Proclamation 4374—National Historic Preservation Week

The state of today's world demonstrates the value of understanding and appreciating our origins and roots as a foundation for our present identity and our future hopes.

Americans history lives throughout the Nation by the surviving examples of our man-made heritage-not only along the streets of our cities and towns but also in our rural areas. An indispensable element of the strength, the freedom and the constructive world leadership of this Nation is the knowledge and appreciation of our history, of who we are, where we are, and how we arrived here.

Loss of the essential evidence of our heritage in the name of progress continues to occur. However, the counteracting effect of the historic preservation effort is increasingly evident and effective in both the public and private sector. National Historic Preservation Week offers a timely opportunity to illustrate what has been done and what can be accomplished in the future to carry out our national resolve to preserve this heritage. This includes not only structures of national historic significance but, of equal importance, old homes, buildings, both commercial and industrial, hotels, taverns, theaters and railroad passenger stations. These can be recycled for contemporary private, public, cultural, commemorative and other uses.

Such uses of our historic man-made resources reflect our commitment to the enrichment of present and future generations of Americans, to preserve our historic past and to assure its enhancement and appreciation and to thus significantly contribute to the revitalization of rural, community and urban development.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, as requested by a joint resolution of Congress, do hereby proclaim the calendar week beginning May 12, 1975, as National Historic Preservation Week. I call upon Government agencies at all levels, interested private individuals, and concerned citizens to mark this observance with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred ninety-ninth.

GERALD R. FORD