Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument
The Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument is a historic house and museum of the U. S. women's suffrage and equal rights movements located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D. C.. The monument is named after suffragists and National Woman's Party leaders Alva Belmont and Alice Paul. Since 1929 the house has served as headquarters of the National Woman's Party, a key political organization in the fight for women's suffrage, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. From 1972 to 2016, the Sewall-Belmont National Historic Site was an affiliated unit of the National Park Service. In 2016, President Barack Obama designated it a National Monument. On June 20, 1632, Charles I, King of England, made a land grant in North America to Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore which became the Province of Maryland. Lord Baltimore established counties within the province, provincial courts further subdivided counties into areas known as hundreds.
One of these was New Scotland Hundred. Its southern boundary was the Potomac River, extending from the mouth of Oxon Creek upstream to Little Falls Rapids. On February 12, 1663, the third Lord Baltimore granted a land patent of 1,000 acres in New Scotland Hundred to George Thompson; the property changed hands, was subdivided, inherited a number of times before it came into the possession of nine-year-old Daniel Carroll in 1773. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River; the exact location was to be selected by President George Washington. About December 1790, Washington chose the site now known as the District of Columbia. Congress ratified his decision in 1791. Congress subsequently purchased all land in the new district from its private owners, including Carroll; the district was divided into squares, each square into lots. Daniel Carroll purchased lot 1 in square 725 on October 18, 1793, for $266.66, the same day the federal government gave lot 32 in square 725 back to Carroll gratis.
Robert Sewall purchased lot 2 in square 725 for $429.33 on October 18, lots 1 and 32 from Carroll for $600.29 on January 29, 1799. The construction of the main house occurred in 1799 and 1800; the architect of the new Sewall house is unknown, but research by the Historic American Buildings Survey indicates it was Leonard Harbaugh, an architect from Baltimore, just beginning a notable career.. The main house was an addition to the front of a one-room farmhouse believed to date from 1750. Although the Sewall family occupied the home, its size and location led many prominent government leaders to reside there; these included Albert Gallatin, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Reverdy Johnson, U. S. Senator from Maryland, United States Attorney General, U. S. Minister to the United Kingdom. Tradition maintains that British troops set fire to the house during the War of 1812, that gunfire from within or behind the Sewall residence provoked the attack; the house has undergone several architectural restorations.
After the house was burned by the British in 1814, Sewall sought reimbursement from the federal government for the damages. Congress declined to award them, so Sewall himself paid to have the structure repaired in 1820. A stable was added to the property at this time. Sewall died in the house on December 16, 1820, leaving the building to his wife and his four surviving daughters, it is unclear which of these continued to live in the house, but Susan lived in it until her death in 1837. Her will left the house to Robert Darnell Sewall. Robert Sewall died on March 18, 1853, bequeathed the house to his nieces and Ellen Daingerfield. In 1879, the Daingerfields made a major alteration to the house by added a half mansard roof to the front. In 1865, Susan Daingerfield married John S. Barbour, Jr. a railroad executive who became a U. S. Senator from Virginia. After Susan's death in 1886, Barbour continued to live in the Sewall house with his sister-in-law, Ellen. Sewall House was empty from Ellen Daingerfield's death in 1912 until 1922, when it was purchased by Senator Porter H. Dale of Vermont.
Dale extensively rehabilitated the house from 1922 to 1924. He renovated the porch at the rear of the house and enclosed it, added three bathrooms, laid new floors throughout the structure, added three windows on the first floor on the west side of the house, renovated the kitchen. Architect J. G. Herbert of Washington, D. C. oversaw these changes. On May 8, 1921, the National Woman's Party announced it had purchased the Old Brick Capitol, a historic red brick structure built in 1815 by Congress as a temporary site for the national legislature until the United States Capitol could be rebuilt; the organization planned to offer a library, reading rooms, sleeping quarters, meeting rooms, a dining facility at their new headquarters, which replaced temporary facilities on Lafayette Square
Cabinet of the United States
The Cabinet of the United States is part of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. The Cabinet's role, inferred from the language of the Opinion Clause of the Constitution, is to serve as an advisory body to the President of the United States. Additionally, the Twenty-fifth Amendment authorizes the Vice President, together with a majority of certain members of the Cabinet, to declare the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office". Among the senior officers of the Cabinet are the Vice President and the heads of the federal executive departments, all of whom—if eligible—are in the line of succession. Members of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, who can dismiss them at will for no cause. All federal public officials, including Cabinet members, are subject to impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate for "treason and other high crimes and misdemeanors"; the President can unilaterally designate senior White House staffers, heads of other federal agencies as members of the Cabinet, although this is a symbolic status marker and does not, apart from attending Cabinet meetings, confer any additional powers.
