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During the height of the civil rights movement, The Dew Drop Inn was an integral part of the thriving nightlife of New Orleans. It expanded over two buildings and included a hotel, barbershop, restaurant and barroom. Frank Painia opened the entertainment venue in 1939 and African-American singers like Ray Charles and Etta James stayed and performed at the spot.

“My grandfather allowed whites to enter the building during segregation,” said Frank Jackson, owner of the Dew Drop Inn, in Central City. “He would often get arrested and had to fight the city because of the fact that he let whites in the building. It’s very significant just in the amount of talent that passed through those doors.”

Today, the Dew Drop Inn is listed among New Orleans’ most endangered sites by the Louisiana Landmark Society. Eight other sites are featured on the endangered list. The society created the list five years ago to draw attention to architecturally and historically significant places in the city that have deteriorated because of neglect, abandonment or vandalism. Some are in danger of being taken over by commercial development and demolition.

“Since 2005, there’s more urgency about preserving our city, taking our city back from the edge of disaster,” said Susan Kiarr, executive director of the board of the Louisiana Landmark Society.

The committee that selected the sites for the 2010 list included not only preservationists, but also those with knowledge about planning, development and the rich history and culture of New Orleans.

“One thing we’re trying to get across to people is that preservation issues are not just old buildings with beautiful architecture,” said Betsy J. Stout, chair of the 2010 New Orleans’ Nine Committee. “There are also cultural issues that we’re trying to preserve.”

Stout noted how Louis Armstrong’s house was torn down years ago to build the civic center. She doesn’t want to see that happen to other historic sites in the city.

That’s why the house of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend Henry Roeland Byrd, aka “Professor Longhair,” is on the list as well as a former police station in the Treme neighborhood. The endangered list also includes a number of churches and places of worship, a cemetery and a hospital. An entire neighborhood, the Mid-City Historic District, was featured because hundreds of unique architectural homes and businesses are scheduled to be demolished to make way for a 27-block medical corridor.

“People who drive all over town don’t realize that we’re about to lose some very significant buildings,” said Patricia Gay, president of the Preservation Resource Center, an organization that promotes the preservation and revitalization of historic neighborhoods, according to their literature.

Stout said some properties are expensive to renovate, especially to private owners who may not have the funds to fix them up.

“We’re hoping that because we’re drawing attention to these properties that now we can help these people,” said Stout.

The Dew Drop Inn, which was operating as a 25-bed hotel before Hurricane Katrina, hasn’t reopened since the storm because the business didn’t qualify for certain federal funds or grants. In addition, he had lost the hotel’s insurance a year before Katrina and was in the process of getting new insurance.

“It’s been a struggle,” said Jackson.

His goal is to restore the Dew Drop Inn to its original functionality as a hotel, barbershop, nightclub and restaurant, all in the same building. He said he hopes that being on the endangered list will bring attention to his plight.

“Everybody wants to help but we haven’t been able to secure any funding up until this point,” said Jackson. “Our main goal is to get the funding to do all the repairs and to put it back online.”

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