Malea Martin

1 month ago | savingplaces.org | Malea Martin

photo by: Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation Just one week after it was named to the National Trust’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list in 2022, Jamestown experienced one of its worst flooding episodes in recent history. “We had a Nor’easter off the coast that didn’t even drop any rain on us, but it raised the water levels in the James River to the point that we had two feet of water over average levels,” said Sean Romo, director of archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.

2 months ago | savingplaces.org | Malea Martin

When former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico came to Chicago in 1991, he made sure to pay a visit to the Little Village neighborhood, or “La Villita,” as locals call it. He was greeted by about 2,000 residents who welcomed him at the Little Village Arch, designed by artist and architect Adrián Lozano and constructed in 1990–91 at the heart of this largely Mexican American community.

2 months ago | savingplaces.org | Malea Martin

In 1855, a skilled seamstress named Charity Polk sat down to sew several sets of clothing for children enslaved at Shadows-on-the-Teche, a sugar cane plantation in New Iberia, Louisiana. But Polk, who had been enslaved at the property from birth, ignored her instructions to follow a single-size pattern and instead sewed the cotton vests and trousers in a variety of seemingly random children’s sizes.

2 months ago | savingplaces.org | Malea Martin

In each Transitions section of Preservation magazine, we highlight places of local and national importance that have recently been restored, are currently threatened, have been saved from demolition or neglect, or have been lost. Here are five from Winter 2025. Restored: Webb BuildingFor the past 50 years, the historic Webb Building in downtown Kirkland, Washington, was a revolving door for restaurants and bars.

Dec 12, 2024 | savingplaces.org | Malea Martin

After more than four decades on the road, and 50 states’ worth of photos to show for it, Carol Highsmith has well earned her moniker of “America’s Photographer.” And with her ongoing donation of her life’s work to the Library of Congress—expected to grow to more than 100,000 photographs—Highsmith's America will be preserved for posterity. For Highsmith, nothing signifies Americana like Route 66. It’s “the Mother Road,” as John Steinbeck dubbed it in The Grapes of Wrath.