservation issues. ⁷

Paul Edmondson

Paul Edmondson has been the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 2019, before which he served as the organization’s general counsel. Previously, Edmondson was a senior attorney in the federal government. ⁸