This is a list of National Historic Landmarks and comparable other historic sites designated by the U.S. government in the U.S. state of New York. The United States National Historic Landmark (NHL) program operates under the auspices of the National Park Service, and recognizes buildings, structures, objects, sites and districts of resources according to a list of criteria of national significance.[1] There are 276 NHLs in New York state, which is more than 10percent of all the NHLs nationwide, and the most of any state.[2] The National Park Service also has listed 20 National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Memorials, and other sites as being historic landmarks of national importance,[3] of which 7 are also designated NHLs. All of these historic landmarks are covered in this list.
There are 139 NHLs in upstate New York, 13 on Long Island, and 116 within New York City (NYC). Three counties have ten or more NHLs: New York County (Manhattan) has 86; Westchester County, just north of NYC, has 18; and Erie County in western New York has 10. Twelve other counties have five to nine NHLs, eight have three or four, 27 counties have one or two, and the remaining twelve of the state's 62 counties have none. The first New York NHLs were eight designated on October 9, 1960; the latest was designated on January 13, 2021. The NHLs and other landmarks outside NYC are listed below; the NHLs in NYC are in this companion article.
Seven NHL sites are among the 20 National Park System historic areas in New York state.[4] The other 13 National Park Service areas are also historic landmark sites of national importance, but are already protected by Federal ownership and administration, so NHL designation is unnecessary. A list of these National Park Service areas that conserve historic sites in New York State is also provided. Finally, three former NHLs in the state are also listed.
New York State NHLs include ten prehistoric or other archeological sites,[nb 1] 12 historical Dutch farmhouses, manors, and historic districts,[nb 2] and 21 architecturally and/or historically important churches or houses of worship.[nb 3] Fully 26 NHLs are primarily military, including 13 fort sites (five standing forts, three fortified houses, and five ruins),[nb 4] five other battlegrounds,[nb 5] seven military headquarters, training facilities, arsenals and armories,[nb 6] and one military shipwreck site.[nb 7] One of these NHLs is associated with the American Civil War,[nb 8] while all the rest of these forts and other military places are associated with the French and Indian War and/or the American Revolutionary War.
There are nine NHL ships, including a warship and a tugboat that served in World War II, one warship that saw combat in the Vietnam War, three sailing boats, two fireboats and a lightvessel.[nb 9] Salient in the list are 24 mansions,[nb 10] and four sites primarily significant for their architectural landscaping.[nb 11] Many properties, numbering in the thousands, are contributing or non-contributing structures in the state's nine National Historic Landmark Districts.[nb 12] Intellectual accomplishments of New Yorkers are associated with 22 sites, including nine university buildings,[nb 13] ten other NHLs associated with inventions, inventors or scientists,[nb 14] and four engineering landmarks, including two bridges that were once the longest of their types.[nb 15] Commercial accomplishments include 11 historic skyscrapers, five of which were once the tallest in the world,[nb 16] seven stock exchanges and other buildings important in commercial history,[nb 17] two bank buildings,[nb 18] five industrial facilities,[nb 19] and three water-based civil engineering works.[nb 20] Two are architectural oddities.[nb 21]
Political and social accomplishments are represented by four former mental care institutions (a legacy of the state's leading role in mental health care),[nb 22] 14 sites associated with suffragettes or other women leaders,[nb 23] five Underground Railroad or other sites associated with abolitionists,[nb 24] six sites associated with African-American leaders,[nb 25] three sites associated with labor rights,[nb 26] and four sites associated with other social activism.[nb 27] In addition, there are 21 homes of other national leaders,[nb 28] and six government buildings that are significant on a national scale.[nb 29] Community, arts and entertainment accomplishments represented include two utopiancommunes,[nb 30] the Adirondack Park and four of its Great Camps,[nb 31] and five other retreat sites.[nb 32] No fewer than nine artist homes or studios are landmarked,[nb 33] as well as nine homes of writers and composers.[nb 34] There are four club buildings, of which two are historical societies,[nb 35] and eight entertainment venues or sites associated with entertainers.[nb 36] Sixteen others are unique sites that are difficult to classify.[nb 37]
The State of New York, exclusive of NYC, is home to 155 of these landmarks, which are tabulated here. Twenty-three of these are also State Historic Sites (SHS), and fourteen are National Park System areas; these designations are indicated in italics.
