Registration is now open for FORUM 2014, July 16-20, in Philadelphia. FORUM is the title for this year’s Statewide Conference on Heritage/Byways to the Past, which has teamed up with the National Alliance of Preservation Commission’s biennial training program for a jam-packed week of workshops, tours, and sessions. Whether you’re a perennial attendee of the Pennsylvania Statewide Conference, or a first-timer, a planner, architect, archaeologist, historical commission or HARB member, elected official, or consultant the combination of these two events in a single place is a training and networking opportunity not to be missed! Continue reading
Category: Historic Preservation (Page 45 of 49)
Hosanna Church: The Last building in Hinsonville
In the shadow of Lincoln University – one of Pennsylvania’s four “state affiliated” universities (its fellows being Pitt, Temple, and Penn State) – can be found the small and stoic Hosanna AUMP Church. One pragmatic story tall, with a grand total of eight windows on four sides, the modest footprint of Hosanna belies its cultural significance, yet remains unevaluated for inclusion in the National Register. Continue reading
The U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, describes the National Register of Historic Places as “the official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. National Register properties have significance to the prehistory or history of their community, State, or the Nation (NPS 1990, revised 1997). Continue reading
Spotlight Series: The Shawnee-Minisink Archaeological Site
“Well How Do They Know That?”: Shawnee-Minisink and How We Know What We Know About Prehistoric Peoples at One Archaeological Site. Continue reading
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission recently approved 21 new historical markers. Approval Criteria require that marker subjects must have statewide and/or national rather than local or regional historical significance. After the jump is a quick look at this year’s approved markers. Continue reading
If you haven’t participated in a Pennsylvania National Register nomination you may not have experienced a Historic Preservation Board meeting. But that shouldn’t stop you! The meetings are open to the public and we welcome all preservation aficionados to attend a future meeting. The 2014 schedule is posted on our website. The nominations to be reviewed at an upcoming meeting will also be posted to the website about one month prior to the scheduled meeting.
The purpose of the Historic Preservation Board is to provide expert judgments about the historical, architectural, and archeological significance of resources in Pennsylvania as authorized by Section 101 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, and Sections 504 and 505 of the Pennsylvania History Code. Continue reading
Offbeat Outings is a bi-monthly series that highlights the travels of BHP staff as they experience history first-hand throughout Pennsylvania.
When some people plan to go on an historic vacation they think of places to visit like the Egyptian pyramids at Giza, Colonial Williamsburg, Stonehenge, or even Gettysburg. When I think of an historic vacation, I think about going home. Continue reading
In the bill authorizing funds for recovery from Hurricane Sandy, Congress allocated $50 million to the National Park Service (NPS) specifically for projects related to historic properties in the affected states. The majority of these funds were directed to New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, while the rest was made available on a competitive basis to other states in the region. The Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office submitted their request for funding to the NPS in July, and in December the Park Service announced that the Commonwealth had been selected for a $1.5 million grant, the largest amount awarded through the competitive funding process! The staff is now working to finalize the scope of the project and to move forward with the next steps. Continue reading
Archaeology is a destructive science. Generally there are no exciting explosions, or catastrophic collapses when undertaking an excavation, but all the same, once a site or portion of a site is excavated it is gone for good. Every good archaeologist is trained to take this fact into account when doing archaeological work. We sketch, note, measure, photograph, and generally record every minute detail of an excavation knowing that we are destroying the very thing we are interested in understanding. This is why there is more than a little truth in the old adage that for every day spent in the field, the archaeologist spends at least as much time, and often more, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting on the information that has been collected. Continue reading
Preservation Pennsylvania just released Pennsylvania At Risk 2013, an annual list that provides a representative sampling of the Commonwealth’s most endangered historic resources. Pennsylvania At Risk 2013 features nine endangered properties that were identified in 2013, and will be Preservation Pennsylvania’s priorities for action in 2014. The properties included in this annual list of endangered places represent important resource types and exemplify common or noteworthy issues faced by historic properties in Pennsylvania. It is Preservation Pennsylvania’s experience that publishing this list draws statewide attention to the plight of Pennsylvania’s historic resources and promotes local action to protect them. Continue reading
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