The second half of the 20th century was to see a change in the Fort Concho Museum's fortunes. On July 4, 1961, Fort Concho was named a National Historic Landmark District, and placed on the National Register of Historic Places October 15, 1966, by the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS prepared a plan in 1961, and again in 1967, and advised both times the expansion of the museum staff. That expansion began the next year with the hiring of a museum curator and the beginning of a spree of property purchases. In 1980, the Fort Concho Museum and Bell, Klein and Hoffman, an Austin-based architecture firm specializing in restorations, prepared a three-phase plan to acquire the rest of the fort's grounds and demolish its 19th and 20th century modifications. The museum began implementing that plan in 1981, spending over $900,000 (). This money had been raised by matched grants from the National Park Service via the Historic Preservation Fund. The parade ground was then brought fully under the museum's control with the move of Fort Concho Elementary to a new campus. An NPS survey in June 1985 found that the fort was in generally good condition, though a number of later buildings were still on its grounds. The next year, it was named a Texas State Antiquities Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission. By 1989, the district consisted of 16 original buildings, six reconstructed buildings, and a stabilized ruin.