Mission churches at the Acoma and Laguna Pueblos along or near the Route 66 corridor in New Mexico were included in the World Monuments Fund’s newly created “Irreplaceable America” list.
The list recognizes 10 historic places across the United States whose preservation is essential to the richness and complexity of American history during the 250th anniversary year of the ratification of the Declaration of Independence.
The missions, built by Pueblo communities after the conquest by Spain and still active today, remain vital centers of spiritual and cultural life. But funding shortfalls and the waning of collective restoration traditions have put them at risk, the fund stated.
The Laguna Pueblo church stands in Laguna, New Mexico, a Route 66 town. San José de Laguna mission church was built between 1699 and 1701.
The Acoma church sits atop a 350-foot-tall mesa about a dozen miles south of Route 66. The year the San Estevan del Rey Mission Church was built remains unknown, but it was likely before 1629.
Other landmarks that made the “Irreplaceable America” list:
- New York’s Smallpox Hospital Ruin, Roosevelt Island, New York
- Bartram’s Garden, Philadelphia
- Black Mountain College Studies Building, North Carolina
- African Meeting House, Boston
- City of New Orleans
- Colonial homes of Newport, Rhode Island
- Dallas City Hall, Texas
- Watts Towers, Los Angeles
- Wright Brothers sites in Dayton, Ohio
“The United States was built by people from every corner of the globe, shaped by Indigenous nations, early settlers, immigrant communities and generations of cultural exchange,” said Bénédicte de Montlaur, president and CEO of World Monuments Fund. “That complexity gave rise to some of America’s most enduring contributions, from colonial heritage to jazz and hip-hop and the Wright brothers’ invention of powered flight.
“After decades of work at more than 700 sites in 113 countries, WMF has seen what communities gain when they can protect the places that matter and what is lost when they cannot. … Irreplaceable America is a call to protect the places that reflect the richness of that history, and the role heritage plays in education, community memory, and civic life.”
(Image of San Estévan del Rey Mission Church at Acoma Pueblo by Kyle Sullivan; image of San Jose De La Laguna Mission in Laguna Pueblo by Simply Shar♥n, both via Flickr)