The National Trust for Historic Preservation yesterday listed the Lower East Side on its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

The listing does not provide any legal protection to such places but is meant to focus attention on sites whose future may be in jeopardy.

The trust's press release provided the following commentary:

"Few places in America boast such a rich tapestry of history, culture and architecture as New York's Lower East side. However, this legendary neighborhood - the first home for waves of immigrants since the 18th Century - is now undergoing rapid development. New hotels and condominium towers are being erected across the area, looming large over the original tenement landscape. As this building trend shows now sign of abating, it threatens to erode the fabric of the community and wipe away the collective memory of generations of immigrant families."

"Although the Lower East Side was placed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 2000," the release continued, "such a designation functions primarily as an 'honor roll' and does not preserve a neighborhood's appearance or regulate real estate speculation. The community, with little recourse for protection, is reeling from the recent destruction of is cultural heritage, including the loss of the First Roumanian Synagogue. Slapdash and haphazard renovations have led to the destruction of architectural detail, while modern additions to historic buildings sharply contrast with the neighborhood's scale and character. In 2007, permits were approved for the full demolition of 11 buildings on the Lower East Side, compared with just one in 2006. These developments, among others, signify the quickening erasure of the neighborhood's architectural and socio-cultural fabric."

The trust noted that nine community organizations formed the Lower East side Preservation Coalition in 2006 to create a landmark district encompassing an area bounded on the west by Allen Street, with an extension that includes Broome Street west to Eldridge Street, on the north by Delancey Street, on the east by Essex street, and on the south by Division Street, with an extension that includes Eldridge below Canal Street.

The press release also included the following statement from Kate Daly, executive director of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission:

"The story of much of New York's immigrant history can be told through the tenements, houses of worship and commercial buildings erected on the Lower East Side in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In recognition of the significance of this area to the history of our City and nation, to date the Landmarks Commission has designated 25 individual landmarks in the neighborhood, and recently surveyed more than 2,300 buildings, identifying numerous potential historic districts and individual landmarks. We're hopeful the Trust's listing and the Lower East Side Preservation Coalition's efforts will generate even more support for the preservation of this historic neighborhood."

The other "endangered places" on the new list are the Boyd Theater in Philadelphia, the Charity Hospital and adjacent neighborhood in New Orleans, the Great Falls Portage in Great Falls, Montana, Hangar One at Moffett Field in Santa Clara County, California, the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas, the Peace Bridge neighborhood in Buffalo, the Sumner Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas, and the Viscaya Museum and Gardens in Miami and the Bonnet House Museum and Gardens in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.