The tradition of the Cabinet arose out of the debates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention regarding whether the president would exercise executive authority singly or collaboratively with a cabinet of ministers or a privy council. As a result of the debates, the Constitution vests "all executive power" in the president singly, authorizes—but does not compel—the president to "require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices"; the Constitution does not specify what the executive departments will be, how many there will be, or what their duties should be. George Washington, the first U. S. President, organized his principal officers into a Cabinet, it has been part of the executive branch structure since. Washington's Cabinet consisted of five members: himself, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
Vice President John Adams was not included in Washington's Cabinet because the position was regarded as a legislative officer. It was not until the 20th century that Vice Presidents were included as members of the Cabinet and came to be regarded as a member of the executive branch. Presidents have used Cabinet meetings of selected principal officers but to differing extents and for different purposes. Secretary of State William H. Seward and Professor Woodrow Wilson advocated the use of a parliamentary-style Cabinet government, but President Abraham Lincoln rebuffed Seward, Woodrow Wilson would have none of it in his administration. In recent administrations, Cabinets have grown to include key White House staff in addition to department and various agency heads. President Ronald Reagan formed seven subcabinet councils to review many policy issues, subsequent Presidents have followed that practice. In 3 U. S. C. § 302 with regard to delegation of authority by the President, it is provided that "nothing herein shall be deemed to require express authorization in any case in which such an official would be presumed in law to have acted by authority or direction of the President."
This pertains directly to the heads of the executive departments as each of their offices is created and specified by statutory law and thus gives them the authority to act for the President within their areas of responsibility without any specific delegation. Under the 1967 Federal Anti-Nepotism statute, federal officials are prohibited from appointing their immediate family members to certain governmental positions, including those in the Cabinet. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, an administration may appoint acting heads of department from employees of the relevant department; these may be existing high-level career employees, from political appointees of the outgoing administration, or sometimes lower-level appointees of the administration. The heads of the executive departments and all other federal agency heads are nominated by the President and presented to the Senate for confirmation or rejection by a simple majority. If approved, they receive their commission scroll, are sworn in and begin their duties.
An elected Vice President does not require Senate confirmation, nor does the White House Chief of Staff, an appointed staff position of the Executive Office of the President. The heads of the executive departments and most other senior federal officers at cabinet or sub-cabinet level receive their salary under a fixed five-level pay plan known as the Executive Schedule, codified in Title 5 of the United States Code. Twenty-one positions, including the heads of the executive departments and others, receiving Level I pay are listed in 5 U. S. C. § 5312, those forty-six positions on Level II pay are listed in 5 U. S. C. § 5313. As of January 2016, the Level I annual pay was set at $205,700; the annual salary of the Vice President is $235,300. The salary level was set by the Government Salary Reform Act of 1989, which provides an automatic cost of living adjustment for federal employees; the Vice President receives th
John C. Breckinridge
John Cabell Breckinridge was an American lawyer and soldier. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever vice president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861, he was a member of the Democratic party. He served in the U. S. Senate during the outbreak of the American Civil War, but was expelled after joining the Confederate Army, he was appointed Confederate secretary of war in 1865. Breckinridge was born near Kentucky to a prominent local family. After non-combat service during the Mexican–American War, he was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1849, where he took a states' rights position against interference with slavery. Elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1850, he allied with Stephen A. Douglas in support of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. After reapportionment in 1854 made his re-election unlikely, he declined to run for another term, he was nominated for vice-president at the 1856 Democratic National Convention to balance a ticket headed by James Buchanan.
