View source for National Historic Landmarks

National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been designated by the United States Government as being nationally significant in American history and culture.<ref>https://www.nps.gov/nhl/contact/faq.htm</ref>  Many of the most renowned historic properties in the nation are Landmarks, such as Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, the Apollo Mission Control Center, and Martin Luther King's Birthplace.  Only properties that represent significant contributions to American history may be designated.  Nationwide, there are 2,500 National Historic Landmarks, a large percentage of which are located in the Northeast.

The application criteria are set forth by the National Park Service.<ref>https://www.nps.gov/nhl/apply/eligibility.htm</ref>  It is more difficult, but not impossible, to attain the status of a National Historic Landmark when the significance of the property arose in the last fifty years.  Forty Acres in California, which was the headquarters for the first permanent agricultural labor union in the United States, the United Farmworkers of America (UFW), qualified for the less-than-50-years exception.<ref>https://www.nps.gov/nhl/apply/eligibility/exception8.htm</ref>

The first step is to contact the National Park Service and then fill out and submit an application that is available online.<ref>https://www.nps.gov/nhl/apply/write.htm</ref>  The review process typically takes 2-5 years.

In Missouri there are currently 37 National Historic Landmarks, 15 of which are located in St. Louis itself.<ref>St. Louis is one of only three independent cities, unconnected with any county, that exist in the United States outside of Virginia.</ref>  Only one of the National Historic Landmarks in Missouri is located in St. Louis County, which is "White Haven," a green wooden building which was sporadically a home of Ulysses S. Grant.  President Harry S Truman's home in Independence, Missouri (near Kansas City) is another prominent National Historic Landmark.

In the city of St. Louis, the Gateway Arch is the most prominent of the landmarks the total list of 15 landmarks is as follows:

#19th century Anheuser-Busch Brewery (brick buildings)
#19th century Gothic Revival style, Christ Church Cathedral
#19th century Eads Bridge, built in 1874, having a length of more than a mile.  Using cantilevers, it connected the rail system.
#Joseph Erlanger House, his residence from 1917 until his death in 1965. Unusually obscure among landmarks, this house has fallen into a decrepit state.
#Field House, home of the attorney for Dred Scott
#Gateway Arch
#Scott Joplin Residence, home for only two years (1901-1903) of the famous composer
#Missouri Botanical Garden
#Shelley House, the subject of a key civil rights decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on radially restrictive covenants
#Tower Grove Park
#Union Station
#United States Customhouse And Post Office
#Wainwright Building, one of the first skyscrapers and modern office buildings in the world, now owned by the State of Missouri
#Washington University Hilltop Campus Historic District

Designation of National Historic Landmark status is done by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, an agency with the Executive Branch in Washington, D.C.

== References ==

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