The United States of America is a vast land full of historical buildings, objects, and places. You may even know of a few in your town - but did you know that there are over 86,000 individual historical points in all corners of the country? This app is your guide to rediscovering the rich history contained within the US National Registry of Historical Places!
Whether you are a history buff or just wanting to learn a little more about your home turf, this app is for you! The data is up to date as of Autumn, 2020 and contains tens-of-thousands of points representing locations in the National Registry. These points are symbolized with color-coded icons that differentiate between the five different types of historical places - Buildings, Districts, Objects, Sites, and Structures. The app even distinguishes properties that are more than 10 acres by using larger, highlighted icons.
Once using the app, there are five screens. The Guide screen will provide a data legend as well as helpful tips for optimizing your navigational experience. On the Info screen, you will find a number of spatial links to cities and towns known to have a high density of historical places. This is a great way to quickly locate specific areas and discover new points! The About screen provides links to all of the open-source resources used in the app and gives a little information about the developer GeoPOI. The Map Settings screen is where you can change between one of four different basemaps, download offline imagery, turn on geolocation, and toggle specific point types. Finally, the Map screen is where it all comes together!
On the Map screen, there are a series of circle clusters at distant zooms that indicate how many points are within a given cluster. As you tap the clusters to zoom in, individual points and icons become visible. These points can be clicked on to reveal the name, location, and type of historical point, along with a hyperlink to the National Archives for more information. The map screen also has two search tools - the left one can be used to look up addresses and towns, while the right one will allow you to query the names of historical places in the database.
There is such a wealth of history out there waiting to be discovered. Never before has it been this easy to find historical locations as you travel, no matter where in the United States you are or what kinds of places you are interested in. Its time to experience the rich historical tapestry of our nation and pay homage to the places that made our country the great land that it is. Come navigate the US National Registry of Historical Places with GeoPOI today!