Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Local Preservation (Page 1 of 10)

Out with the Model Ordinance in with the Ordinance Guidebook and Workbook

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.

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John Ludwig House Rehabilitation Continues and Other News in the Keystone Grant Program

Nestled at the end of Johnstown’s Main Street sits a smaller two and half story brick residence, slightly out of character from the nearby taller commercial buildings of the city’s main downtown core.  The Ludwig House has a layered history, but it was very instrumental with one of Johnstown’s most significant events. I never would have guessed that when I first visited five years ago.

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A Delaware County Landmark Reopens!

I fondly remember my evening outings to my downtown movie theater as a child, especially waiting in a long queue at the Eric Pacific to secure coveted tickets to see the Empire Strikes Back in 1980.  While the theaters opened in Lancaster City in the 1980s were modern replacements of the landmark movie houses of the early twentieth century, the excitement of a day out at the movies was always a special memory.

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