Sears catalog house, Washington, D.C. (National Park Service)

C.A. Thayer,
San Francisco

Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Quinn Evans Architects)

TRANSITIONS

THREATENED 1925 Sears, Roebuck catalog house, Washington, D.C.: owned by National Park Service but controlled by city's parks and recreation department, which plans to raze rather than sell it for rehab

c. 1877 officers' quarters, Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory, Mont.: built on military outpost to establish U.S. Army presence after Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn, will be demolished if not relocated by May 1 UPDATE >>

LOST 1892 York Hotel, Cumberland, Md.: received its last human guest more than 40 years ago, lost its last occupant in November with eviction of pet shop shortly before demolition

1915 Richland County Jail, Columbia, S.C.: built to look like castle, hasn't been prisoner's home since 1994, torn down by private owner to make way for condos

SAVED 1895 C.A. Thayer, San Francisco: constructed as schooner to carry cargo, anchored at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park 40 years ago, ravaged by dry rot, undergoing restoration after 10 years of fundraising

Bear Butte, S.D.: long held sacred by American Indian tribes, spared construction of nearby shooting range after federal government withdrew funding over application irregularities

1927 Coffee Pot, Bedford, Pa.: built on Lincoln Highway as two-story wood-and-stucco folly that served as diner and later as bar and drive-through liquor store, relocated after owners considered destroying it

RESTORED 1904 First National Bank, Kansas City, Mo.: restored, expanded, and modernized as new downtown public Central Library at cost of $50 million

1913 Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: $38.6 million returned concert hall to design of Detroit industrial architect Albert Kahn and inserted 21st-century technology