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| Wilson Announces Ernie Pyle House Added to National Register of Historic Places |
October 13, 2006 |
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Albuquerque Home of Famed World War II Journalist Preserved and Recognized
Albuquerque – Congresswoman Heather Wilson announced today that the Ernie Pyle House in Albuquerque has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
“Ernie Pyle gave the nation an unparalleled view of the American GI during World War II. His writing was a tremendous contribution to his readers and American history. He often shared the discomforts and the perils of those he observed and interviewed,” Wilson said. “The Ernie Pyle House is an important part of our heritage and our community. It merits official preservation as a national historic site.”
A reporter with Scripps-Howard newspapers, Ernie Pyle received the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his wartime reporting. He died the next year, having lived in his Albuquerque home since 1940. By late 1943, his column was appearing in nearly 150 newspapers, and Time Magazine had dubbed him “America’s most widely read war correspondent” with a readership often estimated at 40 million people.
Pyle covered the front in Africa, Italy, then Normandy and the liberation of Paris, and in 1945, was killed by a Japanese sniper in the Pacific Theater while covering the assault on Okinawa. His wife died six months later in Albuquerque.
Pyle’s wartime death, which was national news, was met with sadness and occasioned public remarks by President Harry Truman.
In 1937, Pyle traveled around New Mexico for several weeks, writing about the state and its people.
Pyle himself in correspondence referred to the “little white cottage” on Girard Boulevard as “no bigger than your thumb” and a “little gem.”
About the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the Nation`s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Register is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archeological resources. Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. For more information, visit: http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/about.htm .
Source: U.S. Department of Interior
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