Category: McKean

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 / 3 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 / 2 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.

May’s SHPO Shout-Out

May 25, 2016 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 0 Comments

We’re back to our regular SHPO Shout-Out post this month, and I get to tell you about some great local preservation activities, two national award winners, and a cool new park in Jefferson County. Two quick things before I launch into my list of happy news: have you taken our online survey for the next statewide historic preservation plan yet? Or have you registered for the upcoming Statewide Conference on Heritage? There is still time to do both! Continue reading

Spotlight Series: Preservation At Work in Bradford

December 23, 2015 / Bill Callahan / 1 Comment

45 communities in Pennsylvania have a formal working relationship with the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) on a variety of preservation-related programs and projects.

Known as Certified Local Governments (CLGs), these communities represent a broad geographic, demographic and economic swath across the Commonwealth. From Philadelphia (Pop. 1.5 million) to Mercersburg, Franklin County (Pop. 1500) and located in over a third of Pennsylvania counties, the CLG program provides exclusive funding and technical assistance for local governments. As you may remember from this post a few months ago, the CLG program is one of several federal programs administered by the PA SHPO; in this case, the National Park Service provides guidance, rules and funding for the CLG program.

Three CLG communities in the PA SHPO Western Region provide a glimpse into the range of preservation activities CLGs can sponsor. Over the next few months, we’ll illustrate how the City of Bradford, Moon Township and the City of Pittsburgh have used the CLG program to leverage their preservation programs. We’ll turn our spotlight on Bradford first.