The National Historic Register lists some 95,000 sites worthy of preservation around the United States. The nine of them located in Arcata are heavy hitters, excellent examples of its history and culture, and yet the Plaza, one of the most iconic places in Arcata, isn’t on it. That may change soon.

Arcata’s Historic Landmarks Committee voted last week to approve an application asking the National Register of Historic Places to add the Plaza to the list. The planning commission and city council still have to approve sending the application to the California Office of Historic Preservation, the department responsible for the register’s administration in California.

The application was prepared by Patrick O’Rourke and Jeanette Cooper, a member of the Historic Landmarks Committee and Cal Poly Humboldt’s Cultural Resources Facility (O’Rourke was also a member until December 2025). It’s packed with information about the Plaza and its history, and attempts to show that the Plaza is worthy of being included on the register because it is “associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history.” 

“A place on the National Register of Historic Places would underscore the indispensable role The Plaza plays in the life of residents and visitors of Humboldt County,” the application reads.

Local historians and preservationists have long sought to add the Plaza to the register, but their efforts were hampered by a rule that excludes sites that have been greatly modified from their historical contexts, Arcata city council member and local history enthusiast Alex Stillman told the Outpost. Many of the original 19th century buildings around the Plaza burned to the ground at one time or another, so the committee is only trying to add the block boundaried by 8th, 9th, H, and G streets: “The green space in the middle,” as Stillman put it.

Adding the Plaza to the register protects it from development; in California, sites listed in the register can’t be destroyed or altered significantly. It’s different from being marked as a National Historic Landmark (NHL); only 3% of the sites on the register are also an NHL, which has to have significant national context. The only NHL in Humboldt County is Tuluwat Island. 

Adding the Plaza to the register might also draw more tourists to town and local businesses, Stillman said. They’d be able to install a brown sign advertising the destination on Highway 101, and visitors quickly googling a list of local historic areas would see it too.

“There are so few downtown plazas that are even close to how nice ours is,” said Dan Tangney, a member of Arcata’s planning commission and an early influence on the project. “People should come off the highway to experience it. It’s a great stop. To me, that brown sign on the highway or in people’s phones, wherever they find where they’re going to stop on their drives; I think they should stop at the Plaza…And it’s by far the cultural hub of Arcata, for 145 years now.”

O’Rourke, who prepared much of the application, told the Outpost it was also a chance to compile a unified historical record of the Plaza. Much of the information in the application was scattered around various documents from past local historians. O’Rourke said he talked to local historians and long-time residents for information on the Plaza, and said he was indebted to the late historian Susie Van Kirk for her research. 

The Plaza, during its long history of use, has changed many times in both form and function, something that may count against it. O’Rourke isn’t 100% sure that the state will approve the application, but said it has a strong chance. 

O’Rourke and Stillman told the Outpost that the Plaza should be included on the register because of its long history of use and as a community center. It’s remained in the same place since Arcata was founded (under the name Union) in the 1850s, and has been used from everything as a pastoral grazing land to a concert venue, but it’s always been a place where Arcatans and visitors have gathered. 

“It’s always been a focal place for downtown Arcata,” Stillman said, running through a quick history of its many uses. “Economic and social.”

“The main thesis is its continued use as the center of community for Arcata,” O’Rourke said. “And so most of that is unchanged. The things that are interesting to me are the uses over time that have faded away: for instance, it was for cattle grazing initially, because the entire divide between city and countryside hadn’t come about yet. It was also used as a baseball diamond for local local amateur teams, which I thought was a really interesting use, because to think about a baseball flying out of the Plaza and into one of the windows of the local businesses probably happened a lot. I didn’t see any evidence of any disgruntlement about that, but I’m sure there’s a story somewhere.”

Historic Landmarks Committee member Jeanette Cooper did not respond to requests for comment.