WASHINGTON, DC– The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (National Trust) honored the San Antonio National Historical Park in San Antonio, Texas, with the National Trust/Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation. The award was presented by National Trust President Brent Leggs during the National Trust’s Preservation Awards Ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on September 22, 2026.

The joint award honors outstanding partnerships that advance the preservation of important historic resources and have a positive impact on the community. It celebrates a project or program in which a federal agency and one or more nonfederal partners have achieved an exemplary preservation outcome.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (the Park) attracts over 1.7 million tourists yearly. The Park’s internationally significant historic acequias, which are a system of gravity-flow irrigation systems, were built by Spanish missionaries and Indigenous peoples in the 1700s to supply drinking water and irrigate farm fields. The Park works with partners to preserve and manage the acequias, which continue to deliver the oldest water right in Texas, serving the city of San Antonio, the seventh largest U.S. city.

The Park was selected for the award because of the leadership of the National Park Service, vibrant partnerships with the local community, and involvement of young people, as well as the ongoing preservation of the historic acequias.

The National Trust/Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation is a longstanding collaboration dating back to 2002.