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Teenager Carves Name at Ancient Temple

Police in Japan question and release 17-year-old, who still could face charges

(Newser) - A teenage boy was caught scratching a name into an 8th-century temple in Japan, police say, weeks after a young tourist was filmed leaving his mark on the Colosseum in Rome. The 17-year-old Canadian carved "Julian" on a wooden pillar with his fingernail at the Toshodaiji Kondo temple complex...

11 Historic Places We're Most in Danger of Losing

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is out with its annual list

(Newser) - Every year since 1988, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has put out a list of America's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places." The hope is to generate attention—and maybe a little cash to prevent their loss. Camp Naco in Brisbee, Arizona, made the 2022 list, and...

Developers Must Rebuild Old Inn They Destroyed

Brick by brick, says the court order in the UK

(Newser) - The Punch Bowl Inn on a quiet country road in Lancashire, England, had stood for 300 years when its owners took a bulldozer to it in 2021. They must regret doing any such thing, and not just because of reports suggesting they disturbed the building's rumored ghosts. As the...

Jamestown's Trouble: 'We Can't Get Rid of the Water'

Climate change is threatening the historic site

(Newser) - Future visitors to historic Jamestown might need to bring scuba gear. The Virginia site of the first successful English settlement in America is being threatened by climate change, and preservation groups warn that it could be doomed if action isn't taken soon, the BBC reports. The 400-year-old site on...

Harriet Tubman's Long-Lost Maryland Home Is Found

Likely site of her father's home discovered in Maryland

(Newser) - In a marshy woodland in Maryland, a teenage Harriet Tubman learned the skills that would carry herself, her family, and countless others out of slave states along the Underground Railroad. And now, we know exactly where that was. Archaeologists have located the likely site of the home Tubman's father...

Tidal Basin Makes List of Endangered Landmarks

Trust hopes communities save their 'cherished places'

(Newser) - Development, lack of maintenance, climate change and other factors have put historic American landmarks at risk, says the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has compiled its 2019 list of the most threatened sites. It includes such famous places as the National Mall Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., and...

Civil War Fades as an Attraction
Civil War Fades as an Attraction
May 27, 2019 4:04 PM CDT

Civil War Fades as an Attraction

Museums and sites seek broader audience

(Newser) - Museums and historical sites are making changes to appeal to a broader audience in the face of declining interest in the Civil War. Data from the National Park Service shows that its five major Civil War battlefield parks drew 3.1 million visitors in 2018, down from about 10.2...

Route 66 Makes It Onto a Dubious List

It's one of 11 historic US sites considered 'endangered'

(Newser) - Hundreds of historic sites have found their way over the past three decades onto the annual "endangered sites" list put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation , and this year's lineup includes one of America's most famous thoroughfares. Route 66 joins 10 other cultural or architectural...

ISIS Destroys Oldest Christian Monastery in Iraq

St. Elijah's Monastery is now 'a pile of rubble'

(Newser) - The oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, another apparent victim of the Islamic State's relentless destruction of ancient cultural sites. Satellite photos obtained exclusively by the AP confirm the worst fears of church authorities and preservationists—St. Elijah's Monastery of Mosul...

Russia's 'Eiffel Tower' May Be Destroyed

Tower is decaying as real estate speculators hungrily eye the spot

(Newser) - It's been hailed as a masterpiece of design and Russia's answer to the Eiffel Tower, but pretty soon the Shabolovka radio tower, also known as the Shukhov Tower, could disappear. Late last month the Russian State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting agreed to dismantle the tower, the...

Thieves Steal 3-Ton Bell in San Francisco

Icon had survived 1906 earthquake

(Newser) - A San Francisco icon has been stolen: The 122-year-old bell of St. Mary’s Cathedral disappeared sometime in the past month, though it was only noticed this weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. At 2.7 tons, the bell would have required a crane to lift and a heavy-duty truck...

In Texas, a Modern-Day Fight for the Alamo

(Newser) - The Alamo is once again at the center of a pitched battle, the Wall Street Journal reports—only this time the combatants aren’t soldiers but the gentle ladies of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The 7,000-member group has run the historical site, which is badly in...

12 Stories