Washington – The National Park Service and the American Architectural Foundation have announced a new partnership to promote Save America’s Treasures, a grant program that preserves nationally significant historic properties and collections for future generations of Americans.
As the new non-profit partner of Save America’s Treasures, the American Architectural Foundation will work with the National Park Service and its Save America’s Treasures partner agencies (including the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services) to increase public understanding of the program. Save America’s Treasures funds projects to rescue, preserve and conserve our nation’s most significant cultural, intellectual and heritage resources.
“From the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ that flew above Fort McHenry to Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, Save America’s Treasures has protected more than 1,100 of the places and objects that define who we are as Americans,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “With the assistance of the American Architectural Foundation, we will tell the great stories of our nation as illustrated through these places and collections in a way that we have previously not had the resources to do.”
“The Save America’s Treasures program is itself a national treasure and the American Architectural Foundation feels privileged to join our federal partners in guiding this venerated program into its next phase of service to our nation,” American Architectural Foundation President and CEO Ron Bogle said. “The many structures, landscapes and artifacts that Save America’s Treasures has helped to preserve, restore and protect embody our collective identity. As a steward of that identity, the Save America’s Treasures partnership is committed to helping all Americans appreciate the vital role of place in defining what it means to be an American.”
Although no new grants have been funded since 2010, the Save America’s Treasures program is the largest and most successful federal grant program, as well as the only federal program dedicated solely for the physical protection of our nation’s endangered and irreplaceable cultural heritage. From 1999 to 2010, Congress appropriated over $315 million to 1,287 projects to provide preservation and conservation work on nationally significant collections, artifacts, historic structures and sites. Requiring a dollar-for-dollar private match, these grants to date have leveraged more than $377 million in private investment and contributed more than 16,000 jobs to local and state economies.
Save America’s Treasures has assisted more than 300 National Historic Landmarks, 28 properties contributing to National Historic Landmark Districts, over 250 buildings individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places, over 70 properties contributing to National Register-listed historic districts, as well as hundreds of nationally significant collections.
For additional information on Save America’s Treasures, visit http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures/ http://www.archfoundation.org
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