The National Register of Historic Places lists many properties significant for Hispanic Heritage. We take the opportunity of Hispanic Heritage Month to highlight just some of the properties that exemplify the contributions of Hispanic culture and achievement.

New Hispanic Heritage properties featured
Past Highlights
Hispanic properties in Travel Itineraries
Hispanic properties featured in Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans
Hispanic Heritage in the National Parks
Learn More
You can find more properties in the National Register of Historic Places listed for Hispanic Heritage by doing an advanced search for the Hispanic Area of Significance in our database.

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National Register Brochure in Spanish (Registro Nacional de Lugares Históricos)

Featured Historic Properties for Hispanic Heritage Month:

Nuestra Señora Reina de La Paz, Kern County, California
Nuestra Señora Reina de La Paz (commonly known as La Paz) is a property encompassing 187 acres in the Tehachapi Mountains of eastern Kern County, California, and is associated with Cesar Chavez (1927-1993), one of the most important historic Latino leader in the United States. The site is also important for its association with the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), the first permanent agricultural labor union established in the history of the United States.

Montoya Ranch, Huerfano County, Colorado
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, Hispano settlers began farming, ranching and building houses in the rich verdant  Huerfano River valley from Badito, the county seat, west to the present-day location of Gardner and up Turkey Creek to the north. Local tradition holds that Montoya Ranch was built originally as a community defense facility, possibly under the leadership of Pedro Antonio Garcia, to serve a communal defensive purpose during a time when conflicts with Native Americans were common in the region.

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Past highlights:

Casa Dra. Concha Melendez Ramirez, San Juan, Puerto Rico:
Concha Meléndez Ramírez (1895-1983), Puerto Rico’s renowned educator, poet, essayist, literary critic and intellectual, suggested that the great Latin American novel which would encapsulate the American experience would be conceived in urban areas, “the space where the typical Latin American would achieve an ideal state of consciousness and intellectual capabilities.”

Lerma’s Nite Club, San Antonio, Texas
For people who love to dance, conjunto music runs the gamut of dance styles; polkas, waltzes, redobas, doble paso (two-step), boleros, mambo, huapango, cumbia and mazurka.  For those that love variety of sound in music, there’s also conjunto country, a synthesis of blues, rock, jazz, salsa, Latin jazz, Cajun zydeco conjunto, meringue and reggae. Lerma's was closed for violations by a Texas agency, but the community that loves the place has formed to save Lerma's.

Benson Historic Barrio, Cochise County, Arizona
“We had so much fun!” These are the words  Benson Barrio resident Edward Ellsworth used to recall his youth when the Benson Historic Barrio in Conchise County, Arizona, was full of children at play.  The Benson Historic Barrio is significant for its association with the history of Hispanic residents in this ethnic enclave.  Mexicans and Mexican Americans have been part of Benson’s history since the agricultural and railroad eras in the late 19th century.

Ernesto Memorial Chapel, Camuy, Puerto Rico
The Ernesto Memorial Chapel is of significance to the history of Puerto Rico in the areas of architecture and social history as it represents the establishment of Protestant ideals, concepts and values within the local social network during the early 20th century and the religious openness promoted by the change of regime in the island after the Spanish-Cuban-American War of 1898. ...

Pilsen Historic District, Cook County, Illinois:
The Pilsen neighborhood, nestled in the crook created by the Chicago River and the railroad lines that run along West 16th Street, has historically been a first-stop neighborhood for American immigrants, first from Bohemia and later from Mexico. Pilsen neighbors helped their fellow residents improve their homes and build new ones, aiming to ensure that the neighborhood remained fully accessible to new immigrants.

Rio Grande City Downtown Historic District, TX
Rio Grande City has a long and colorful history dating from its 18th century origins as a Spanish land grant to its place in the Mexican and American Civil Wars and as a Calvary post through the first half of the 20th century. This historic district lies at the heart of the South Texas border town of Rio Grande City and contains the city’s best collection of commercial, domestic and combination commercial/residential properties dating from its earliest period of development...

Lamesa Farm Workers Community Historic District
Learn more about the Farm Security Administrations efforts to improve housing and living standards for migrant workers in the cotton producing farmlands of West Texas.

Padua Hills Theatre
Explore the history of this Southern California hillside theatre, including the unique theatrical group called the Mexican Players. For over 40 years this group, performing Spanish language folk dramas, educated American visitors on the rich and diverse culture of Mexico.

El Centro Español de Tampa
Learn more about this exemplary Spanish club in the Gold Coast States.

Genero P. and Carolina Briones House
Discover the multicolored tinted concrete home of Texas bricklayer and plasterer Genero P. Briones.

Casa Amadeo, antigua Casa Hernández
Find out more about this influential Puerto Rican-owned music store in New York City.

Arkansas Sculptures of Dionicio Rodriguez
Explore the outdoor tinted concrete sculptures of artist Dioncio Rodriquez.

Cine El Rey
Discover South Texas's most luxurious "Mexican Theatre"

Rancho Camulos
Learn more about the inspiration for the setting of the novel Ramona

Trevino-Uribe Rancho
One of the most significant examples of Spanish/Mexican vernacular architecture in the United States

Santa Barbara Presidio Historic District
Learn more about the presidio and pueblo of Santa Barbara, California during the Spanish Colonial period.

St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District
Read more about St. Augustine, town plan of the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States.

Guadalupe Center
Learn about the successful settlement house and social center that served Kansas City, Missouri's Hispanic population.

Trujillo Homestead
Meet the Trujillo family, first generation Hispanic-American ranchers in Alamosa County, Colorado.

