Exceptional Places
A Comparative Field Guide to Iconic and Extraordinary Historic Districts
Forthcoming spring 2025
A series of 12 articles based on the book will be posted on Substack
Table of Contents
Introduction
Historic Preservation: The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg
Issues Facing Exceptional Places
Methodology and Primary Sources
Identifying and Ranking Exceptional Places
Final Rankings
Chapter 1. Nationally Iconic Historic Districts
1. Boston-Cambridge, Massachusetts
2. Washington, District of Columbia
3. New Orleans, Louisiana
4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5. Savannah, Georgia
6. New York, New York
7. Providence, Rhode Island
8. San Francisco, California
9. Charleston, South Carolina
10. Newport, Rhode Island
11. Key West, Florida
12. Annapolis, Maryland
13. Newburyport, Massachusetts
14. Frederick, Maryland
15. Provincetown, Massachusetts
16. Alexandria, Virginia
17. Santa Fe, New Mexico
18. Portsmouth, New Hampshire
19. Miami Beach, Florida
20. Charlottesville, Virginia
21. St. Augustine, Florida
22. Nantucket, Massachusetts
Chapters 2-5
These chapters profile post-industrial cities, regionally iconic historic places, small towns, utopian communities, and ancient Indigenous cities.
The book profiles 223 exceptional places.
Methodology
Data was obtained from Landmark District and National Register District Nomination Forms supplemented by state and local sources.
A total of 15 criteria were used to sort and rank historic places, including district area, resource inventory, resource density, and dates of significance.
Sample Table
Table 1. Highest Ranking Core Districts for Contributing Buildings
1. Boston, Massachusetts 5200
2. York, Pennsylvania 4331
3. Charleston, South Carolina 4200
4. Riverside, Illinois 3000
5. Newburyport, Massachusetts 2525
6. Key West, Florida 2485
7. New Orleans, Louisiana 2465
8. Frederick, Maryland 2421
9. Santa Fe, New Mexico 2000
10. Savannah, Georgia 1972
11. Alexandria, Virginia 1812
12. Madison, Indiana 1768
13. Newport, Rhode Island 1331
14. NYC, New York (Central Park) 1262
15. Thomasville, Georgia 1241
16. Portsmouth, New Hampshire 1238
17. Annapolis, Maryland 1203
18. Columbus, Georgia 1137
19. Provincetown, Massachusetts 1131
20. Providence, Rhode Island 1119
21. Miami Beach, Florida 1000
22. Tampa/Ybor, Florida 956
23. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 870
24. Sag Harbor, New York 870
25. Bisbee, Arizona 817
Note: These acreage figures are for core districts. In many cases, the greater core areas of continuous districts is more meaningful for analysis. Those figures are provided in a separate table.
Thomas D. Wilson, M.S., AICP is a city planner and writer. This article is derived from his forthcoming book, Exceptional Places: A Comparative Field Guide to Iconic and Extraordinary Historic Districts. He is the author of The Oglethorpe Plan: Enlightenment Design in Savannah and Beyond (University of Virginia Press, 2012); The Ashley Cooper Plan: The Founding of Carolina and the Origins of Southern Political Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 2016); Charleston and Savannah: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Rival Cities (University of Georgia Press, 2023); The Library of James Edward Oglethorpe (KDP, 2021); James Edward Oglethorpe: A Life in the Enlightenment (IngramSpark, 2023).