At the beginning of May, I promised we’d provide a recap of the #31for31 social media campaign to celebrate Preservation Month across Pennsylvania. If you missed a post on our Facebook page or in our Twitter feed, no worries! You can see it, and the rest of the month’s content, right here. Don’t miss the big announcement covered in the May 31st post! Continue reading
Category: Architectural History (Page 6 of 10)
Add this to your summer reading list! #preservationhappenshere – PA’s Statewide Preservation Plan – is ready for you
Picture yourself – lounging poolside, lakeside, or on the beach – with your tablet or smart phone (or even good old-fashioned paper) enjoying the hottest summer publication that hasn’t yet made the New York Times bestseller list: #preservationhappenshere, Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan. Continue reading
The Keystone Program Helps Plan a New Fine Art Museum in Bedford County
Bedford County sorely lacked a fine art museum after its previous institution dissolved in 2013. Two years later, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA) decided to expand their satellite museum program into Bedford Borough and identified a historic building on Pitt Street as a prime location for the new fine art center. Continue reading
Spotlight: William C. Goodridge Freedom Center Keystone Grant
Leveraging local dollars to support important historic preservation initiatives is one of the key facets of the PHMC’s Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program. Continue reading
The Second Empire Strikes Back
Perhaps no architectural style has been more cruelly reinterpreted in the modern era than the classy and distinctive French Second Empire style (also called the Mansard style). Continue reading
Ever wonder just how much scholarship of construction chronology is behind your visit to a historic property in Pennsylvania? Or how that research is funded? Woodford is one of Fairmount Park’s most carefully documented and researched buildings because of its architectural significance and as its interpretive use as a historic house museum. Recorded in the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) in 1932 and listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1963, the building was studied and theorized by architectural historians for decades. The Naomi Wood Trust at Woodford Mansion turned to the PA SHPO’s Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program for financial help to plan the historic restoration of Woodford’s 1772 piazza on the west elevation of the 2-story main house. In addition to sifting through all of those relevant published sources and past theories, an archaeological investigation would be the foundation to restore this missing element. Continue reading
Rethinking the Row House
What could be simpler than understanding the design of the row house? I had a chance to take a walk through two of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods – Society Hill and South Philadelphia – and I started thinking about some of the changes to the iconic row house. Continue reading
It is time to highlight some of Pennsylvania’s recently listed historic properties! Since our last post ( Just Listed!) in May, 2016, 20 nominations have been approved by the National Park Service in the Commonwealth. Because several of these are districts, that means that over 1600 properties in the Commonwealth have been added to the National Register! Continue reading
High on a hill overlooking the Somerton neighborhood of Philadelphia stands Cranaleith Spiritual Center, a beautiful Shingle style house that overlooks ten acres of gardens, groves of trees, a pond, and a sensitively-designed modern retreat facility. It’s a lovely place nestled amongst a quiet residential neighborhood. But beneath the bucolic setting is a significant story about the struggle for equality, ties to important figures and events in the women’s suffrage movement, and an organization’s commitment to preserving and promoting those legacies. In January I spoke with Cranaleith staff about how they’re using those stories to raise the profile of the organization and attract new audiences to the facility and its mission. Continue reading
This month’s Shout Out includes great news about PA’s new National Historic Landmarks, some cool stuff in Cumberland County, and some new research projects!
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