Edificios En San Juan
Learn about these modern apartment buildings in San Juan's neighborhoods.

Rancho De Los Kiotes
Visit Rancho De Los Kiotes, home of Leo Carillo--actor, preservationist and philanthropist, in Carlsbad, California.

San Elizario Historic District, TX
Learn about this historic district composed mostly of wood and adobe buildings.

Supreme Court Building, San Juan, PR
This Modern Movement style building symbolizes the evolution of four hundred years of the complex judicial and political development in Puerto Rico.

Saint Joseph Church and Shrine, MI
Learn what an Irish church in Cambridge, Michigan has to do with Hispanic Heritage!
This church was built to support a small but growing Catholic community of Irish families who had settled in the northwest township of Cambridge. The shrine, built in the 1930s as a representation of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, stands on a hillside behind the cemetery and church, its pathways ...

Barela-Reynolds House, NM
Find out how a housekeeper, a priest, and the Gadsen Purchase fit into the history of this house in Mesilla, NM! One of several historic buildings facing the famous plaza in Mesilla , New Mexico , the Barela-Reynolds House (also known as the J. Paul Taylor House) is an excellent example of a combined store and residence, a type of structure once common in 19th century New Mexico towns and villages ...

Bullion Plaza School, AZ
Follow the history of the segregation and desegragation of Arizona schools through this building. Segregation of Mexican-American students was a common practice in Arizona public schools from the early decades of the 1900s until the early 1950s-precisely the period during which Bullion Plaza School served as a segregated school for Miami 's Mexican-American children...

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Travel Itineraries

La Purisima Mission in the Early History of the California Coast Travel Itinerary, our itineraries feature many of the Spanish Missions

In Print and Online itineraries are self-guided tours to National Parks and other historic places. Each includes detailed maps, tourist information, location information, and color photographs.

Travel virtually to:

• South and West Texas

• Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands

• American Southwest

• California Coast

• Along the Georgia-Florida Coast

• Florida Shipwrecks

• Santa Clara, California

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Teaching With Historic Places

The Teaching with Historic Places program offers a series of lesson plans that use places listed in the National Register to examine subjects that are part of history and social studies curricula. Included among the many lessons now available on-line are nine that focus on Hispanic History:

• Californio to American: A Study in Cultural Change
• The Hispano Ranchos of Northern New Mexico: Continuity and Change
• Forts of Old San Juan: Guardians of the Caribbean
• (Lección en Español Frederica: An 18th Century Planned Community
• Gran Quivira: A Blending of Cultures in a Pueblo Indian Village
• The Vieux Carré: A Creole Neighborhood in New Orleans
• Castolon: A Meeting Place of Two Cultures
• San Antonio Missions: Spanish Influence in Texas
• Ybor City: Cigar Capital of the World

American Latino Heritage Projects

This website highlights projects undertaken by National Park Service parks and programs as part of the Service’s commitment to telling the American Latino story. Projects vary from increased interpretation, collaboration with community organizations, and the production of scholarly documentation.

National Park Service Hispanic Heritage Month Web Feature

Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail
In 1776 Spanish Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led almost 300 people along the first overland route to connect New Spain with San Francisco. Explore maps of the route, historical sites associated with the expedition and an audio library of sounds along the 1200-mile trail using the Anza Trail guide. Access journals of the expedition members and learn about the Spanish exploration and colonization of Alta, California in an interactive study environment.

• Cabrillo National Monument
• Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (past feature)
• Chamizal National Memorial
• Coronado National Memorial
• De Soto National Memorial (past feature)
• Dry Tortugas National Park
• El Morro National Monument
• Fort Matanzas National Monument
• Golden Gate National Recreation Area: Presidio
• Gulf Islands National Seashore: Bateria de San Antonio
• Padre Island National Seashore
• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site
• Pecos National Historical Park
• Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument (past feature)
• Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (past feature)
• San Juan National Historic Site (past feature)
• Santa Fe National Historic Trail
• Tumacácori National Historical Park (past feature)

National Register of Historic Places Flickr Photostream: Tagged Hispanic

Government Wide Hispanic Heritage Month Portal The Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Archives with the National Park Service have created a portal to bring together the exhibits and features of our various offices that highlight Hispanic Heritage.

Cultural Resources Management (now CRM Journal)
"CRM" is the flagship publication of the NPS Cultural Resources Programs and contains articles on the full range of cultural resources management and preservation topics. The following issues deal directly with questions regarding Hispanic cultural resources. Search the CRM Issue Archives, then search by specific title:

• Hispanic History in the National Register of Historic Places
• Exploring Hispanic History and Culture--A Dynamic Field

Diversity in the National Park Service
A highlight of the National Park Service's on-going efforts to reflect the diversity of American culture.

Library of Congress: Built in America (HABS/HAER/HALS)
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and design in the United States through a comprehensive range of building types and engineering technologies, including sites related to Hispanic history and culture. Searches on keywords like "Spanish," "missions," or "Spanish forts" will provide information on an array of associated sites. Most of the site records have publication-quality drawings, photographs and historical data.

Spanish Colonial Research Center
As a way of recognizing our Spanish colonial past in the United States and in commemoration of the Columbus Quincentennial in 1992, the National Park Service established the Spanish Colonial Research Center in partnership with the University of New Mexico. The center's primary purpose is serving research needs by providing a computerized data base from Spanish colonial documents. More than 85,000 pages of microfilmed Spanish colonial documents and approximately 4,500 maps, architectural plans, and sketches of North America have been accumulated.

National Register Information System
You can find more properties in the National Register of Historic Places listed for Hispanic Heritage by doing an advanced search for the Hispanic Area of Significance in our database.