On Monday, December 16, 2024, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland designated Tor House a National Historic Landmark.
Click here to read the official notice from the Department of the Interior.
The official press release is posted here.
It has been a long, challenging road which many in the Tor House community helped us travel. In 2015, then Foundation President Vince Huth and then administrative assistant Erin Carey began the nomination process. Trustee Gere diZerega took the lead in pursuing the nomination, enlisting the aid of Trustees Jim Karman and Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, who were responsible for preparing the text. That ad hoc committee oversaw the project.
Trustee Alan Stacy had a major role in the nomination, providing needed photographs and editing architectural plans and site maps. Invaluable aid was supplied by Sian Winship, Preservation Consultant, who wrote a detailed description of the architectural features of every structure on the property, down to the number of panes in each window, using the required jargon.
Others who contributed in significant ways were Trustees Coral Amende, Aengus Jeffers, and Dan Jensen, Trustee Emeriti Christopher Williams and Lindsay Jeffers; former administrative assistant Melinda Bowman, Una Jeffers Honscheid, Laura diZerega, Paula Karman, Betty King and Emily Williams.
We are deeply indebted to Chris Johnson, Historian, Preservation Partnerships Program, National Park Service, Interior Regions 8, 9, 10, and 12, for his invaluable aid in guiding and supporting us through the process.
We are looking forward to a public celebration of this significant recognition, perhaps at the 2025 Garden Party on May 4, with the unveiling of the NHL plaque acknowledging our NHL status. We will keep you posted.
~Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, President, Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation