Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
For some readers the onset of seasonal fall weather means bundling up for Friday night high school football games or starting the furnace, but I’m always reminded that another growing season is coming to a close. However, It is not too late to find great local produce at any of Pennsylvania’s local market houses! Continue reading
The Spotlight Series is an occasional series that highlights interesting people, places, programs, and partner organizations working on historic preservation issues.
At the turn of the last century, the 2200 block of West Tioga Street was a fashionable address for business owners and professionals. Homes were up to 5,800 square feet, housing large families and live-in servants.
Architect Edgar Viguers Seeler designed the gem of the block — an 1898 chateau-style twin at 2224-26 West Tioga – for two families that owned the Conkling-Armstrong Terra Cotta Co. In fact, it was an ornate showpiece for their business: making architectural ornamentation. It featured columns encrusted with floral detail, ornate stringcourses and porch balustrades, all made of terra cotta. Combining his training from the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art, MIT, and the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, Seeler was able to design ornate structures that spanned multiple aesthetics. Continue reading
Not everyone appreciates the beauty, simplicity and architectural honesty of mid-century modern architecture. As in every age and style there are good examples, bad examples, and occasionally, a truly exemplary work of architecture. Fortunately for PHMC, The State Museum and Archives building in Harrisburg is an exemplary work of mid-century modern design. Continue reading
On July 17, 2014, at the Forum 2014 Statewide Conference on Heritage Byways to the Past in Philadelphia, the Bureau for Historic Preservation (BHP) will be part of the panel for the session “The Past, Present and Future of the Transportation Enhancement Programs, MAP-21 and Transportation Alternatives Program.” Continue reading
July 2014 is a busy month for historic preservationists. Over eight hundred people will converge on the city of Philadelphia for the 2014 FORUM Preservation Conference and other related meetings and events between July 16 and 20. Continue reading
As preservationists from all over the country converge in Philadelphia this summer for Forum 2014 it is only appropriate to highlight the fabulous and historic food venue that will host the conference reception on July 18th—the Reading Terminal Market. The Market itself is a real preservation success story. It is a landmark building (recognized as a NPS National Historic Landmark since 1976 and documented as an engineering marvel by the Historic American Engineering Record ) with its own storied history which has survived challenging and uncertain times to delight a new generation of Philadelphians and visitors. Continue reading
Lynn Hall, located in McKean County on Route 6 just west of Port Allegany was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in December of 2006. Lynn Hall was designed and built as a restaurant/ ballroom and residence by local master builder Walter Hall and his architect son Raymond Viner (R.V.) Hall. Walter Hall was the head contractor and builder of one of the most iconic and well-known buildings in the United States—or anywhere—Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Continue reading
The Spotlight Series is an occasional series that highlights interesting people, places, programs, and partner organizations working on historic preservation issues.
This spring I had the pleasure of working with a group of six students from the University of Pittsburgh’s History of Art and Architecture Department as they participated in a unique opportunity to intensively study the historic Allegheny Observatory and to interact directly with a project funded by a PHMC Keystone Historic Preservation Grant.
Given I routinely speak to agencies, applicants, and the public about historic architecture, I was a bit surprised by the presence of sweaty palms and butterflies as I prepared to talk to a new audience, a group I assumed would exhibit short attention spans, emotional reactivity, and call-it-like-you-see-it attitudes while I struggled to make even the most basic architectural principles interesting. As is the case with much of life, reality provided distant from expectations, and I was reminded of a very basic but important principle I believe worthy of sharing in a blog posting: the connection between memory and place and identity. Continue reading
My motoring memoirs of the ERIEsistable journey I personally never wanted to end (my travel companion may have felt otherwise), returned us to where we pulled over two weeks ago… lunch!
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