The Democrats won the election, but Breckinridge had little influence with Buchanan and, as presiding officer of the Senate, could not express his opinions in debates. He joined Buchanan in supporting the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, which led to a split in the Democratic Party. In 1859, he was elected to succeed Senator John J. Crittenden at the end of Crittenden's term in 1861. After Southern Democrats walked out of the 1860 Democratic National Convention, the party's northern and southern factions held rival conventions in Baltimore that nominated Douglas and Breckinridge for president. A third party, the Constitutional Union Party, nominated John Bell; these three men split the Southern vote, while more anti-slavery Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won all but three electoral votes in the North, allowing him to win the election. Breckinridge carried most of the Southern states. Taking his seat in the Senate, Breckinridge urged compromise to preserve the Union. Unionists were in control of the state legislature, gained more support when Confederate forces moved into Kentucky.
Breckinridge fled behind Confederate lines. He was commissioned a brigadier general and expelled from the Senate. Following the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, he was promoted to major general, in October he was assigned to the Army of Mississippi under Braxton Bragg. After Bragg charged that Breckinridge's drunkenness had contributed to defeats at Stone River and Missionary Ridge, after Breckinridge joined many other high-ranking officers in criticizing Bragg, he was transferred to the Trans-Allegheny Department, where he won his most significant victory in the 1864 Battle of New Market. After participating in Jubal Early's campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, Breckinridge was charged with defending supplies in Tennessee and Virginia. In February 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Secretary of War. Concluding that the war was hopeless, he urged Davis to arrange a national surrender. After the fall of Richmond, Breckinridge ensured the preservation of Confederate records, he escaped the country and lived abroad for more than three years.
When President Andrew Johnson extended amnesty to all former Confederates in 1868, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky, but resisted all encouragement to resume his political career. War injuries sapped his health, he died in 1875. Breckinridge is regarded as an effective military commander. Though well-liked in Kentucky, he was reviled by many in the North as a traitor. John Cabell Breckinridge was born at Thorn Hill, his family's estate near Lexington, Kentucky on January 16, 1821; the fourth of six children born to Joseph "Cabell" Breckinridge and Mary Clay Breckinridge, he was their only son. His mother was the daughter of Samuel Stanhope Smith, who founded Hampden–Sydney College in 1775, granddaughter of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Having served as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives, Breckinridge's father had been appointed Kentucky's Secretary of State just prior to his son's birth. In February, one month after Breckinridge's birth, the family moved with Governor John Adair to the Governor's Mansion in Frankfort, so that his father could better attend to his duties as Secretary of State.
In August 1823, an illness referred to as "the prevailing fever" struck Frankfort, Cabell Breckinridge took his children to stay with his mother in Lexington. On his return, both he and his wife fell ill. Cabell Breckinridge died, his assets were not enough to pay his debts, his widow joined the children in Lexington, supported by her mother-in-law. While in Lexington, Breckinridge attended Pisgah Academy in Woodford County, his grandmother taught him the political philosophies of her late husband, John Breckinridge, who served in the U. S. Senate and as Attorney General under President Thomas Jefferson; as a state legislator, Breckinridge had introduced the Kentucky Resolutions in 1798, which stressed states' rights and endorsed the doctrine of nullification in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. After an argument between Breckinridge's mother and grandmother in 1832, he, his mother, his sister Laetitia moved to Danville, Kentucky, to live with his sister Frances and her husband, president of Centre College.
