11 most endangered U.S. historic places include Stonewall and Women’s rights park

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation on Wednesday released its annual list of 11 of the United States’ most endangered historic places, tying the 2026 selection to the founding idea that “everyone is created equal” as America marks its 250th anniversary.

In explaining the theme, National Trust president and CEO Carol Quillen said the organization wanted to focus on those ideas and to look for places “that not all Americans routinely think about,” calling them sometimes “unsung places.” Quillen said the National Trust aimed to spotlight examples of how Americans “have fought against injustice and for equality.”

The sites span the country, from New York and California to Alabama and Texas, and include properties in Michigan as well as in the Four Corners states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Quillen said the National Trust plans to “save these places,” arguing that the historic structures matter but that the stories attached to them are also important.

For the first time since the list debuted in 1988, the National Trust said each of the 11 sites will receive a one-time $25,000 grant. The funding is intended to help the sites highlight their connections to the equality principle and to address the specific threats facing each property.

Among the properties on the list is the Ben Moore Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama, described by the National Trust as a refuge for Black people living under racial segregation laws. The hotel housed key civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and has faced prolonged vacancy that has contributed to structural deterioration.

In California, the list includes the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Modoc County, which the National Trust describes as a later segregation center for Japanese Americans deemed disloyal, after it was originally known as the Tule Lake War Relocation Center. The National Trust said only 37 acres of the 1,100-acre site is protected, with most of the property at risk of permanent alteration from a proposed nearby construction project.

Also on the list are the Angel Island Immigration Station in California, the Swansea Friends Meeting House in Somerset, Massachusetts, and the Detroit Association of Women’s Clubs in Michigan. The National Trust said the Detroit association’s headquarters has been closed since 2024 after water pipes burst and damaged the interior, and that money is needed to help the group reopen the building.

In the Southwest, the National Trust listed the Greater Chaco Cultural Landscape, described as an ancestral homeland for the Pueblo and Hopi people for more than a millennium. The National Trust said it faces threats tied to changes in federal land policy that could open up portions for oil and gas development, and said permanent protections and tribal consultation are needed.

The National Trust also included Seneca Falls’ Women’s Rights National Historical Park, described as telling the story of the first Women’s Rights Convention held there in July 1848. The National Trust said the park faces a deferred maintenance backlog of more than $10 million and needs additional funding to preserve it as a place to teach visitors about women’s rights history.

In New York, the list includes the Stonewall National Monument, the nation’s first and only national monument dedicated to LGBTQ+ history. The National Trust said administration actions saw the Pride flag removed from its flagpole earlier this year before it was restored, and the organization tied the episode to federal guidance that limited which flags the agency could display; it said the administration reversed course in April after agreeing to settle a lawsuit seeking to block the flag’s removal.

The list also includes the President’s House Site in Philadelphia, where the National Trust said the administration removed exhibits on the lives of nine enslaved people connected to George Washington during the era when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital. The National Trust said the matter is currently the subject of litigation between the city and the federal government.

In South Carolina, the National Trust listed the Hanging Rock Revolutionary War Battlefield in Heath Springs, saying only portions of the core battlefield are protected and that the area faces population growth and development pressures. And in Texas, it included the El Corazon Sagrado de la Iglesia de Jesus in Ruidosa, describing it as a more-than-century-old adobe church that served Mexican and Mexican American farming communities on both sides of the border and remains threatened by proposed construction of a U.S. border wall that could come within a few hundred yards of the property.

The National Trust said at least three of the sites — Stonewall, the El Corazon church and the President’s House — have been endangered by Trump administration actions, underscoring the list’s broader focus on places tied to equality movements.