Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public-private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Endowment for the Arts, Heritage Preservation, and the National Park Foundation also are allied.
History
Save America's Treasures was established by Executive Order 13072 in February 1998 by President Bill Clinton, in conjunction with the White House Millennium Council's activities. Instrumental in its founding was then First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton. Its Honorary Chair is the current First Lady.
On December 9, 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama said “Save America’s Treasures invests in our nation’s irreplaceable legacy of buildings, documents, collections and artistic works. These awards empower communities all over the country to rescue and restore this priceless heritage, and ensure that future generations continue to learn from the voices, ideas, events and people represented by these projects.” The First Lady is the Honorary Chairman of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH).
Both the Save America's Treasures and the Preserve America grant programs have been eliminated by the Obama Administration. On January 30, 2010, President Barack Obama in his "Tough Choices" FY 2011 Budget proposed eliminating the Save America's Treasures and Preserve America grant programs, stating that "both programs lack rigorous performance metrics and evaluation efforts so the benefits are unclear."
In its decade of existence, the Save America's Treasures program allocated about $220 million which generated about $330 million from other sources and resulted in the preservation of about 900 historic structures and the creation of about 16,000 jobs. This corresponds to a cost of about $13,000 to create each job.