Ever wonder just how much scholarship of construction chronology is behind your visit to a historic property in Pennsylvania? Or how that research is funded? Woodford is one of Fairmount Park’s most carefully documented and researched buildings because of its architectural significance and as its interpretive use as a historic house museum. Recorded in the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) in 1932 and listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1963, the building was studied and theorized by architectural historians for decades. The Naomi Wood Trust at Woodford Mansion turned to the PA SHPO’s Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program for financial help to plan the historic restoration of Woodford’s 1772 piazza on the west elevation of the 2-story main house. In addition to sifting through all of those relevant published sources and past theories, an archaeological investigation would be the foundation to restore this missing element. Continue reading
Category: Philadelphia (Page 9 of 13)
Rethinking the Row House
What could be simpler than understanding the design of the row house? I had a chance to take a walk through two of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods – Society Hill and South Philadelphia – and I started thinking about some of the changes to the iconic row house. Continue reading
It is time to highlight some of Pennsylvania’s recently listed historic properties! Since our last post ( Just Listed!) in May, 2016, 20 nominations have been approved by the National Park Service in the Commonwealth. Because several of these are districts, that means that over 1600 properties in the Commonwealth have been added to the National Register! Continue reading
2017’s Newly Approved Markers
I am happy to announce that the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission recently approved 18 new historical markers!
As you’ll see from the list below, over half of the approved subjects are for markers in Philadelphia County. The Marker Program encourages broad distribution, so we’d love to see more individuals and organizations from Pennsylvania’s other 66 counties research their history and develop nominations for people, places, events, and innovations in their own backyard. Continue reading
Preservation People & Places Worth Celebrating
As many of you already know, May is national Historic Preservation Month. What better way to kick-start our month-long celebration of historic preservation than with this year’s winners of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia’s 2017 Preservation Achievement Awards.
If you’re not familiar with the Preservation Alliance, they are the Philadelphia region’s non-profit, membership-based historic preservation advocacy group. Their work focuses on actively promoting the appreciation, protection, and revitalization of the Philadelphia area’s historic places and spaces and advocating for strong public preservation policies. Continue reading
High on a hill overlooking the Somerton neighborhood of Philadelphia stands Cranaleith Spiritual Center, a beautiful Shingle style house that overlooks ten acres of gardens, groves of trees, a pond, and a sensitively-designed modern retreat facility. It’s a lovely place nestled amongst a quiet residential neighborhood. But beneath the bucolic setting is a significant story about the struggle for equality, ties to important figures and events in the women’s suffrage movement, and an organization’s commitment to preserving and promoting those legacies. In January I spoke with Cranaleith staff about how they’re using those stories to raise the profile of the organization and attract new audiences to the facility and its mission. Continue reading
Tis the season to be thankful – after all, Thanksgiving was just last week and more holidays are just around the corner – and I for one have been rattling off a list of all the great places in Pennsylvania that I am thankful for and appreciate. The SHPO Shout Out, which, btw, turns 1 year old this month, was intended to send out a big thank you in celebration of all the great people and projects that preserve Pennsylvania’s history everyday. Thank you for all you do to help preserve, protect, and promote Pennsylvania’s historic places and spaces! Read on to see who gets a Shout Out Thank You this month. Make sure to let me know who else we should be thanking and recognizing! Continue reading
Artifacts from PennDOT Dig Shine at Wheaton
There’s a scene in the 1960 classic, The Time Machine, where Rod Taylor escapes the imminent nuclear war by throwing his machine fast into the future. Quickly, the ground rises all around him and for what appears to be an eternity, he is sitting there isolated from the outside world. At that moment, as we watch him shivering, we wonder with him what is going on above ground. An archaeologist would empathize with Rod Taylor at that moment, not because he has put himself into a tight spot, but because Taylor’s experience is the experience of all artifacts in the ground. They are part of the world, then they are no longer part of the world, having disappeared beneath the earth.
Spotlight Series: Philadelphia’s Penn Museum
When I realized that October is Archaeology Month, I thought it would be a great opportunity to share my first trip to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the university’s world renowned archaeology museum.
It’s that time again!
As some of you may know, the National Park Service highlighted Pennsylvania in their #50for50 social media campaign earlier this month. This initiative is part of their broader effort to celebrate and recognize the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act this year. Each week, NPS has been promoting the interesting, meaningful, and successful historic preservation work being done in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. (FYI, this week is South Carolina’s turn!)
Here at PHMC, we participated by adding the #50for50 and #Preservation50 hashtags to all of the preservation-related posts on the Pennsylvania Trails of History Facebook page and @PHMC Twitter feed. I think NPS could have featured Pennsylvania’s successes for a year and still not have gotten through them all, but alas, we need to share the limelight. So, I thought it would be a great idea to share with you some of the stories that didn’t get aired that week and that we haven’t covered in previous posts and Shout-Outs.
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