Executive Summary
executive branch actions where relevant to the federal historic preservation framework. Collectively, federal efforts to protect and use historic properties strengthen communities and contribute to a stronger economy through heritage tourism and job creation. A list of all responding agencies and their history of Section 3 reporting can be found in the Appendix to the report. This 2024 report chronicles how the federal government is identifying, protecting, and using historic properties, highlighting many examples throughout of best practices, successes, and challenges met by agencies regarding the themes of climate change, equity, infrastructure, and job creation. The report concludes with six key findings: 1. Faced with the challenges of resiliency and preparedness to climate change, the federal government is seeking collaborative approaches to the identification and protection of historic properties that incorporate equity and the input and participation of parties with special expertise in the historic, cultural, and natural resources affected. 2. Federal agencies are using program alternatives to constructively plan for property management activities and improve the efficiency of Section 106 project reviews while contributing to comprehensive historic property management strategies on federal lands. 3. Partnerships can leverage limited federal resources and provide important benefits to federal agencies in the identification, protection, and use of historic properties while enabling important educational and job training opportunities and the promotion of a diverse workforce. 4. Active collaboration and timely involvement with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in property management activities, climate preparedness, and infrastructure planning enhances outcomes and remains critically important. 5. Increases in remote work and telework as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have led federal decision makers to evaluate their office space needs and seek opportunities for adapting underutilized space, including historic buildings and facilities. 6. Virtual meeting applications, tours, education programs, and programming have assisted in expanding federal agency outreach for heritage tourism and public engagement with historic places. Fulfilling its statutory role to assist federal agencies in strengthening their historic preservation programs, the ACHP offers its recommendations to foster the efficient, sustainable, and equitable advancement of historic preservation in the federal government. Beyond this report, the ACHP will continue to assist federal agencies in implementing these recommendations so their future actions are based on a full awareness that historic properties are important public assets that warrant consideration across the spectrum of federal planning, management, and construction activities.
AS OWNER AND STEWARD of a vast array of historic properties, the federal government plays a centrally important role in advancing the American preservation ethic. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) has assembled this report–the seventh of its kind in 20 years–to highlight federal agency efforts to identify, protect, and use historic properties in their care, and to inspire the expansion of such efforts. The successes and opportunities outlined in this report demonstrate how federal historic preservation activities have advanced climate adaptation and sustainability initiatives; critical infrastructure to the American people; the federal government’s trust responsibility with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians; environmental justice; and a diverse and well- trained preservation workforce. Information in this report is derived primarily from 26 federal agency progress reports submitted to the ACHP and the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to Section 3 of the “Preserve America” Executive Order (EO) 13287. Agency reports focused on progress made in identifying, protecting, and using historic properties in federal ownership since 2021, the last year for which the triennial report was issued. Federal agencies continue to creatively rehabilitate and reuse historic properties as well as partner with communities to steward these resources for future generations. Additionally, this report highlights
The James A. Farley Building was designed by McKim, Mead & White and opened in 1912, becoming New York City’s main United States Postal Service branch. Following a restoration project that began in 2019, the space now connects seamlessly to the brand new Moynihan Train Hall. (Higgins Quasebarth & Partners, LLC)
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IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 5
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