Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: African American history (Page 1 of 5)

Man talks to group of seated audience.
Township Council member manager John Gillespie speaks about the history of the building and project. Photo courtesy of Ted Goldman.

Celebrating Concord Township and the Spring Valley AME Church

May 24, 2023 / / 1 Comment

This week’s 2022 Community Initiative Award winner spotlight is on Concord Township’s preservation of the Spring Valley AME Church  in Delaware County.

This project in Delaware County caught the eagle eye of one of my colleagues last year from some press reporting and I’m glad it did. She just happened to be the SHPO’s reviewer for most projects that were undertaken with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), particularly using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money.

Using CDBG funds for historic preservation – like Concord Township did – is a great way for communities to invest in the older and historic places that matter to them and that tell their full stories.

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Group of seven people sitting or standing behind a table.
BVUGRR and Levity Brewing Co. team at the release of the first Freedom Seeker beer series.

Celebrating the Blairsville Area Underground Railroad

May 17, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This week’s 2022 Community Initiative Award winner spotlight is on the Blairsville Underground Railroad organization in Blairsville, Indiana County.

Blairsville was laid out in the early 19th century along the Conemaugh River at the southern end of Indiana County, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh along the planned route of the Huntingdon, Cambria, and Indiana Turnpike. Blairsville’s history and growth is closely tied to its transportation corridors – the river, the stagecoach in 1818, the canal in 1829, and the rail in 1851 – and natural deposits of salt, coal, and iron, which together supported a thriving and flourishing community.

What many may not know about Blairsville is its African American history, particularly related to abolition and the Underground Railroad (UGRR). The borough had one of the larger Black communities in Indiana County and the county’s first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church was organized there in 1844. Indiana County was an important and active Underground Railroad stop in Pennsylvania as freedom seekers escaped from their enslavers in search of freedom.

I asked Denise Doyle from the Blairsville Underground Railroad organization to share their story with us.

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Retelling the Stories of Existing Resources: Adding New Areas of Significance to National Register Properties

November 23, 2022 / / 2 Comments

Researching the history of a building can feel like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle from a thrift store without the box. You might get most of the pieces to fit together so that you can tell the story of that place, but some are still missing, leaving gaps in the narrative.

If you’re anything like me, you might find those gaps frustrating, but they’re also opportunities to learn things you never could have imagined about a place.

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Group of nine people standing in a cemetery.
Meeting at Midland Cemetery, August 2022. From left to right (Dr. Steve Burg (PAHG, Shippensburg University), Erin Emerick (Shippensburg University), Sarah Hoffeditz (Shippensburg University), Ira Beckerman (PAC), Dr. Ben Ford (Indiana University of PA), Barbara Barksdale, Janet Johnson (State Museum), Kim Sebestyen (State Museum), Taylor Napoleon (PA SHPO).

Community Archaeology at Midland Cemetery

October 19, 2022 / / 2 Comments

Last fall the State Museum of Pennsylvania hosted their annual workshop in archaeology entitled Hidden Stories: Uncovering African American History through Archaeology and Community Engagement. The theme was born out of the acknowledgement that African Americans are vastly underrepresented in the historic record and the representations that are present are typically unfairly biased.

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Line drawing with lines connecting circles on a map of Pennsylvania.
This map shows the lines of connections southeastern Pennsylvania, including safe houses, station masters and UGRR conductors. Wilbert Seibert included this map, which is based on Robert Smedley's 1883 book, in his 1898 The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom.

The Underground Railroad in Columbia, Lancaster County

September 14, 2022 / / 1 Comment

September is International Underground Railroad Month. September was chosen because it is the month that two of the most well-known people associated with the Underground Railroad –  Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass – escaped from slavery.  Today’s post was written by guest author Dr. Leroy Hopkins and he provides a glimpse into the Underground Railroad in Columbia, Pennsylvania.

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Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, Berwick, Columbia County.

Reflecting on Year One of the Pennsylvania Baseline Survey

June 29, 2022 / / 3 Comments

In late 2020, PA SHPO launched an ambitious, large-scale architectural survey called the Pennsylvania Baseline Survey, with a goal of adding approximately 27,000 new resources in 52 different counties over three years. In Year One, over 7,000 new records were added to PA-SHARE – just from Baseline Survey! Read on to learn about a few of the interesting finds…

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