Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
Bedford County sorely lacked a fine art museum after its previous institution dissolved in 2013. Two years later, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA) decided to expand their satellite museum program into Bedford Borough and identified a historic building on Pitt Street as a prime location for the new fine art center. Continue reading
By Liz Allen, Preservation Erie
Erie County’s story spreads out across the land and spills out across the water. Our tales are told through architectural treasures and our narrative is shaped by our natural environment. We’ve unearthed our roots by preserving our immigrant past, while we continue to reinvent our future by welcoming new Americans. Continue reading
Leveraging local dollars to support important historic preservation initiatives is one of the key facets of the PHMC’s Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program. Continue reading
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
The Certified Local Government (CLG) Program has been part of the national preservation toolbox since the early 1980s. Like other programs established by the National Historic Preservation Act, the CLG program is administered by each State Historic Preservation Office based on state-specific guidelines approved by the National Park Service. Pennsylvania’s CLG guidelines procedures were last updated in 2009, but haven’t changed substantially since the program started almost 30 years ago. That’s all about to change! The PA SHPO has recently released a draft of proposed changes to the CLG program and will be accepting comments from the public until December 4, 2017. Continue reading
From Philadelphia (Pop. 1.5 million) to Mercersburg, Franklin County (Pop. 1500) and located in over a third of Pennsylvania counties, the Certified Local Government (CLG) program provides exclusive funding and technical assistance for local governments. This week’s post introduces us to Pittsburgh as a CLG and provides a glimpse into the amazing things they are doing through this program. Continue reading
Recently, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission collaborated with the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village to preserve one of the oldest covered bridges in Washington County. Continue reading
Each year, one of the most meaningful programs of the Commission is the Keystone Historic Preservation Grant program. With this grant program, the PHMC partners with local communities to address key historic preservation issues. As we found out through our local recent preservation plan community forums, every region of the Commonwealth has its own unique challenges. Some problems are immense, but we are proud that we are able to partner with local organizations to make inroads with these challenges and find alternatives to demolition of Pennsylvania’s historic resources.
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.
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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