(WASHINGTON, DC) - The Bowser Administration, led by DC Office of Planning's Historic Preservation Office, was recently awarded a $40,000 grant from the National Park Service to develop a Historic Context Study in order to identify themes and sites in DC history related to Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Nonprofit partner, DC Preservation League, will manage the grant.  

“The research and documentation will result in the first study that identifies important themes and rich history for the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Thai and South Asian populations of the District of Columbia,” said Office of Planning Director Andrew Trueblood.     

The National Park Service announced $500,000 in grants to support 13 projects that will help identify and nominate state, tribal, and local sites for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service Underrepresented Community Grant Program helps fund projects such as surveys and inventories of historic properties, and assists communities currently underrepresented in the National Register with developing their nominations.

“Together with our state, tribal, and local partners, this competitive grant program will help communities across the country identify and nominate lesser-known historic properties,” said National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith. “Historic properties brought into the National Register through this program will help the register better reflect the significant stories told throughout our nation."

This year’s funded projects also include development of a historic context for women’s suffrage sites in Nevada, documentation of significant tribal sites in California and a survey of the Great Migration and its impacts on the development of African American neighborhoods in Detroit.

Since 2014, Congress has appropriated $2 million in Underrepresented Community Grants through the Historic Preservation Fund, which uses revenue from federal oil leases to provide assistance for a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars.

The Underrepresented grant is the second received by the DC Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Office. A grant awarded in 2017 to create a Historic Context Statement for Washington’s LGBTQ Resources is nearing completion.

For more information about DC Office of Planning, visit our homepage at planning.dc.gov or follow OP on Twitter at https://twitter.com/opindc .

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Contact: Jessica Carroll  202-550-6845; [email protected]