As of September 2026, we have over 28,500 archaeological sites recorded in Pennsylvania. This reflects nearly 100 years of Pennsylvanian’s appreciating and recording information on the archaeological evidence of past populations. Of those sites, over 21,900 are pre-contact period archaeological sites – sites that date to the thousands of years that people lived in what is now Pennsylvania before Europeans arrived. Continue reading
Category: Historic Preservation (Page 1 of 50)
October is LGBTQ History Month! There are many places in Pennsylvania to celebrate the LGBTQ community’s rich history. In Philadelphia, step into Giovanni’s Room, one of the oldest LGBTQ bookstores in the United States. The capital building in Harrisburg displays a historic marker recognizing Governor Milton Shapp (2021HM00025) as the first governor to prohibit discrimination toward LGBTQ state employees.
For many years, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) had a model historic preservation ordinance to help Pennsylvania’s municipalities protect historic places in their communities. The tool, while it had its uses, proved to be unequal to the task of accounting for the wide variety amongst Pennsylvania’s more than 2,500 municipalities. The model ordinance helped communities answer the question ‘how can we protect historic places,’ but it did not help communities address why they want to protect historic places or determine what residents in their communities valued.
The PA SHPO’s new Preservation Ordinance Guidebook and Workbook seeks to address not only how but also what and why to help communities develop implementable preservation ordinances which meet community needs.
A year ago, we published a Preservation Partner Spotlight about the Poquessing Trail of History project, a neighborhood public history initiative sponsored by the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia. You can read that post here. A few weeks ago, we reached out to check on how their project is going now.
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended (NHPA) recognizes that historic preservation is a public interest. Recently, significant changes to the NHPA Section 106 regulations have been proposed.
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.
Looking up while shading our eyes, we stood in awe under the 180-foot-tall ornate spired bell tower designed in the nineteenth century by renowned architect, Edward T. Potter, and the rusticated brownstone exterior with Gothic ornamentation, pinnacles, and tracery executed by master mason, George Maltzberger.
On February 13, 2025, PA SHPO’s Historic Property Inspection Program (HPIP) staff ventured to Reading, Pennsylvania for a property inspection of the Christ Episcopal Church of Reading (PA-SHARE Resource # 2018RE00954), a contributing resource within Reading’s Callowhill Historic District (PA-SHARE Resource # 1979RE00447).
This week’s 2025 Community Initiative Award winner spotlight is on Lincoln Cemetery and Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL), the group preserving the cemetery, in the Borough of Penbrook, Dauphin County.
This week’s 2025 Community Initiative Award winner spotlight is on the First Cambria African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church congregation in the City of Johnstown, Cambria County.
This week’s 2025 Community Initiative Award winner spotlight is on the rehabilitation of the Lansdowne Theater in the Borough of Lansdowne, Delaware County.
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