Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Untold Stories of PA’s State Parks and Forests at Laurel Hill

Two Black men, Edenborough Smith and John Harshberger appear in the 1850 census on tracts of land now situated in Laurel Ridge State Park overlooking Johnstown’s West End. From at least the 1820s, and possibly as early as the turn of the 19th century, Smith, Harshberger and their families lived in a community of Black, White, and Indigenous people that has been referred to as the Laurel Hill Settlement, Brown Farm and “the Mountain.” Eight generations lived on the Mountain until the property was claimed by the state in 1967.

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Another Round of PA-SHARE 2.0 Updates!

As we welcome the new year, we also continue to welcome improvements to PA-SHARE as part of the 2.0 Project.

2024 saw several significant improvements to PA-SHARE, including the photo gallery, streamlining of the Quick Search, updates to External User queues, and enhanced functionality to allow for batch uploading and downloading of photos and attachments, to name a few. 2025 will include additional upgrades to PA-SHARE as we move towards finalizing 2.0.

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