George Washington Masonic National Memorial Named a National Historic Landmark

The federal government named Alexandria’s George Washington Masonic National Memorial a national landmark today.

Here’s what the National Park Service and Interior Department had to say about it, from the news release issued today:

Towering over the first president’s hometown of Alexandria, the George Washington Masonic Lodge National Memorial is a prominent feature of the Washington, D.C. area skyline.

Today, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced the memorial as one of four newly designated national historic landmarks. The designation recognizes sites that possess exceptional value and quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.

“Though very different from one another, these places reflect the creatively and ingenuity of the American spirit,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “National historic landmarks are an example of how the mission of the National Park Service extends beyond park boundaries to recognize additional places of national significance in communities throughout the country.”

In naming the Masonic Temple as a national landmark, the government said:

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial stands among the most architecturally significant projects to honor George Washington and one of the boldest private efforts to memorialize him. The Grand Lodges of the states and territories, which usually operate independently, joined forces to build this national memorial. This eclectic building combines neoclassical architecture common to American memorials and civic buildings with a modern skyscraper design.

Other landmarks around the country also named today were:

• First Peoples Buffalo Jump, Cascade County, Mont.

First Peoples Buffalo Jump is one of the oldest, largest, and best preserved bison cliff jump locations in North America. Its monumental record of stone surface architecture, deeply stratified bison bone deposits, multiple tipi ring concentrations, and extensive evidence of ceremonies indicate that, for approximately 5,700 years, First Peoples Buffalo Jump held the paramount position in the Northern Plains “bison culture.” This site holds the potential for defining the evolving sophistication of mass-procurement strategies of hunter-gatherer societies in the Northern Plains, and may also provide insights regarding cultural development of Precontact hunter-gatherer societies in the western United States.

• Lafayette Park, Detroit, Mich.

Lafayette Park is one of the earliest planned and most fully-realized urban renewal projects of the mid-twentieth century. It succeeded in creating an ethnically-diverse community that continues to thrive today and is generally regarded as one of the best and most successful examples of a residential urban renewal development in the nation. It was a collaborative design endeavor between architect (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), developer (Herbert Greenwald), planner (Ludwig Hilberseimer), and landscape architect (Alfred Caldwell).

• Red Rocks Park and Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp, Jefferson County, Colo.

The outstanding architecture and landscape architecture of Red Rocks Park and Mount Morrison Civilian Conservation Corps Camp illustrate the principles and practices of New Deal-era naturalistic park design and master planning in a metropolitan park as well as the use of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor to develop such a park. Mount Morrison CCC Camp is one of the few surviving camps in the nation that retains a high concentration of original resources. The amphitheater in the park is one of America’s best known performing arts venues, famous for its natural acoustics, design, and setting.

Established in 1935, the National Historic Landmarks Program is administered by the National Park Service on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior. The agency works with preservation officials, private property owners, and other partners interested in nominating properties for National Historic Landmark designation.

Completed nominations are reviewed by the National Park System Advisory Board, which makes recommendations for designation to the Secretary of the Interior. If designated, property ownership remains the same, but each site receives a plaque and is eligible for technical preservation advice.