NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) Historic District

Sprawling across about 796 acres in Hampton, Virginia, this research campus began in 1917 when the War Department acquired land for joint Army and National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics use. The Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory became the country's first aeronautical laboratory and its only civilian one until 1939. As research outgrew the original East Area, a larger West Area was laid out from 1939 and filled with wind tunnels, laboratories and support buildings. Early buildings are red brick in a stripped classical style, while later space-era structures use blond brick and poured concrete in International and Brutalist modes. Notable resources include the Full Scale Tunnel of 1931, the Lunar Landing Research Gantry of 1965 and the Landing Loads Track of 1956. The laboratory became NASA's Langley Research Center in 1958. The district counts 149 contributing and 97 noncontributing resources and is certified as nationally significant for its role in American aeronautics and space research.