Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
Advertisements for Tuscarora Academy continued to use this phrase more than 50 years after the school was established in 1836. Located in the quaint hamlet of Academia, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, the Tuscarora Academy was a premier 19th century secondary educational institution. Thousands of students, from 47 Pennsylvania counties, more than 30 other states, and six countries, traveled to Academia for their college preparatory courses.
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According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs website, nearly 4.9 million individuals—including Veterans of every conflict, from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—are honored by burial in our national cemeteries.
Each year about 15 percent of all eligible Veterans are interred in a national cemetery, while about 5 percent opt for a State, Territorial or Tribal Veterans Cemetery. The national cemeteries’ memorial landscapes convey critical stories about American history and reflect the evolution of our care and commemoration of our military veterans.
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Nestled amongst the oak-covered hills of rural northwest Pennsylvania until very recently sat an iron artifact from a bygone era. Built in 1876 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, this elegant, metal arch structure is what is termed, in historical bridge parlance, as a bowstring through-truss.
Originally owned and maintained by Crawford County, it has gone by numerous names over the years, including East Titusville Bridge, Pine Creek Bridge and, more recently, Messerall Road Bridge. Whatever name it goes by, it is now more commonly known for being the last of its kind in western Pennsylvania.
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In last week’s post, we introduced you to this past summer’s Juniata College Field School at Fort Halifax Park in Halifax, Dauphin County. This week, we’ll tell you about the “major discovery” we hinted at last week!
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On our first day at our field school in archaeology, we searched through the soil for mountain peaks: or rather, mountain peak-shaped rocks. That’s the tip we were given for finding flakes -fragments of stone produced by Native American flintknapping.
Continue readingThe PA SHPO extends hearty congratulations to Pennsylvania’s fourth largest city, the City of Erie, which on May 17th, became one of Pennsylvania’s newest Certified Local Governments (CLG).
The certification of Erie City as a CLG is the latest success in a long string of preservation projects and initiatives undertaken by public, private and non-profit entities in Erie County that illustrate the well-trod aphorism If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
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I’ve been lucky enough to visit the idyllic George Nakashima Woodworkers property in Solebury Township, Bucks County three times, once for “work” but each time a genuine pleasure, and I will jump at any chance to return. I hope this deep-ish dive into the story behind George Nakashima and his property inspire you to learn more and visit.
The Nakashima complex (PA-SHARE Resource #2007RE01239) was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 and designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service (NPS) in 2014, one of 169 NPS “Landmarks” in Pennsylvania.
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The intersection of technology and historic preservation is nothing new as the field has embraced new and different ways to engage with people, diagnose issues in buildings, and find long-buried archaeological sites. This week’s post by Christine Musser of the West Short Historical Society and Harrisburg University tells the story of how drones were used to document a historic property.
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Each person has one event in their lifetime that is so significant that they will say for the remainder of their lives “I remember exactly where I was standing when I heard the news.” An event so significant that it seemed as if time stood still.
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The Gamble Mill at 160 Dunlap Street in Bellefonte, Centre County, PA was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on August 1, 1975, as one of the only remaining grain mills in the county and one with surviving original 18th and 19th century spaces and materials.
As the National Register designation makes the building eligible for the Federal and State Historic Tax Credit programs, the current owners developed a reuse plan to save and rehabilitate the historic Gamble Mill.
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