Regardless of their interest in historic architecture, Americans often dismiss Modern architecture for being too boring, ugly, or recent to be worthy of preservation. Using the author’s advocacy experience in Columbia, South Carolina, as a case study, this article offers strategies for those looking to advocate and educate for Modern buildings constructed outside of major American cities between 1945 and 1975. The essay introduces the historical context for local Modern architecture, dissects its most common derisions, and suggests ways to convince skeptics to move past their assumptions.

Keeping museum practices strictly within the confines of the National Register of Historic Places’ period of historical significance guidelines is not sustainable for many museum ships. By defining and using continuous existence, SS John W. Brown is creating a new method of interpretation, marketing, preservation, and programming that tells a larger story. This paper puts SS John W. Brown , a Liberty ship from World War II, operational vessel, and maritime museum, into context by surveying ships on the National Register of Historic Places. As World War II fades from public memory and popular culture, a new methodology is required.

The ““fifty-year rule”” is one of the most commonly accepted principles within American historic preservation: properties that have achieved significance within the past fifty years are generally not considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic places. An often misunderstood chronological threshold, the fifty-year standard was established by National Park Service historians in 1948. Until the advent of the ““new preservation”” with the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, the standard of exceptional importance had only been applied to presidential and atomic heritage sites. Operating as a filter to ward off potentially controversial decisions about the nature of historic site significance, understanding the origins of the fifty-year rule reveals how Americans have constructed the chronological boundaries of a useable past through historic preservation during the twentieth century.