Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Month: June 2015

Erie Armory, Erie, Erie County

Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program: Year 2 Recap

June 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Since the opening date of the application period on December 1, 2014, I have received many calls and inquiries about the status of Year 2 of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. By the closure of the application period on February 1, 2015, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) received 30 applications for the second round.

Over a long review period which lasted until mid-April, PHMC reviewed the applications to ensure applicants owned qualified historic buildings and that proposed rehabilitation plans met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.  As the qualified applications far exceed the limited $3 million in available credits, DCED used a fair and balanced selection process based on a first -come, first serve basis with regional distribution to select the first round of projects. Continue reading

Meet the 2015 Summer Interns

June 17, 2015 / / 1 Comment
Some of the 2015 PA SHPO interns check out the Mid-Century design elements in the State Museum.

Some of the 2015 PA SHPO interns check out the Mid-Century design elements in the State Museum.

The PA SHPO provides opportunities for interested college students to work as interns in our office throughout the year, but summer always brings a crop of fresh faces.  Our summer interns are participants in either the PHMC Keystone Internship Program or the PENNDOT sponsored summer internship program in cultural resource management. Continue reading

2015: The Year of the Pennsylvania Barn

June 10, 2015 / / 6 Comments

by Curt Musselman

YearOfPAlogo

Official Year of the Pennsylvania Barn logo designed by Bob McIlhenny, 2014, using barn woodcut by Annie Rubel, 2013

Ten years ago,  Historic Gettysburg Adams County (HGAC) received a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) to help establish a barn preservation program within Adams County. One of our first steps was to begin a survey of the historic barns in the county so that we would know more about the resources we were trying to save. Teams of HGAC volunteers photographed, measured and made observations about the style and construction techniques used on each barn. One of the first things that we learned was that 80 percent of the barns in Adams County are of an architectural type known as the Pennsylvania Barn. This type of barn has two distinctive characteristics; entrance to the second floor by means of a bridge or a built-up ramp, and an overhang or cantilevered forebay on the front of the barn. Within Pennsylvania, these bank barns evolved in the 18th and 19th centuries to their ultimate form, which was influenced by traditional designs brought to America by immigrants coming from Switzerland through Germany. Continue reading

National History Day inspires a new generation

June 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments
National History Day in Pennsylvania judges hard at work at the 2015 competition.

National History Day in Pennsylvania judges hard at work at the 2015 competition.

Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to serve as judge at the National History Day in Pennsylvania competition at Millersville University.  The National History Day Program started in 1974, and is an excellent educational opportunity for students in grades 6-12 to learn about the research, analysis, and presentation of history.  Students compete at regional, state, and national levels.  The National History Day in Pennsylvania program is coordinated by Jeff Hawks, the Education Director for the Army Heritage Center Foundation in Carlisle.   There are two divisions – junior and senior – and the categories include:  individual paper, individual and group documentary, individual and group exhibit, individual and group performance, and website (individual and group judged together).  Utilization of primary sources is emphasized in all categories.  Continue reading

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