The Preserve America initiative recognizes communities that: protect and celebrate their heritage; use their historic assets for economic development and community revitalization; and encourage people to experience and appreciate local historic resources through education and heritage tourism programs. Preserve America is a White House initiative in cooperation with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation; the U.S. Departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities; and the President's Council on Environmental Quality.

In honor of the Preserve America initiative, Teaching with Historic Places has posted on the web the following lesson plans that feature historic sites in Preserve America Communities. These lessons, based on sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places, are free and ready for immediate classroom use by students in history and social studies classes. The lessons are listed alphabetically by states and then by communities within the states.

• Huntsville, Alabama, America's Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier
  Discover how NASA, private industry, and research institutions across the country cooperated to develop and implement the complex technology that enabled man to land on the moon.
  
  
• Mobile, Alabama, Fort Morgan and the Battle of Mobile Bay
  Follow Admiral Farragut's attack on Fort Morgan and Mobile Bay, and consider the human reaction to technologies such as ironclads and underwater mines.
  
  
• Selma, Alabama, The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation
  Learn how people in Selma, Alabama, and national civil rights organizations worked together to end the unconstitutional denial of voting rights to African Americans in the South.
  
  
• Little Rock, Arkansas and Canterbury, Connecticut, From Canterbury to Little Rock: The Struggle for Educational Equality for African Americans
  Understand the magnitude of the struggle involved in securing equal educational opportunities for African Americans by examining the 1957 attempt to integrate Little Rock's schools, and by examining how Prudence Crandall challenged the prevailing attitude toward educating African Americans in New England prior to the Civil War.
  
  
• Colorado Springs, Colorado, The United States Air Force Academy: Founding a Proud Tradition
  Learn how the expansion of military air power in the first half of the 20th century led to the establishment of the United States Air Force and the Air Force Academy.
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• Denver, Colorado, Federal Courthouses and Post Offices: Symbols of Pride and Permanence in American Communities (136)
  Learn how three buildings restored and maintained by the U.S. General Services Administration illustrate the important role the federal government played and continues to play in communities across the country.
  
  
• Ontario, California,  The Frankish Building: A Reflection of the Success of Ontario, California
  Analyze how this local landmark came to symbolize the commercial prosperity of a western town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  
  
• Richmond, California, Liberty Ships and Victory Ships, America's Lifeline in War
  Learn how the United States mobilized a massive construction effort to build a large merchant fleet to serve in war and peace.
  
  
• Tampa, Florida, Ybor City: Cigar Capital of the World
  Discover how immigrant cigar makers in this section of Tampa, Florida, adapted to life in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th century while maintaining their ethnic identity.
  
  
• Rome, Georgia, The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
  Understand the factors that contributed both to the forced removal of the Cherokees from their homelands and to painful divisions within the tribe.
  
  
• Savannah, Georgia,  Savannah, Georgia: The Lasting Legacy of Colonial City Planning
  Learn about James Oglethorpe and his enduring city plan from the colonial era.
  
  
• Walker County, Georgia, The Trail of Tears and the Forced Relocation of the Cherokee Nation
  Understand the factors that contributed both to the forced removal of the Cherokees from their homelands and to painful divisions within the tribe.
  
  
• Kamiah, Idaho, The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Documenting the Uncharted Northwest
  Learn how the 1804-1806 expedition effectively opened the Northwest to the influence of the United States, established relations with numerous American Indian nations, and gathered useful scientific documentation about the West.
  
  
• New Orleans, Louisiana:  The Vieux Carré: A Creole Neighborhood in New Orleans 
  Examine New Orleans' distinctive French Quarter, a vibrant reflection of its Creole heritage, and recall the city's role in American westward expansion.
  
  
• Baltimore, Maryland, Liberty Ships and Victory Ships, America's Lifeline in War
  Learn how the United States mobilized a massive construction effort to build a large merchant fleet to serve in war and peace.
  
  
• Lowell, Massachusetts, Building America's Industrial Revolution: The Boott Cotton Mills of Lowell, MA
  Learn how technology applied to textile mills revolutionized industry, in turn affecting mill architecture, city planning, and transportation.
  
  
• Worcester, Massachusetts, Mechanics Hall: Symbol of Pride and Industry
  Examine how the advent of industrialization in 19th-century America impacted the workforce in New England's Blackstone River Valley.
  
  
• Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wheat Farms, Flour Mills, and Railroads: A Web of Interdependence
  Examine the inextricable connections binding railroads, North Dakota wheat fields, and Minnesota flour mills during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  
  
• Corinth, Mississippi, The Siege and Battle of Corinth: A New Kind of War
  Understand how newly developed technologies affected two military engagements and one tiny town in Mississippi during the Civil War.
  
  
• Independence, Missouri, Harry Truman and Independence, Missouri: "This is Where I Belong"
  Learn why the life of the 33rd U.S. President serves as an example of civic duty and explore the town that helped form his character.
  
