The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) collections are among the largest and most heavily used in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Since 2000, documentation from the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) have been added to the holdings. The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes, including examples as diverse as the Pueblo of Acoma, houses, windmills, one-room schools, the Golden Gate Bridge, and buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. You can view each report by clicking on the summary page image. Click the link to the LOC website to view the report’s full inventory.
HAER No. NM-1: White Sands Missile Range and the Utah Launch Complex
David G. Buchanan, John P. Johnson, and William A. Brenner, 1984
View on the LOC website.
White Sands Missile Range, located in southern New Mexico, is the largest and most highly instrumented range of its kind. It supports missile development and test programs for the Army, Navy, Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other organizations. The Utah Launch Complex in Green River, Utah, is a sub-installation to White Sands that is now inactive. Both the missile range and the launch complex are under the operational control of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command.
Category I historic properties at White Sands are Trinity Site and Launch Complex 33. Category II historic properties are the Holloman Test Track, and the 100,000 and 500,000 pound Static Test Stands. Category III historic properties are the V-2 Assembly Building, Launch Complex 35, the Estey City Mining Ruins, the Eugene Manlove Rhodes Grave Site, the Hardin Ranch, and the Propulsion Unit Calibration Stand Blockhouse.
HAER No. NM-1A: Trinity Site
William A. Brenner, November 1985
View on the LOC website.
The United States detonated the world’s first atomic bomb at Trinity Site on July 16, 1945. The site contains a fenced-in area and marker at Ground Zero, the remnants of a number of test structures, the remains of Base Camp, and the restored George McDonald ranch house where the bomb’s plutonium core was assembled. Trinity Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
HAER No. NM-1B: V-2 Rocket Facilities
Michael C. Quinn, July 1986
View on the LOC website.
The development of the large liquid-fueled rocket, which has profoundly affected events in the 20th century, was initiated by the Germans in the 1930s and, after World War II, continued by the U.S. at White Sands Proving Ground.
In all, 67 V-2 rockets were assembled and tested at White Sands between 1946 and 1952, providing the U.S. invaluable experience in the assembly, pre-flight testing, handling, fueling, launching, and tracking of large missiles. In the late 1940s, several V-2s were combined with a smaller rocket, the WAC Corporal, to become the first large, multi-stage rockets to be launched in the Western Hemisphere. Additionally, scientific experiments conducted in conjunction with the V-2 program yielded significant information about the upper atmosphere and other areas of research, including the effects of space on mammals.
HAER No. NM-27: White Sands Space Harbor (Space Shuttle Landing Facility)
Robbie D. Jones, September 2013
View on the LOC website.
The White Sands Space Harbor has a direct association with the U.S. Space Shuttle Program, as the site of the landing of Space Transportation System (STS)-3 Columbia in March 1982; this is the only STS landing to take place outside Edwards Air Force Base in California and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The WSSH district is considered to have national significance and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under Criterion A for its association with the NASA SSP with a period of significance of 1976-2011. Because it achieved significance within the past fifty years, Criterion Consideration G also applies.
HAER No. NM-28: White Sands Space Harbor Area 1 (Space Shuttle Landing Facility Area 1)
Robbie D. Jones, September 2013
View on the LOC website.
Space Shuttle Landing Facility Area 1 was an essential component of the White Sands Space Harbor from 1976-2011. It has a direct association with the U.S. Space Shuttle Program as the site of the landing of STS-3 Columbia in March 1982; this is the only Space Transportation System landing to take place outside Edwards Air Force Base in California and Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Space Shuttle Landing Facility Area 1 is comprised of three runways, a control tower, a weather tower, a helicopter staging area, navigational aids and support facilities, a HUB maintenance building, a fire station, portable storage buildings, and a generator building.
Area 1 is considered to have national significance and is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A for its association with the NASA SSP with a period of significance of 1976-2011. Because it achieved significance within the past fifty years, Criterion Consideration G also applies.