Photograph of Launch Complex 39 Press Site — Photograph by The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Press Site-Clock and Flag Pole

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1949.

From the record

“The Launch Complex 39 Press Site is a news media facility at Launch Complex 39 at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island, Florida where journalists have observed every U.S. crewed space launch since Apollo 8 in 1968.”
Wikipedia article Launch Complex 39 Press Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 41 National Register listings published here for Brevard County · listed in 2000 · category: Object.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 objectss as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Press Site--Clock and Flag Pole - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. NASA, John F. Kennedy Space Center, Kennedy Space Center, 32899
When was it listed? January 2000
Category. object
Also known as. John F. Kennedy Space Center MPS
Census division. Space Center
National Register reference number. 99001637 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1949 to 1979

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 30 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Press Site-Clock and Flag Pole, surveyed 1979

Topographic sheet covering Press Site-Clock and Flag Pole, surveyed 1949

Fires near this property

120 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 120 fires within 5 miles of Press Site-Clock and Flag Pole between 1992 and 2020, burning about 4,012 acres in total. 98 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	98
Debris and open burning	6
Arson/incendiarism	4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	4
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Recreation and ceremony	2
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2010	Natural	5.0 acres	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	BULLFROG
6 September 2000	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	GROUP 4
5 September 2010	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	LONE TREE
5 September 2010	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	LONE TREE II
5 September 2000	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	B AVENUE
30 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	TWO PALMS
3 September 1997	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	IND6STEAVE
3 September 1997	Natural	under an acre	Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge	IND5STEAVE

Every fire recorded in Brevard County

Maps showing this location

8 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1949 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1951 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000
1955 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1957 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
1976 USGS Orsino quadrangle1:24000
1979 USGS Titusville quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Launch Control Center	0.3 miles	2000
Vehicle Assembly Building-High Bay and Low Bay	0.4 miles	2000
Missile Crawler Transporter Facilities	0.8 miles	2000
Launch Complex 39	1.8 miles	1973
Crawlerway	1.9 miles	2000
Florida Power and Light Company Ice Plant	2.6 miles	1982

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 99001637 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Brevard County	All 41 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.