  
• Las Vegas, Nevada,  The Old Mormon Fort: Birthplace of Las Vegas, Nevada 
  Learn how an obscure settlement created during Mormon expansion grew into a well-known and prosperous American city, and consider factors that hinder or contribute to the evolution of early settlements into permanent communities, towns, and cities.
  
  
• Buffalo, New York, Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site: Birthplace of the Modern Presidency
  Examine the circumstances under which Theodore Roosevelt first became President of the United State and how his policies and actions modernized the presidency.
  
  
• Dutchess County, New York, First Lady of the World: Eleanor Roosevelt at Val-Kill
  Examine how Roosevelt's activities at home reflected her interest in humanitarianism, as epitomized by her leadership in the creation of the UN's Declaration of Human Rights.
  
  
• Dutchess County, New York: Springwood: Birthplace and Home to Franklin D. Roosevelt 
  Understand how Springwood was the keystone in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's public as well as private life by playing host to some very dramatic events in American history.
  
  
• Dutchess County, New York: Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site: Monument to the Gilded Age
  Discover how the Vanderbilts became one of the wealthiest families in America and how their lifestyle influenced business, culture, architecture, and society in ways that still affect us today.
  
  
• Rensselaer County, New York, The Battle of Bennington: An American Victory
  Learn how a battle in a tiny valley near the frontier in northern New York helped determine whether the American colonies would become an independent nation. Also understand why a town in Vermont erected a monument to the battle.
  
  
• Saratoga Springs, New York, Saratoga: The Tide Turns on the Frontier
  Learn about 18th-century warfare and the battle that was a turning point of the American Revolution.
  
  
• Dayton, Ohio, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park: Where the Wright Brothers Conquered the Air
  Discover the early influences that inspired the Wright brothers as inventors and the importance of the Wright Cycle Company Complex where they developed the key mechanical skills that profoundly impacted their invention of the airplane.
  
  
• Dayton, Ohio, A Nation Repays Its Debt: The National Soldiers' Home and Cemetery in Dayton, Ohio
  Learn about the evolution of a system to honor and care for U.S. veterans beginning with the creation of soldiers' homes and national cemeteries during and after the Civil War.
  
  
• Astoria, Oregon, The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Documenting the Uncharted Northwest
  Learn how the 1804-1806 expedition effectively opened the Northwest to the influence of the United States, established relations with numerous American Indian nations, and gathered useful scientific documentation about the West. [The property is Fort Clatsop in Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, Astoria]
  
  
• Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: A Moravian Settlement in Colonial America
  Learn why Moravian immigrants moved to the New World and how the towns they established embodied their religious beliefs.
  
  
• Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg
  Trace the course of this Civil War battle and consider the wrenching personal choices that were made by soldiers on each side.
  
  
• Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, At a Crossroads: The King of Prussia Inn
  Learn how transportation routes affected a local inn, how archeology revealed the inn's use over time, and how preservation efforts saved the historic site from suburban sprawl.
  
  
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall: International Symbol of Freedom Learn about Independence Hall and about how the international influence of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution led to the designation of the building in which they were adopted as a World Heritage Site.
  
  
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
  Analyze the influences that shaped the symbolic meaning of the bell, and evaluate the various claims as to how and when it was cracked.
  
  
• Harris County, Texas, America's Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier
  Discover how NASA, private industry, and research institutions across the country cooperated to develop and implement the complex technology that enabled man to land on the moon.
  
  
• San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio Missions: Spanish Influence in Texas.
  Explore a group of 18th-century missions in modern San Antonio to learn about Spanish influence on native peoples and the patterns of Texas culture.
  
  
• Bennington, Vermont, The Battle of Bennington: An American Victory
  Learn how a battle in a tiny valley near the frontier in northern New York helped determine whether the American colonies would become an independent nation. Also understand why a town in Vermont erected a monument to the battle.
  
  
• Prince William County, Virginia, First Battle of Manassas: An End to Innocence
  Study personal accounts of soldiers who fought in the first battle of the Civil War, and discover how the day set the tone for the many bloody battles to come.
  
  
• King County, Washington, Gold Fever! Seattle Outfits the Klondike Gold Rush
  Examine how the discovery of gold in Canada's remote Klondike region touched off the last great gold rush, creating an economic boom that changed the city of Seattle forever.
  
  
• Spokane, Washington, Carnegie Libraries: The Future Made Bright
  Discover how and why industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie chose libraries to be among his greatest benefactions to the U.S., and assess the impact of libraries on American society.
  
  
• Spokane, Washington, Roadside Attractions
  Follow the highways of the 1920s and 1930s, exploring the whimsical, extravagant architecture that came with American auto culture.
  

For more information about the Preserve America initiative and other designated communities, please visit the Preserve America website.

To learn more about TwHP's other lessons, visit the Lesson Plan Descriptions page.