Category: McKean (Page 1 of 2)

Metal bridge over a creek with grass on one side and wooded area on other.

Expanding the Program: More Metal Truss Bridge Rehabilitations on the Way

April 24, 2024 / Guest Contributor / 2 Comments

Last year, we announced PennDOT’s new funding source for historic metal truss bridges and highlighted two rehabilitation projects that were selected for the new program. With those projects well on their way, the Historic Metal Truss Bridge Capital Rehabilitation Program has since added four additional bridge projects across the Commonwealth.

One story white frame building with steep roof.

Baseline Survey Adds Almost 8,000 Places in Year 3

March 13, 2024 / Guest Contributor / 1 Comment

The Pennsylvania Baseline Survey Team is thrilled to share the final year of findings from the Pennsylvania Baseline Survey. From June 2022 to March 2024, Year 3 of the Baseline Survey took place in 20 counties. To date, over 6,854 new resources have been recorded in 503 municipalities thanks to the efforts of our Baseline Survey Teams!

Aerial view of archaeology dig with excavation squares, exposed stones, plywood borders, and people and tools. — Field school excavations in progress around one of the stone hearth foundations uncovered at Fort Halifax (36DA0008).

A Trip Through the PASS: The 2023 Annual PASS Report

February 21, 2024 / Taylor Napoleon / 1 Comment

Now that 2023 is officially in the PASS, let’s look back on another successful year of archaeological site recording and survey efforts throughout Pennsylvania.

Metal truss bridge over water with a road on the opposite side and trees on stream banks. — Cons Road Bridge in Franklin Township, Bradford County. Photograph by Veronica Martin.

Update on PennDOT’s Historic Metal Truss Bridge Management Plan

October 18, 2023 / Guest Contributor / 4 Comments

In 2017, PennDOT, in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the PA SHPO, published the Metal Truss Bridge Management Plan (Management Plan). This plan, designed to serve as an ongoing planning tool, was the result of a multi-year effort to address the accelerating loss of historic metal truss bridges throughout the state. Now, roughly six years after the publication of the official document, PennDOT would like to provide an update.

Small building with lots of service windows and a large metal ice cream cone out front. — Ice Cream Shop Saegertown Dairy Inn, 685 Main St., Saegertown Borough, Crawford County.

Baseline Survey On the Road Again: Newly Documented Roadside Resources in Pennsylvania

September 13, 2023 / Elizabeth Shultz / 6 Comments

“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 photograph shows two late 19th century buildings along a street in Bradford, PA. — For communities across Pennsylvania, like Bradford, the federal historic tax credit is an essential economic development and preservation tool. Source: Erin Hammerstedt/Preservation Pennsylvania, 2014.

Supporting Pennsylvania’s Main Streets

April 22, 2020 / Bill Callahan / 1 Comment

As one of PA SHPO’s Community Preservation Coordinators, one of the more heartening things I’ve observed (and participated in) the past few weeks has been the response of many Main Street communities and their partners to the COVID 19 crisis.

PA SHPO 2016 Community Initiative Award recipients (from left to right: Brad Maule, Conor Corcoran, Peter Woodall, Kendall Pelling, Anita Dolan, Sherri Geary, and Andrea MacDonald)

PA SHPO’s 2016 Community Initiative Award Winners

March 18, 2020 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 1 Comment

The Community Initiative Award from the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) recognizes organizations, municipalities, agencies, individuals, and others whose work embodies the theme of Pennsylvania’s recently released statewide historic preservation plan, #PreservationHappensHere.

The 2016 awardees are Bradford Revitalization Team (McKean County), East Liberty Development, Inc. (Allegheny County), and Hidden City Philadelphia (Philadelphia).

Feature 1 found in Test Area III contained a pestle and a cup stone (or “nutting stone”) found undisturbed for thousands of years. These artifacts, together with analyses of the soils that were retained from the feature, seem to confirm that nut processing activities took place at the site. Credit: Allegheny Archaeology Research, September 2015.

McKean County’s Keating Site, Part 2

May 24, 2017 / Guest Contributor / 0 Comments

Last month, we introduced you to the Keating Site (36MC0127) located along the Potato Creek north of Smethport in McKean County, Pennsylvania in this interesting blog post. Read on to learn about more cool finds at this prehistoric site!

McKean County’s Keating Site, Part 1

April 5, 2017 / Guest Contributor / 3 Comments

Located along the Potato Creek north of Smethport in McKean County, Pennsylvania, the Keating site (36MC0127) is a prehistoric site with a long history of occupation covering a period of time from approximately 7000 B.C. to A.D. 1500. The site is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places important because of its potential to provide more information about how people lived in this area during the Early Archaic to Late Woodland. This post, the first of two, explores some of the more interesting findings from this dig. Continue reading

September’s SHPO Shout-Out!

September 28, 2016 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 1 Comment

I’ve got some great SHPO Shout-Outs to share with you this month, and I’m anxious to get started! I would be remiss, though, in my duties as Education and Outreach Coordinator if I didn’t share some exciting updates about our Community Connections public outreach effort for the next statewide historic preservation plan. ICYMI, you can check out this blog from Monday to learn what we and our Partners have been up to lately and find out about your chance to hang out with Preservation PA’s Mindy Crawford, PA SHPO staff, and some of our local partners at an Open House coming soon to a community near you.