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American Morning

Preservation Group Issues Bricks-and-Mortar Endangered Species List

Aired June 25, 2001 - 09:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, we've all heard a lot about endangered species. We go now to Washington and CNN's Jeanne Meserve for more on endangered places.

Good morning, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. Over time, our past is slipping away from us. A list today of the most endangered places, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. A number of historical movie theaters like The Senator in Baltimore; the Bok Kai Temple, built in California 120 years ago by Chinese immigrants; Colorado's Telluride Valley; CIGNA Campus in Bloomfield, Connecticut; the Washington home of civil rights leader Carter G. Woodson; and Ford Island, adjacent Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor. There's the Miller Purdue Barn in Indiana; highway development threatens to wipe out Stevens Creek Settlements in Nebraska; the Pioneer Prairie Churches of North Dakota, those that haven't already been burned or collapsed; Los Caminos del Rio in Texas, and Richmond's Jackson Ward, once called the Harlem of the South.

Our Eileen O'Connor takes a closer look at the Woodson House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This run-down row house in Washington, D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood is just one site both honored -- and shamed -- to be included on the 2001 list of the 11 most endangered historic sites, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

PETER BRINK, HISTORIAN: It has to be a historic place that's really special -- special in terms of history, architecture, the way people feel about it -- and it has to be threatened.

IRENA WEBSTER, PRESERVATIONIST: This is the Carter G. Woodson Home, that has been...

O'CONNOR: Known as the father of black history, Carter Woodson founded the first publishing company to accept African-American authors, the first to chronicle African-American culture and history.

WILLIAM SIMONS, PRESERVATIONIST: The capital was built by slave labor. Carter G. Woodson knew that, and he wrote about that in many of his works. But to the rest of the people, they were totally ignorant of that fact.

O'CONNOR: Irena Webster wants to renovate these crumbling walls and use Woodson's home as an office for the association he founded to study black history. She also wants to buy two adjoining buildings for an education center.

WEBSTER: He started the Associated Publishing Company right here. And this is history, and the students, the youth, need to know that. The community needs to know the value of what this man has done.

O'CONNOR (on camera): So it's not just a building?

WEBSTER: No, it's just not a building, it's an institution.

O'CONNOR (voice-over): Along with Woodson house, the list for 2001 includes a Chinese temple in California, buildings in Texas from early Spanish settlements, the Telluride Valley in Colorado, and a barn in Indiana. Over the last 14 years, 120 historic sites like the Woodson House have been listed, only one has been lost.

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MESERVE: And Eileen O'Connor joins us now from the Woodson House. Eileen, what's the estimated price tag on restoring that building?

O'CONNOR: Well, about $700,000 to restore this run-down house and about $5 million to buy those two homes next door and make it into that education center. Now, right now, down the street, at the Shiloh Baptist Church, a ceremony is going on. The hope is that by highlighting this place and those other on the list that the spotlight will give these places the funds to make these projects a reality.

MESERVE: OK, Eileen O'Connor at the Woodson house, thanks so much for joining us there today, and once again, this has been a very successful program; 120 properties listed over the years, only one has been lost.

Leon, back to you.

HARRIS: All right, thanks, Jeanne. We'll see you later on throughout the morning.

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