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Historic Buildings and Landscapes

A photo of a gate section built by the Works Progress Administration in 1941 on South Post near the housing area at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.
Military installations include some of the most historically significant properties in the American cultural landscape. West Point, the Presidio of San Francisco, Cape Canaveral, and Fort Sam Houston, for example, are associated with persons, events and trends that profoundly influenced the course of our nation's history. As with any landscape, the military landscape reflects the history and cultural traditions within which it has evolved. The breadth of historic building management for the Army is enormous. The Army now has over 58,000 buildings and structures that are 50 years old or older, and therefore subject to the requirements of the National Historic Preservation Act. This includes nearly 12,000 buildings that are officially designated as historic properties and 21 National Historic Landmarks.

The Army will continue identifying and evaluating historic military landscapes and preparing the documentation required for nominating sites and districts for the National Register.

What has the Army done?


The Army and DoD received four Program Comments for Cold War Era Unaccompanied Personnel Housing, World War II and Cold War Ammunition Storage Facilities, World War II and Cold War Army Ammunition Production Facilities and Plants, and Preservation of pre-1919 Historic Army Housing. The program comments now cover all Army buildings and fulfill the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) compliance requirements for an entire category of undertakings. In these Program Comments the actions covered include renovation, demolition, transfer, sale or lease from Federal ownership for a particular building type. Combined with the 2002 Program Comment for Capehart-Wherry family housing, these Program Comments address current NHPA compliance responsibilities while addressing future growth of buildings subject to NHPA.

Why is this important?


With the addition of the latest Pre-1919 Program Comment, the Army now has the tools to cover all the current historic buildings in our inventory. Our next phase is to begin plans for evaluating the next generation of 50 plus years buildings, not covered by current Program Comments.