A nationwide public vote has netted Pacific Historic Parks, a nonprofit educational association, a $250,000 grant to help restore one of the historic Battleship Row mooring quays that were in place on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor.
The mooring quays are small concrete islands anchored to the harbor floor by up to 35 concrete posts that were used to tie up warships.
“With the exception of the sunken hull of the USS Arizona, the battleship mooring quays are the last remaining structures that mark the locations of the American battleship force during the Pearl Harbor attack,” said a National Register of Historic Places registration form prepared by John De Virgilio.
The registration noted that more than 1.5 million visitors each year pass within view of the structures, and without the quays to mark the battleship locations, those visitors wouldn’t have landmarks to accurately visualize the battle site.
Pacific Historic Parks said it will use the grant to help restore one of the historic quays. PHP and the National Park Service, which oversees the USS Arizona Memorial, are also working with the Concrete Preservation Institute as part of a larger five-year project to restore six of the mooring quays.
The national grant competition was sponsored by Partners in Preservation, a collaboration between American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the USS Arizona Memorial, was one of the top nine vote-getters, receiving 64,819 votes for the mooring quay effort.
Pacific Historic Parks is a nonprofit cooperating association that supports and funds educational and interpretive programs for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Diamond Head State Monument, Kalaupapa National Historic Park, American Memorial Park on Saipan and the War in the Pacific National Historical Park on Guam.
The other winning parks nationwide, determined by popular vote, are Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho; the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee; the Grand Canyon in Arizona; Yosemite in California; Zion in Utah; the Everglades in Florida; Denali in Alaska; and Mount Rainier in Washington.
Timothy McClimon, president of the American Express Foundation, said in a release that the campaign garnered more than 1 million votes.
“We are thrilled with the response and support,”McClimon said.
The winning parks’ local nonprofit partners will receive a total of $1.8 million in grants to help fund their respective preservation projects.