Breckinridge's uncle, William Breckinridge, was on the faculty there, prompting him to enroll in November 1834. Among his schoolmates were Beriah Magoffin, William Birney, Theodore O'Hara, Thomas L. Crittenden and Jeremiah Boyle. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in September 1838, he spent the following winter as a "resident graduate" at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton Univers
African American Civil War Memorial Museum
The African American Civil War Memorial Museum consists of a memorial and a museum that commemorate the service of 209,145 African-American soldiers and about 7,000 white and 2,145 Hispanic soldiers, amounting to nearly 220,000, plus the approximate 20,000 unsegregated Navy sailors, who fought for the Union in the American Civil War among the 175 regiments of United States Colored Troops. The Memorial is at the corner of Vermont Avenue, 10th Street, U Street NW in Washington, D. C.. It holds a 9-foot bronze statue, The Spirit of Freedom, by Ed Hamilton of Louisville, commissioned by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1993 and completed in 1997; the memorial includes a walking area with curved panel short walls inscribed with the names of the men who served in the war. The Museum is across the street from the Memorial, at 1925 Vermont Ave. NW. Plans are in place for it to move into the former Grimké School, at 1923 Vermont Ave. NW; as of 2018 the Museum is housed in the former gymnasium of the school, converted into an office building in the 1980s.
Both are served by the U Street station on the Washington Metro, served by the Yellow and Green Lines. The memorial was developed by Museum, it was transferred to the National Park Service on October 27, 2004. The National Mall and Memorial Parks office of the NPS now manages the site; the related African American Civil War Museum is located directly across from the memorial at 1925 Vermont Avenue. From July 16–18, 2011, it celebrated its grand opening in a new and permanent facility at this address, with a weekend of speakers and events devoted to racial reconciliation, it plans four years of activities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the war and African-American contributions. The museum opened in January 1999 in a building two blocks west of the memorial in the historic U Street Corridor, a neighborhood traditionally the heart of African-American entertainment and theater in Washington; the museum enables visitors and descendants of the United States Colored Troops to better understand their stories.
It displays photographs, newspaper articles, replicas of period clothing, uniforms and weaponry of the Civil War. The African American Civil War Memorial Registry at the museum documents the family trees of more than 2,000 descendants of those men who served with the USCT. Other descendants may register. Visitors can search the database to find ancestors and relatives registered in the Descendants Registry. A number of men have had their service and lives noted. Among the near 220,000 names here are some. Many earned a Medal of Honor, the highest and most prestigious personal military decoration that may be awarded to recognize U. S. military service members who distinguished themselves by acts of valor, during their service in a black regiment during the war. Additionally many earned a brevet promotion, a warrant giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct, but without conferring the authority, precedence, or pay of real rank. George E. Albee was a lieutenant in the 36th United States Colored Infantry.
Samuel C. Armstrong Commanded union black soldiers in the civil war, established Hampton university 1868. Served as a lieutenant colonel assigned to the 9th United States Colored Infantry and command of the 8th United States Colored Troops. John F. Appleton had command of the 81st Regiment Infantry U. S. Colored Troops. William H. Appleton served in the 4th United States Colored Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Alexander Thomas Augusta was a Regimental Surgeon of the 7th United States Colored Troops. William H. Barnes served in the 38th United States Colored Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Charles L. Barrell served in the 102nd Regiment United States Colored Troops as a flag holder, attained the rank of First Lieutenant, received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Jesse T. Barrick served in the 57th United States Colored Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Powhatan Beaty served in the 5th United States Colored Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war.
Orson W. Bennett served in the 102nd Regiment United States Colored Troops and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Frederick Benteen served in the 138th United States Colored Volunteers and was given awards for his service during the war. William Birney was a colonel of the 22nd United States Colored Troops and with the 3rd Division of the X Corps and given awards for his service during the war. Lionel F. Booth was a commander of the 6th United States Regiment Colored Heavy Artillery and was killed in action on April 12, 1864 at the Battle of Fort Pillow. Felix Brannigan was officer in the 103rd United States Colored Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. James H. Bronson served in the 5th U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment, rose to the rank of first sergeant, received the Medal of Honor for service during the war. Peter Bruner escaped slavery and served in the 12th Regiment Heavy Artillery United States Colored Troops. Geor
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property; the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually; the remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States.
While National Register listings are symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Historic sites outside the country proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, multiple property submissions; the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties; some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service.
These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, some National Monuments. On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices; the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park system. Approval of the act, amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy; the 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, with director George B.
Hartzog Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register; the division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund. The first official Keeper of the Register was an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but for commercial structures as well. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.
S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates." Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate, he was described as a skilled administrator, sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, local governments. Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register; the 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register.
Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and referred to as Washington or D. C. is the capital of the United States. Founded after the American Revolution as the seat of government of the newly independent country, Washington was named after George Washington, first President of the United States and Founding Father; as the seat of the United States federal government and several international organizations, Washington is an important world political capital. The city is one of the most visited cities in the world, with more than 20 million tourists annually; the signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of a capital district located along the Potomac River on the country's East Coast. The U. S. Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U. S. Congress, the District is therefore not a part of any state; the states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, which included the pre-existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria.
The City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia. Washington had an estimated population of 702,455 as of July 2018, making it the 20th most populous city in the United States. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington's metropolitan area, the country's sixth largest, had a 2017 estimated population of 6.2 million residents. All three branches of the U. S. federal government are centered in the District: Congress and the U. S. Supreme Court. Washington is home to many national monuments, museums situated on or around the National Mall; the city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profit, lobbying groups, professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the Human Rights Campaign, the International Finance Corporation, the American Red Cross.
A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973. However, Congress may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, but the District has no representation in the Senate. The District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century. One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. In his Federalist No. 43, published January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.
Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia. Known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. Article One, Section Eight, of the Constitution permits the establishment of a "District as may, by cession of particular states, the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States". However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital. In what is now known as the Compromise of 1790, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson came to an agreement that the federal government would pay each state's remaining Revolutionary War debts in exchange for establishing the new national capital in the southern United States. On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River; the exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16.
Formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory: the port of Georgetown, founded in 1751, the city of Alexandria, founded in 1749. During 1791–92, Andrew Ellicott and several assistants, including a free African American astronomer named Benjamin Banneker, surveyed the borders of the federal district and placed boundary stones at every mile point. Many of the stones are still standing. A new federal city was constructed on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of Georgetown. On September 9, 1791, the three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington; the federal district was named Columbia, a poetic name for the United States in use at that time. Congress held its first session in Washington on November 17, 1800. Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 that organized the District and placed the entire territory under the exclusive control of the federal
National Historic Site (United States)
National Historic Site is a designation for an recognized area of national historic significance in the United States. An NHS contains a single historical feature directly associated with its subject. A related but separate designation, the National Historical Park, is an area that extends beyond single properties or buildings, its resources include a mix of historic and sometimes significant natural features; as of 2018, there are 89 NHSs. Most NHPs and NHSs are managed by the National Park Service; some federally designated sites are owned by local authorities or owned, but are authorized to request assistance from the NPS as affiliated areas. One property, Grey Towers National Historic Site, is managed by the U. S. Forest Service; as of October 15, 1966, all historic areas, including NHPs and NHSs, in the NPS are automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are about 90,000 NRHP sites, the large majority of which are neither owned nor managed by the NPS. Of these, about 2,500 have been designated at the highest status as National Historic Landmark sites.
National Historic Sites are federally owned and administered properties, though some remain under private or local government ownership. There are 89 NHSs, of which 77 are official NPS units, 11 are NPS affiliated areas, 1 is managed by the US Forest Service. Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of NHSs were established by United States Secretaries of the Interior, but most have been authorized by acts of Congress. In 1937, the first NHS was created in Salem, Massachusetts in order to preserve and interpret the maritime history of New England and the United States. There is one International Historic Site in the US park system, a unique designation given to Saint Croix Island, Maine, on the New Brunswick border; the title, given to the site of the first permanent French settlement in America, recognizes the influence that has had on both Canada and the United States. The NPS does not distinguish among these designations in terms of their preservation or management policies. In the United States, sites are "historic", while parks are "historical".
The NPS explains that a site can be intrinsically historic, while a park is a modern legal invention. As such, a park is not itself "historic", but can be called "historical" when it contains historic resources, it is the resources. Klondike Gold Rush International Historical Park was formally established in 1998 by the United States and Canada, the year of the centennial of the gold rush the park commemorates; the park comprises Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Washington and Alaska, Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site in British Columbia. It was this trail which so many prospectors took in hopes of making their fortunes in the Klondike River district of Yukon. National Historic Sites List of World Heritage Sites in North America Designation of National Park System Units
