The National Trust for Historic Preservation Announces America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of 2025
The former Native American Center for the Living Arts in Niagara Falls, New York, ranks as one of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of 2025. Vacant for nearly 30 years, the distinctive 1981 building, designed by Arapahoe architect Dennis Sun Rhodes, is locally known as The Turtle. A geodesic dome serves as its “shell.” Photo by Cherrish Beals, courtesy the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has revealed its 2025 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, with everything from deteriorating landmark hotels to Hurricane Helene–ravaged communities in Florida and North Carolina making the cut. Also included are a long-shuttered Indigenous arts center that bears an uncanny resemblance to a turtle and an 18-room “castle” built from adobe and salvaged auto parts that has fallen into disrepair.
Now in its 38th year, recent editions of the program have included a pair of imperiled early 20th-century Chicago skyscrapers, a Richard Neutra–designed school in Guam in need of rehabilitation, and a neglected Cincinnati hotel designed by pioneering female architect Natalie de Blois of SOM. Although places included on the list—now ranking more than 350 in total—are often in dire condition and face seemingly insurmountable challenges on the road to recovery, only a modest handful have been lost thanks to elevated public awareness and subsequent action. To that effect, the America’s 11 Most Endangered Places serves not as an annual death knell for culturally significant buildings and sites but, rather, a call to take initiative.
A once popular-with-tourists outsider art environment in Phoenix, the Mystery Castle has been closed to visitors for several years and faces an uncertain future. Photo by Robert Graham, courtesy the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Climate change, dilapidation, redevelopment, and demolition are common major threats for buildings that appear on the list. This year, directives taken by the U.S. government’s executive branch could also easily be considered a threat. As the Trump administration slashes federal support for arts, humanities, and environmental programs, historic preservation projects are being impacted both directly and indirectly. Funds typically earmarked for helping stave off cultural landmark–jeopardizing hazards could disappear with projects in underserved and minority communities at particular risk. To that end, the National Trust is frequently updating its online Action Center with the latest news regarding how the administration’s cuts are affecting the historic preservation community and various stakeholders.
A Hurricane Helene–damaged home on the Cedar Key archipelago of Florida's Gulf Coast. Photo by Timothy Macy, courtesy the National Trust for Historic Preservation
“Our goal remains to shape a regulatory, legislative and policy landscape that facilitates preservation work because this work helps people” Quillen wrote in an April 1 statement. “All Americans are served when we expand our commemorative and cultural landscape. All Americans are served when we protect our collective cultural heritage. Repurposing underutilized or vacant buildings serves everyone. We’re making the case for the good preservation does and for the infrastructure that makes that work possible.”
Based in Washington, D.C., the National Trust itself was chartered by Congress in 1949 but functions as a privately funded nonprofit.
Below are America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2025. The National Trust offers additional information on its website about the unique histories of each site and the threats they face. Here’s hoping that they receive the same level of attention that has helped to save the vulnerable sites that have come before them.
Cedar Key, Florida
French Broad and Swannanoa River Corridors, Western North Carolina
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Hotel Casa Blanca, Idlewild, Michigan
May Hicks Curtis House, Flagstaff, Arizona
Museum and schoolhouse at the 1,600-acre Pamunkey Indian Reservation on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula. The reservation could become inaccessible due to sea level rise. Photo by Pamunkey Indian Tribe, courtesy the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Mystery Castle, Phoenix
Oregon Caves Chateau, Caves Junction, Oregon
Pamunkey Indian Reservation, King William County, Virginia
San Juan Hotel, San Juan, Texas
One of two demolition-threatened Tuna Street buildings on Terminal Island, Los Angeles. The island was once home to a bustling Japanese-American fishing community. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/the L.A. Conservancy, courtesy the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Terminal Island Japanese American Tuna Street Buildings, Los Angeles
The Turtle, Niagara Falls, New York
The Wellington, Pine Hill, New York
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