VeggiePlace.com Articles Details

The farm families of Nebraska's Stevens Creek Settlements have survived drought, prairie fires and grasshopper plagues.

But a modern-day danger might just finish them. A proposed highway could bisect the region; it would replace historic farmland with traffic and sprawl.

The settlements are among the buildings, neighborhoods and stretches of land included in a list released today of ''America's 11 most endangered historic places.''

The National Trust for Historic Preservation says that these cultural treasures are threatened by sprawl, neglect and historic insensitivity. Also on the list: a Chinese temple on California's Yuba River and an African-American neighborhood in Virginia.

''There are so many sites deserving to be listed,'' National Trust President Richard Moe says. ''It's always a poignant process.''

At the Stevens Creek Stock Farm outside Lincoln, Neb., the community's ''endangered'' status will be noted today with a country band and cinnamon rolls for 50 guests. Family matriarch Rhoda Retzlaff baked the rolls. ''She's been baking for days,'' says Retzlaff's daughter, Marleen Rickertsen, 53, whose family is in its seventh generation on the farm.

Once a hobby for the tea-sipping set, historic preservation now embraces efforts to save an array of ethnic treasures. It's not just about battlefields or Founding Fathers' birthplaces. This year's list spotlights everything from century-old prairie churches, built by pioneers and now fading with North Dakota's population, to a 200-mile corridor in Texas, impoverished but rich in Mexican-American history.

Increasingly, the National Trust is using its clout to shape larger issues, from containing sprawl to spurring investment in deteriorating neighborhoods. In the 13 years the National Trust has compiled its list, only one structure has been lost: the Mapes Hotel in Reno. It was demolished last year.

Among this year's threatened spots:

* The 10-square-block Jackson Ward Historic District in Richmond, Va., which once swung to jazz and enjoyed such prosperity that it was called the ''Black Wall Street.'' Jackson Ward is one of the largest African-American historic districts. It boasts such famous offspring as tap-dancing great Bill ''Bojangles'' Robinson and Maggie Walker, the nation's first female bank president.

In the 1950s, construction for I-95 destroyed 200 homes. Some 600 historically significant structures remain, but many are vacant or in disrepair.

Anthony Moore, head of the Historic Jackson Ward Association, estimates that at least $200 million is needed to bring life back to Jackson Ward.

* The Bok Kai Temple in Marysville, Calif., which was built in 1880 by Chinese immigrants drawn by the Gold Rush. Taxed by time and weather, Bok Kai suffers most from water damage -- ironic, since the temple was built and named to honor a Chinese water god.

Marysville, in the Sacramento Valley, once was home to California's largest Chinese community outside San Francisco, but numbers have dwindled to a few hundred. Resources to repair Bok Kai have been elusive. Less than $30,000 of a $1 million goal has been raised. A coalition is fighting to save the landmark, which has gilded altars and paintings depicting Chinese values.

* The Stevens Creek Settlements, named for the water source that drew German, Swedish and Czech immigrants before Nebraska's statehood in 1867. The settlements are just 5 miles from Lincoln's outskirts. Ten of 11 farmsteads are still worked.

The threat: A 13-mile beltway, one of three possible routes. Officials say a highway is needed to relieve traffic through Lincoln. A high-speed road would ruin the farms and the bucolic surroundings that draw hikers, bikers and school field trippers, owners say.

''The next thing you'd have are 7-Elevens and strip malls,'' says Lyn Wineman, 34, whose ancestors settled the Stock Farm her grandparents still work. ''These families want desperately to keep these farms, but a highway cutting right through the middle will make that very difficult.''

   Back to Articles        Print this Article