Prominent landmarks in small towns hold a special type of nostalgic significance for those who have interacted with them.
Category: Community Character (Page 1 of 18)
Each week in May, to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, we will highlight one of the 2023 Community Initiative Award winners. In this week’s post, I asked Josh Stull with the Nicholson Heritage Association about their work preserving the Nicholson Train Station.
For the past few years, PA SHPO has kicked off National Historic Preservation Month by announcing the newest Community Initiative Award winners. The four 2023 recipients and their projects showcase a variety of preservation success stories, demonstrating the importance of preserving those places at the heart of Pennsylvania’s communities that embody its past and present stories.
Several years ago, my colleagues and I at the PA SHPO compiled a history of preservation achievements in Pennsylvania. This interesting trek through the preservation timeline was published in the Winter 2016 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage magazine and was added as a chapter in the current statewide historic preservation plan, #PreservationHappensHere. This week in honor of Women’s History Month, I’m taking a deeper dive into the role of women in Pennsylvania’s preservation accomplishments.
![Group of people people of color standing on the sidewalk in front of Henry Ossawa Tanner House holding paintings and brooms on a sunny day.](https://pahistoricpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Block-Clean-Up-sm-676x507.jpg)
Advancing Black Preservation to Sustain Black Neighborhoods with The Friends of the Tanner House
As part of Black History Month, we invited Friends of the Tanner House – which we first introduced to our readers in this post – to talk about strategies for advancing Black heritage site preservation with attention to rich community and cultural engagement. In this blog post, guest contributor Chris Rogers discuss the principles behind their in-progress community visioning and preservation planning process.
We had some fun recently during a site visit to identify the presence of a historic agricultural district for a solar project…
*Cue Sir David Attenborough’s voice*
Here we are searching for the elusive historic agricultural district. Often impossible to find, we are hoping to get a glimpse of it today, as whispers of its appearance have been heard. What vast expanses of agricultural land use and lack of modern residential development, perhaps we will get a sighting after all. But what is this that appears on the horizon? Large modern grain bins indicative of monocropping, followed by farmsteads lacking historic barns? Ah well, it would appear the earlier rumors of a visit from that elusive beast, the historic agricultural district, have been unfounded. Perhaps when we return to the hunt tomorrow, we may catch a glimpse.
![Large white and blue sign in a grassy area in front of a one-story brick building where people are standing on ladders.](https://pahistoricpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Keystone-sign-with-window-construction.jpg)
The Past, Present and Future of the Keystone Historic Preservation Grant Program
2023 marks an important anniversary for the Keystone Historic Preservation Grant Program. In honor of the 30th anniversary of this important program that provides public grants to our partners to support preservation to Pennsylvania’s history.
Any Pennsylvanian at heart has a list of places in the Keystone State that captures the essence of who we are.
![Small building with lots of service windows and a large metal ice cream cone out front.](https://pahistoricpreservation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Ice-Cream-Shop-Saegertown-Dairy-Inn-685-Main-St.-Saegertown-Borough-Crawford-Co-676x507.jpg)
Baseline Survey On the Road Again: Newly Documented Roadside Resources in Pennsylvania
“I can’t wait to get on the road again/On the road again/Goin’ places that I’ve never been/Seein’ things that I may never see again/And I can’t wait to get on the road again…”
-Willie Nelson, “On the Road Again,” 1980
With Pennsylvania’s long transportation history – from railroads and canals to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the many beautiful bridges throughout the Commonwealth – it’s no surprise that the teams working on the Baseline Survey Project discovered and inventoried a multitude of Pennsylvania’s previously unrecorded roadside resources!
This past March, the Vaux Big Picture High School in Philadelphia participated in a unique educational program. The Center for Architecture and Design (CAD) and the Dox Thrash Project (DTP) partnered to plan the experience as part of CAD’s Architecture and Design Education (ADE) program. A group of 9th grade design students explored themes of history, legacy, and commemoration as it relates to the built environment.
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