National Historic Landmark. The month of May is Preservation Month and to celebrate, I’ll be featuring preservation related Building Language terms for the five Tuesdays in May! We’ll start with National Historic Landmarks. A National Historic Landmark is a structure, building, object, site, or district that has both national significance and maintains a high level of integrity (the elements that make a building “historic”). National significance means that the property connects and interprets history at the national level. To have a high level of integrity, the property should be relatively unchanged from its period of importance.

Only 2,500 properties nationwide are designated as National Historic Landmarks (or NHLs, as they are abbreviated), with only 38 found in Indiana. You might be surprised to learn that of those 38, only 8 are found in Indianapolis/Marion County.

The eight National Historic Landmarks in Indianapolis:

Broad Ripple Park Carousel
Butler (Hinkle) Fieldhouse
Benjamin Harrison Home
Indiana World War Memorial Plaza Historic District
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company
Oldfields
James Whitcomb Riley House

Butler (Hinkle) Fieldhouse, 510 West 49th Street

Benjamin Harrison House, 1230 North Delaware Street

Indiana War Memorial, Indiana World War Memorial Plaza Historic District

James Whitcomb Riley Home, 528 Lockerbie Street

If you have been to all eight of these properties, you probably know they convey a strong sense of history. These eight sites illustrate the “best of the best” in Indianapolis ranging from high style architecture to interpreting the sports history of Indy. You can see the full list of NHLs in Indiana here.

The National Historic Landmark program is administered by the National Park Service.

Add it to your vocabulary – how might one use today’s Building Language term in their everyday life?

As a National Historic Landmark, we made sure to carefully chose any work we completed on the building.