Baseline Wrapped

(… Or is it?)

As 2024 winds down and all the social media platforms and streaming services summarize and wrap-up the year, the Pennsylvania Above Ground Survey (PAGS) program has the opportunity publish its BASELINE WRAPPED for 2020-2024.

Baseline Wrapped is going to summarize the changes in technology, highlight certain municipalities, provide some numbers, and even hint at what’s to come next..!

Technology

Those gold-star SHPO-followers who have been around for years may recall that when the Baseline Survey Project kicked-off in 2020, it actually pre-dated the launch of the PA-SHARE Surveyor suite of tools, including Surveyor Manager.

The amazing preservation professionals who were hired to conduct fieldwork in the pre-Surveyor days were required to input their data into the Survey123 mobile app, but they never had a desktop interface from the SHPO to interact with, edit, and submit the resource records. Now we can’t imagine completing a survey without our beloved Surveyor Manager website!

While the mobile Survey123 app hasn’t been a required part of the Surveyor workflow since the tools officially came online in August of 2021, in 2024 the way that the Survey123 app is used has significantly changed compared to the early days of Surveyor.

Today, with Surveyor’s enhancement facilitating the batch upload of data from shapefiles and excel file types, the landscape of data present in a survey project from the very beginning can be tremendously different. The potential provided by batch uploading data from tax parcel layers, et cetera, means that the Survey123 app can be used just for its camera function, or just on an as-desired basis.

As with all other above ground surveys that interact with the SHPO, as the Baseline methodology moves forward into the future, batch uploading will a crucial and impactful part of the process.

The Impact of Baseline on the PA-SHARE Dataset

The Baseline Survey Project collected over 20,000 newly-identified resources, which means that roughly 10% of the entire PA-SHARE Above Ground resource dataset exists as a result of this project! That is a meaningful impact on the universe of what the SHPO knows about and therefore what helps to shape the SHPO’s perspective on the historic and important places and stories in Pennsylvania.

In some municipalities that were part of the Baseline methodology, the survey work completed was especially illuminating. In places like Central City Borough, Somerset County (Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract F), Steelton Borough, Dauphin County (Baseline Survey Year 2, Contract B), and Briar Creek Township, Columbia County (Baseline Survey Year 1, Contract D), among others, the historic or important places captured through Baseline now represent the vast majority of what the SHPO and PA-SHARE users “know” about that area.

For example, S.N.P.J. Borough in Lawrence County – which has a fascinating story surrounding its creation as a borough and its relationship to the Slovenska Narodna Podporna Jednota (which translates to the “Slovene National Benefit Society”) fraternal organization – was surveyed for the very first time as part of Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract E.

The history of S.N.P.J. Borough tells a fascinating story that includes unique outcomes from Pennsylvania’s existence as a Commonwealth, rather than a state, the history of ethnic communities in Western PA, and connects to the important Pennsylvania story of camp meetings and group camps.

A view down Fraternal Lane in S.N.P.J. Borough that was captured as part of Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract E. Photo dated May 4, 2024. Courtesy of the PA SHPO.

Northern Cambria Borough, in Cambria County, is an example that visually demonstrates the extent to which the SHPO’s knowledge of the historic and important cultural places in that municipality has grown by leaps and bounds through the work of Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract F:

A map showing above ground resource PA-SHARE data in Northern Cambria Borough, Cambria County. Courtesy of PA SHPO, 2024.

While on the main PA-SHARE map all the resources from the Baseline survey of Cambria County have been integrated into the rest of the dataset and their map colors and symbology reflect that integration, the map above displays the resources collected through the Baseline survey in blue, while any other colors on the map reflect resources that were part of the PA-SHARE dataset prior to the Baseline project. The map reveals a significant increase in the PA-SHARE knowledge of Northern Cambria Borough.

The same story is repeated elsewhere throughout the Baseline Survey Project. In Lehighton Borough in Carbon County the majority of the inventoried places present – indicated, as in Northern Cambria Borough’s map above, by the blue symbology – in PA-SHARE were documented via Baseline Survey Year 3 Contract E:

A map showing above ground resource PA-SHARE data in Lehighton Borough, Carbon County. Courtesy of PA SHPO, 2024.

In other places, like West Liberty Borough in Butler County (Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract F) or Port Allegheny Borough in McKean County (Baseline Survey Year 3, Contract A), the outcome of the Baseline Survey Project more than tripled the number of history places inventoried in that municipality.

Baseline Survey Year 2, Contract C quadrupled the number of historic places in PA-SHARE in Alexandria Borough, Huntingdon County, and as a result of Baseline Survey Project Year 3 Contract C, the number of PA-SHARE resource records for Norwood Borough in Delaware County jumped from two to 60!

These are just a few examples of the dramatic impact that the Baseline Survey Project has had on PA-SHARE’s understanding of the historic and cultural landscape of Pennsylvania, but cases such as these are found in every single Baseline survey multiple times over. It just goes to show how impactful these four years of the Baseline Survey Project truly have been for the SHPO’s body of knowledge.

Crunch Wrap

Another way to crunch the numbers in this Baseline Wrapped for 2020-2024 is to review how the places documented fit into the Baseline Survey Project’s identified priorities and methodology. For a refresher on the priorities and the methodology, feel free to check out past blog posts – like “Kicking off the PA SHPO’s Baseline Survey Effort”  – or by visiting the Baseline Survey page of the SHPO’s website.

Table showing the number of historic property types surveyed by year. Data in table last updated November 2024.

While some numbers may seem small – like the counts for Urban Redevelopment Properties – it’s important to understand the data both in the context of the historic landscape of Pennsylvania and in relation to the existing body of knowledge in PA-SHARE. For the counties in which these resources are located, the number of urban redevelopment history-related properties identified most often represents a 100% increase of that property type in that geography.

Furthermore, the methodology of the Baseline Survey Project focused on areas that were underrepresented in the SHPO’s dataset. That means that areas with a lot of resources already recorded, like more urban areas where urban development projects are more likely to be found, often didn’t fall within the scope of the Baseline projects.

When reviewing the numbers for resources like “African American Churches” and “African American Cemeteries,” it’s also important to understand the historic context of the landscape and the potential likelihood of one of those resource types existing within certain counties and municipalities.

For example, the SHPO’s Baseline Survey Census Research documents for each county provide a straightforward way to understand when, and to what extent, different ethnicities are represented in US Census data over time and can guide researchers’ understanding of whether resource types related to ethnic history could be present in various areas.

Example pages from the Baseline Survey Census Research document for Crawford County. Published by the PA SHPO, November 2022.

The Baseline Survey Census Research documents can be found at the bottom of the Baseline Survey Project webpage.

Alexa, play “…Ready for It?” by Taylor Swift

While the survey projects planned for 55 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties in the Plan for Baseline Survey in Pennsylvania: 2020-2024 have been completed, the world of the Baseline Survey Project continues!

An ESRI StoryMap has been published that shares photos and summary information for historic places captured by Baseline between 2020-2024. Titled “Learning Pennsylvania’s Story Through Historic Places,” the story map can be found here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/49667b7d9ebd4d3ab47e1b27cd46fcce.  We expect the StoryMap  to grow and change with more information about other resource types in the coming year!

A screenshot of the introductory header of the “Learning Pennsylvania’s Story Through Historic Places” StoryMap.

Finally, this Baseline Wrapped needs to acknowledge that there are still 12 counties in Pennsylvania that have not been surveyed with the Baseline Survey Project’s methodology… Watch this space to find out what might be popping up in your 2025 PAGS Wrapped!