Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
by Sabra Smith, Preservation Pennsylvania
What is the preservation community’s most important asset? It’s the people! Those passionate, creative, place-loving, story-telling folks who wear invisible super hero capes and do their best work so that a beloved landmark is restored, or a neighborhood story is discovered, or a community of advocates is activated. Continue reading
During my tenure with Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Office, I reviewed numerous legislative drafts for the long-awaited Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. Early drafts included a historic homeowner component. Later versions proposed grants instead of tax credits. All dozen or so drafts were bypassed in the legislative process until the approval of the Pennsylvania Historic Tax Credit program in the Fiscal Year 2012-13.
After a successful launch of the program in Fiscal Year 2013-14, I was eagerly anticipating the approval of the first historic tax credit project. My money was on a project from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. These two cities received the most state tax credit allocations and have a long track record for project completion. To my surprise, those two cities will need to take a back to seat to the Flagship City of Erie – our Gem City situated on the sparkling water of Presque Isle Bay and Lake Erie – and the striking rehabilitation of the CF Adams Building by the Erie Insurance Exchange. Continue reading
Since the opening date of the application period on December 1, 2014, I have received many calls and inquiries about the status of Year 2 of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit program. By the closure of the application period on February 1, 2015, the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) received 30 applications for the second round.
Over a long review period which lasted until mid-April, PHMC reviewed the applications to ensure applicants owned qualified historic buildings and that proposed rehabilitation plans met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. As the qualified applications far exceed the limited $3 million in available credits, DCED used a fair and balanced selection process based on a first -come, first serve basis with regional distribution to select the first round of projects. Continue reading
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) approved 22 new historical markers at its March 4, 2015 meeting. There are currently more than 2,000 PHMC markers throughout Pennsylvania and the program is one of the most popular and visible aspects of the Commission’s work. The Commission has standard approval criteria that, among other things, require marker subjects be of statewide and/or national historical significance. The majority of the newly approved markers are in Philadelphia (9), which is also where the most (20) nominations came from. With such a long and rich history, it is no surprise that Philadelphia has the largest number of markers of any county in the state (over 250). The Marker Program encourages broad distribution, so individuals and organizations from the other 66 counties are encouraged to research their history and develop nominations for people, places, events, and innovations with statewide and/or national historical significance in their own area. Continue reading
Just Listed is a semi-annual feature of Pennsylvania’s cultural resources that were recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Since our last Just Listed post, 27 resources from all corners of the Commonwealth have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. You can explore these and other historic properties in Pennsylvania via CRGIS, our online map and database. Continue reading
As the calendar flips to another Fiscal Year, I want to take a few minutes to review the first year of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit and present the first 15 projects to receive historic tax credits in Pennsylvania. Continue reading
Event will feature experts from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and Preservation Pennsylvania
Preservation Erie and the Erie County Historical Society are collaborating to present an Erie County Gaming Revenue Authority Mission Main Street workshop. The event will take place June 20, 2014, from 9a.m. to 3p.m. at the Jefferson Educational Society, 3207 State Street, Erie, Pa. Event updates and RSVP details are available under the Events tab on Preservation Erie’s website.
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!
The odometer read 19 when we rolled out of the state garage. We had an ambitious three-day schedule planned to northwestern Pennsylvania. The Bureau’s new director, Serena Bellew, had never been to the ‘Erie triangle’ or the northwest corner of the Commonwealth and she was in for a treat… or two, or three – because great local eateries were also on the itinerary. Our mantra for the trip was “positive preservation.” At each stop we planned to meet with some of our partners who have been thoughtfully and purposefully working toward accomplishing various preservation goals.
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