The U.S. navy is currently planning to build a major housing development on the site, with a festival market place and a recreational marina. Given the island's close proximity to Battleship Row, such development would pose a significant threat to one of the nation's greatest historic landmarks. Originally owned by the Miller family, it was given in the 1940s to Purdue University, which used it as part of an experimental farm for agricultural students. Then in the late 1980s, the barn and surrounding farmland were sold to an Indiana farmer. However, historic barns like this one are not equipped for modern farming, and many have been demolished or simply neglected.
Legislation is needed to give farmers incentives to preserve or adapt historic barns.
Neb. Although it is located near the edge of a busy city, the Stevens Creek Valley is prime agricultural land dotted by historic farmsteads, many of which are still owned by the descendants of the area's original settlers. In fact, two sites, the Stevens Creek Stock Farm and the Herter-Sartore Farmstead, are already listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The quiet beauty of the farms, fields, and woods will be destroyed, however, if city and county officials move forward with plans to build a new expressway that will cut right through the farmland. Prairie Churches, North Dakota. In the face of declining populations and agriculture, many of the simple prairie churches serving small farm communities across North Dakota are falling into disuse and decay.