( CNN ) -- Muhammad Ali fought here . Neil Armstrong celebrated his moonwalk here . Elvis Presley sang here . And Billie Jean King faced off against Bobby Riggs here . In its heyday , the world 's first indoor stadium knew how to throw a party . And it paved the way for multi-use , publicly subsidized sports facilities getting built across the United States . Now the Houston Astrodome has hit the big time , as far as historic buildings go . The dome has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places , a designation announced by the National Park Service last week . The listing makes it eligible for tax breaks should the building be rehabilitated but is otherwise mostly honorary . Can a 20th-century sports stadium be a `` historic place ? '' The Astrodome `` was bold and modern , and it marked the enormous ambition Houston had in the 1960 's and 70 's , when , thanks to air conditioning becoming cheap and plentiful , [ Houston ] believed there were no obstacles to its becoming one of the major cities of the world , '' wrote architecture critic Paul Goldberger , contributor to Vanity Fair , winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his architecture criticism at The New York Times and author of `` Why Architecture Matters , '' via email . `` I 'm all for saving sports facilities that have genuine historic and architectural value , which the Astrodome does , '' wrote Goldberger . `` Things this big are n't easy to re-use , of course , and there is no doubt that figuring out a viable future for the Astrodome is a huge challenge . But it definitely meets the standard of being a landmark . '' 6 imperiled and extinct sports sites . That 's why the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the stadium on its 2013 list of `` most endangered '' places , along with a military club for African-American officers , America 's first permanent English settlement and an unused airline terminal . `` Many people perceive places built during living memory , or just before , differently than they do older places , and too often value them less , '' said Stephanie K. Meeks , the National Trust 's president , via e-mail . `` We see more and more midcentury icons slowly fading away until demolition seems inevitable , '' said Meeks . `` We must preserve these Modernist buildings not only because they represent America 's ingenuity and space-age determination , but because they challenge -- and expand -- our sense of what is worth saving in this country . '' Opened in 1965 as home to the Houston Astros and the then-Houston Oilers , the Astrodome has n't had a sports team to call its own since 1999 . Used as a refuge for people fleeing Hurricane Katrina in 2005 , the stadium had a sale in November to sell off Astroturf ( first installed at the Astrodome and named in its honor ) , stadium seating and other parts . The storied stadium was the site of tennis great Billie Jean King 's 1973 `` Battle of the Sexes '' with Bobby Riggs , a historic and much-hyped victory of woman over man in sports . Elvis Presley played the Astrodome in 1970 , Neil Armstrong celebrated his moon mission there in 1969 and Muhammad Ali successfully defended his world heavyweight champion title against Cleveland Williams at the stadium in 1966 . Preservationists are scrambling to save the stadium , which is structurally sound and significant in the world of sports -- but also a bit of a local eyesore . Local voters rejected a $ 217 million November bond initiative to save the county-owned stadium and turn it into a convention center . What do you think of efforts to preserve and reuse the Houston Astrodome ? Should it be saved or torn down ? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below .
The world 's first indoor stadium now sits unused . The stadium was just listed on the National Register of Historic Places . A piece of Modernist architecture , it served as a shelter for Katrina victims .