List of endangered U.S. places runs the gamut

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2001 list of 11 endangered historic places runs the gamut from theaters, to homes, to barns, to valleys and neighborhoods, to temples and churches.

To make the list, a site "has to be an historic place that's really special," said Peter Brink, vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Brink said places selected for the list had to be "special in terms of history, architecture, the way people feel about it and it has to be threatened."

The Senator movie theater in Baltimore, Maryland, is among three theaters that the nonprofit group says are threatened by the spread of multiscreen movie houses.

VIDEO CNN's Eileen O'Connor reports on a Washington, D.C., building that's on the 2001 list of 11 most endangered historic sites (June 25) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   INTERACTIVE Pictures of the 11 endangered historic places

Many of the once beautiful theaters, often designed in art deco, Egyptian and Chinese motifs, have been closed and demolished because they cannot economically compete with the megaplex theater chains, according to the trust.

In Washington, the former home of Carter G. Woodson, a man dubbed as the father of black history, also appears on the trust's list. The modest red brick row-house was built in the 1890s and has lost its luster because of its overgrown lawn and broken windows.

Currently owned by the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, it has been abandoned for nearly 10 years, according to the trust's Web site.

Woodson used the house to start a publishing company that was the first to accept African-American authors. Historians say Woodson was also the first to chronicle African-American culture and history.

"The students, the youth need to know that," said Irena Webster of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History. "The community needs to know the value of what this man has done."

In Hawaii, the U.S. Navy is planning housing and commercial development on historic Ford Island, which is just a few yards away from the Pearl Harbor memorial to the USS Arizona.

Noting the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the trust has expressed concern that developing Ford Island might demean its historical significance.

The trust has also singled out some of America's first churches, many of which were founded a century ago by immigrants from Germany, Poland, Iceland, Russia and Scandinavia, according to the trust. Falling into disuse, many of these churches are poorly maintained or have been demolished.

Places as well as structures are on the list, including Stevens Creek Valley east of Lincoln, Nebraska; Texas' lower Rio Grande Valley and Colorado's Telluride Valley, all threatened by commercial development or urban sprawl.

Referred to as the "Harlem of the South," the trust said Richmond, Virginia's, Jackson Ward district is threatened by urban renewal and development.

The 150-year-old Miller-Purdue barn in Grant County, Indiana, is threatened by neglect, the trust said, and so is a 120-year-old Chinese temple in California's Sacramento Valley.

A somewhat younger building, 1957's CIGNA Corp. headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is set to be demolished. That would be a grave mistake, the trust said, because the "sleek lines and crisp details" of the building's award-winning design "set the pattern for suburban office parks for the remainder of the 20th century."

CNN Correspondent Eileen O'Connor contributed to this report.