Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Environmental Review (Page 1 of 11)

Meet the Newest PA SHPO Staff!

I’m happy to introduce you to our newest PA SHPO staffers! We are very excited to have Jennifer Thornton join us as our National Register Coordinator, Ashley Respet as part of the above ground Environmental Review team, and Alex O’Gorman as the Historic Property Inspection Program Coordinator.

I asked each of them to answer a few questions to help us get to know them.

Continue reading

Mitigation Spotlight: Section 106 Agreements, July – December, 2023

This is part of a biannual blog series highlighting the agreement documents executed by PA SHPO in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and its implementing regulations.

Between July 1 and December 31 of 2023, PA SHPO has been a signatory to approximately eleven (11) Section 106 agreement documents with five different federal agencies as part of consultation for the resolution of adverse effects to historic properties.

Continue reading

Apply Now! PA SHPO’s Summer 2023 Internships

Are you exploring the field of historic preservation and looking for some real-world experience? The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Keystone Internship Program provides opportunities to pursue your professional growth and contribute to sharing Pennsylvania’s rich heritage with the public.

We’d like to invite college and graduate school students interested in historic preservation, archaeology, community planning, cultural resources, architectural history, public history, and other related fields to apply for their summer 2024 interning experience.

Continue reading

ICYMI: PA SHPO’s Blog in 2023

It’s been a minute since I did a “year in review” post for the blog, so I thought I’d treat our readers to PA SHPO’s version of the ubiquitous end-of-year list.

In the spirit ICYMI, here is a list of the best posts from 2023 that you want to be sure to read. If I had to sum up the blog’s year in one phrase, I think it’s “a year of education, entertainment, and everything in between.”

Continue reading

From Fifty-One to Two: Rehabilitation of One of Schuylkill County’s Last Two Remaining Covered Bridges

The Rock Covered Bridge and Zimmerman Covered Bridge National Register nominations note that Schuylkill County once had fifty-one covered bridges. By the time the nominations were written in 1977, the total count was down to two.

Continue reading

The Elusive Historic Agricultural District

We had some fun recently during a site visit to identify the presence of a historic agricultural district for a solar project…

*Cue Sir David Attenborough’s voice*

Here we are searching for the elusive historic agricultural district. Often impossible to find, we are hoping to get a glimpse of it today, as whispers of its appearance have been heard. What vast expanses of agricultural land use and lack of modern residential development, perhaps we will get a sighting after all. But what is this that appears on the horizon? Large modern grain bins indicative of monocropping, followed by farmsteads lacking historic barns? Ah well, it would appear the earlier rumors of a visit from that elusive beast, the historic agricultural district, have been unfounded. Perhaps when we return to the hunt tomorrow, we may catch a glimpse.

Continue reading

Mitigation Spotlight: Section 106 Agreements, January 2023 – June 2023

This is part of a biannual blog series highlighting the agreement documents executed by PA SHPO in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and its implementing regulations.

Between January 1 and June 30, 2023, PA SHPO has been a signatory to approximately nine (9) Section 106 agreement documents with six different federal agencies as part of consultation for the resolution of adverse effects to historic properties.

Continue reading

Celebrating the Friends of Sheepford Road Bridge

Each week in May, to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, we will highlight one of the 2022 Community Initiative Award winners. In this week’s post, I asked Janice Lynx, Executive Director of the West Short Historical Society, about their successful efforts to save Sheepford Road Bridge.

Sheepford Road Bridge is one of the first bridges to receive funds from PennDOT’s Historic Metal Truss Capital Rehabilitation Program, a new program created to promote the rehabilitation of historic metal truss bridges. I’ll take this opportunity to let our readers know that we also publish a biannual newsletter in partnership with PennDOT dedicated to the preservation and reuse of metal truss bridges. You can sign up here!

Continue reading

« Older posts
Wordpress Social Share Plugin powered by Ultimatelysocial