Its Official: Terrace Hill Is a National Historic Landmark

By David L. Cordes, Administrator

2003

In May of 1999, I began to prepare for my new position as Terrace Hill administrator and made a number of calls to acquaintances in the Historic Preservation Office at the State Historical Department to learn everything possible about Terrace Hill. Ralph Christian, who was then the architectural historian, informed me that several years prior, a group of people from the National Historic Landmarks Office in Philadelphia had spent some time in Des Moines and were quite interested in Terrace Hill. A preliminary determination had been made that Terrace Hill was a valid candidate to be designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL), but no progress had been made toward that end for many years. In order to successfully qualify as a National Historic Landmark, the case must be proven that the resource has significance to the entire nation.

The complexity of the process was familiar to me as Id heard Dr. Margaret Keyes describe the difficulties that were encountered in obtaining NHL status for Old Capitol in Iowa City. I knew that the process would not be easy and that expert help would be needed if the project of obtaining NHL status was ever to be accomplished.

Once I arrived at Terrace Hill, I was extremely busy keeping track of all of the work that was either under way or about to start. Major fundraising efforts had made possible major restoration and renovation work. Coordinating the various projects, which ranged from new sprinkler systems to exterior restoration of the mansion, took an enormous amount of my time.

However, I continued to have conversations with Christian regarding the matter, and he in turn had several conversations with Carolyn Pitts at the National Historic Landmarks Office in Philadelphia. As a result of these conversations, federal funding became available for a National Landmark Nomination project in September 2000. Marlys Svendsen, a historical consultant, was contracted to prepare the nomination and related documentation. In the summer of 2001, the written documents neared completion.

The final documents were filed November 2, 2001. However, because of the events of September 11 and the following anthrax scare, complications and delays were encountered. Nonessential mail delivery in Washington, D.C., slowed to a snails pace, and meetings of the Advisory Board for Historic Preservation were cancelled. Finally, in November of 2002, the Board met in San Francisco with Terrace Hill on its agenda. They voted to approve NHL designation for Terrace Hill. All that was necessary to finalize the process was the signature of Secretary Norton of the Department of the Interior. However, the preparation for that process consumed another eight months. Finally, three years after the project was begun, on July 31, 2003, Terrace Hill was designated a National Historic Landmark, the highest possible designation awarded to historic sites in our nation.

Terrace Hill is both deserving and honored to take its place on this small and prestigious list. In doing so, it joins only 23 other Iowa sites that have previously received the same designation.

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