Transformer house of the first large-scale, alternating current electric generating plant in the world; tapped power of Niagara Falls via a 7,500 foot (2,286 m) tail-race tunnel
Largest publicly protected area in the lower 48 United States; largest National Historic Landmark; largest and one of earliest areas protected by any state; established in 1885; later protected in "forever wild" section of New York state constitution
Three mansions and associated grounds with pre-contact archaeological significance; 5 contributing properties include the 23-acre Jay Estate, childhood home of Founding Father John Jay, Lounsberry, Rye Golf Club home of Whitby Castle, the private Jay Cemetery, final resting place of John Jay and his descendants, and Marshlands Conservancy, a nature preserve running from Boston Post Road down to the Long Island Sound, an area essentially unchanged for 200 years
Small frame structure built in 1881 by naturalist John Burroughs as a writing retreat; in this study, that looks east over the Hudson River, Burroughs wrote Fresh Fields (1884), Signs and Seasons (1886), Indoor Studies (1889), and Riverby (1894)[8]
Home of Roscoe Conkling, divisive U.S. senator in years after Civil War; leader of Stalwart faction of Republican Party; contributor to atmosphere that led to the assassination of James Garfield
Oldest building in Rockland County; outstanding example of Dutch colonial architecture; used by George Washington as headquarters during final negotiations for British withdrawal from New York City
Building mistakenly thought to be the home of scientist John William Draper; it was actually the home of his son, the astrophotography pioneer Henry Draper, the first person to photograph the Moon with recognizable surface features.
1850 "Old Dutch Church" is third home to congregation established in 1659. Nearby graves include George Clinton. One of the few Minard Lefever churches whose original steeple has survived. His only intact Renaissance Revival church, and his only known one in stone.
View of Catskills across river from here inspired Hudson River School artists; small towns with much land use and architecture preserved from past eras
Local militias held off pro-British Indians and Loyalists in Battle of Oriskany, one of the few battles of the Revolutionary War in which all participants were natives of North America
Site of Battle of Plattsburgh, where U.S. land and naval forces repulsed the last foreign invasion attempt on the northern states during the War of 1812
Headquarters of Washington during the final years of the Revolutionary War; Dutch stone house; oldest building in Newburgh; first-ever property designated as a historic site by a U.S. state
Historic areas in the United States National Park System
National Historic Sites, National Historic Parks, National Memorials, and certain other areas listed in the National Park system are historic landmarks of national importance that are highly protected already, often before the inauguration of the NHL program in 1960. There are 20 of these in New York State. The legislation establishing the National Historic Landmark program does not prevent these from being designated,[12] but in practice these are not often named NHLs per se, due to administrative costs of their nomination and to the low preservation value of designating them.[13]
For the first 16 years of the National Historic Landmarks program, the National Park Service did not consider any sites already within the National Park system for NHL designation, and in fact if an NHL-designated site came into the NPS system it was de-designated.[13]:94–95
It was not until 1977 that a policy was promulgated that would allow for designation of a National Historic Landmark "whose primary significance is not related to its park's purpose".[13]:96 The Jacob Riis House in Queens was de-designated in 1973.[13]:105
The National Park Service identifies 18 historic sites within national park units in New York State, and lists these together with the NHLs in the state,[3] and there are also two National Historic Sites that are "affiliated areas," receiving National Park Service support but not directly administered by it.[nb 58] Seven of the 20 were declared National Historic Landmarks, in several instances before receiving the higher protection designation, and retain their NHL standing. Four of these are listed above and three are included within the New York City list of NHLs. The 13 others are:
Property developed by Eleanor Roosevelt; place that she could develop some of her ideas for work with winter jobs for rural workers and women; includes a large two-story stuccoed building that housed Val-Kill Industries; would become Eleanor's home after Franklin's death
Includes pleasure grounds with views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, formal gardens, natural woodlands, and numerous support structures as well as a 54-room mansion; completed in 1898; perfect example of the Beaux-Arts architecture style
One of two surviving Forrest Sherman-class destroyers; saw action from World War II to Vietnam; In NYC from 1989 to 2004; relocated to Michigan in 2013.
Largest lightship ever built. Originally listed while she was primarily in Maine; sojourned for several years in Oyster Bay, New York. Arrived in Boston May 11, 2010.
Former NHLs in New York
The following sites in New York were formerly National Historic Landmarks but were delisted.
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500, or roughly three percent, of over 90,000 places listed on the country's National Register of Historic Places are recognized as National Historic Landmarks.
This is an incomplete list of historic properties and districts at United States colleges and universities that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This includes National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other National Register of Historic Places listings. It includes listings at current and former educational institutions.
Historic preservation in New York is activity undertaken to conserve forests, buildings, ships, sacred burial grounds, water purity and other objects of cultural importance in New York in ways that allow them to communicate meaningfully about past practices, events, and people.
There are 77 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Albany, New York, United States. Six are additionally designated as National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), the most of any city in the state after New York City. Another 14 are historic districts, for which 20 of the listings are also contributing properties. Two properties, both buildings, that had been listed in the past but have since been demolished have been delisted; one building that is also no longer extant remains listed.
↑ Numbers represent an alphabetical ordering by significant words. Various colorings, defined here, differentiate National Historic Landmarks and historic districts from other NRHP buildings, structures, sites or objects.
↑ The eight-digit number below each date is the number assigned to each location in the National Register Information System database, which can be viewed by clicking the number.
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