The History of American Cities

The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides information on the building age and historic monuments of American cities. Their Atlas of ReUrbanism includes a series of interactive map which visualize a host of historical information about a number of American cities. The maps include information on the relative building age of city neighborhoods, the location of nationally registered historic places, historic & cultural monuments and historic districts.

So far interactive maps and fact sheets are available for ten cities. By the summer 50 cities will be available in the Atlas. Each city map provides a visualization of a city's National Trust 'Character Score'. The Character Score of city neighborhoods is based on the median age of buildings, the diversity of the age of buildings and the size of buildings in the neighborhood.

The Character Score layer provides an overview of where the city's older districts are located. The Cultural Resources tab on each city interactive map allows you to add other historic information to the city map. These layers include information on the location of listed buildings, historical monuments and nationally & locally registered districts.