National Register of Historic Places

Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center

Utulei, Eastern County, American Samoa
Listed
October 22, 2009
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
09000842

About this property

The Michael J. Kirwan Educational Television Center, also known as KVZK-TV or KVZK Building, is a historic and current television center in Utulei, American Samoa. It is named for U.S. congressman Michael J. Kirwan, from Ohio, who took an interest in the development of American Samoa, and was instrumental in securing funding for a wide variety of improvements in the territory's infrastructure. It is a utilitarian concrete structure, roughly cruciform in shape, with a corrugated metal gable roof, located behind the Department of Education building on Route 1 in Utulei. It was built in 1964 as part of an innovative initiative to reform American Samoa's then-primitive educational facilities by broadcasting lessons from a central facility to the territory's remote schools. This initiative resulted in the widespread electrification of the territory's islands, and the construction of roads and new schools, and was widely regarded as a model for improving education in underdeveloped parts of the world. By the 1970s use of the broadcast facilities for education declined. The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on October 23, 2009. The listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of November 13, 2009.

Location

Utulei, Eastern County, American Samoa
-14.27403, -170.68440

Categories

EDUCATIONCOMMUNICATIONS
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

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Navy Building 43
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0.3 mi
Navy Building 38
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Questions about this property

When was Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center listed on the National Register?

Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 22, 2009.

What type of historic resource is Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center?

Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center?

The period of significance for Kirwan, Michael J., Educational Television Center is recorded as the industrial era.

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