Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Preservation Partners (Page 20 of 28)

Changing the Tide with Disaster Planning

What new challenges will preservationists face over the next 50 years?  It’s clear that the impacts on historic places by hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and other recent tropical storms, combined with growing international concern about rising sea levels, has started to “change the tide” and bring a new focus to preservation professionals.  In April and June 2016,  national and international experts in historic preservation, climate change, emergency management, architecture, and planning gathered in three U.S. states to participate in a series of “firsts” to address the threats facing the nation’s historic coastal and riverine (meaning ‘situated or dwelling beside a river’) communities from flooding and climate change. Continue reading

ICYMI: Community Connections in Lewisburg, PA at the 2016 Statewide Conference on Heritage

From June 6-8, 250 of Pennsylvania’s spiffiest preservationists made Lewisburg, PA the most happening scene in the Commonwealth during the 2016 Statewide Conference on Heritage, and – by all accounts – every beach bunny, bookbuster, cat, chick, cool head, dove, dude, flap jaw, flower child, fox, hodad, hot dog, hunk, mop-top, mover, skirt, and teenie bopper in attendance had a totally way out blast! As you whiz kids out there may know, 2016 is the year that the preservation community is celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the utterly rad National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, and part of that wicked celebration involves recognizing, praising, and engaging with Pennsylvania’s diverse and awesome communities that exist throughout the state. Continue reading

#FindYourPark: Independence National Historical Park

Several months ago, my colleague Cory Kegerise wrote a blog highlighting his childhood memories visiting Hopewell Furnace as part of the National Park Service’s #FindYourPark campaign .  He inspired me to make sure my kids had the same experiences and appreciated the plethora of historic sites throughout the Commonwealth.  So one Friday in late March when my kids were off from school, we went in search of our own #FindYourPark adventure.  In case you are not familiar with the initiative, Americans are encouraged to share their thoughts, reflections, and aspects about their favorite National Park as part of the National Park Service’s Centennial Celebration.  Most of the #FindYourPark stories speak of the National Park System’s natural wonders and green bucolic open space.  Our adventure may seem in contrast, but Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia with its rich civic history really sparks my interest. So we set off to explore the colonial history and the birthplace of America.  Continue reading

May’s SHPO Shout-Out

We’re back to our regular SHPO Shout-Out post this month, and I get to tell you about some great local preservation activities, two national award winners, and a cool new park in Jefferson County. Two quick things before I launch into my list of happy news: have you taken our online survey for the next statewide historic preservation plan yet? Or have you registered for the upcoming Statewide Conference on Heritage? There is still time to do both! Continue reading

Shouting-Out about the Statewide Conference!

Time for April’s SHPO Shout-Out! I’m going to mix it up a bit this month and Shout Out about something that’s happening soon rather than something that’s already happened or is in the process of happening. It’s not that I don’t have a whole bunch of great things waiting in the wings – it’s just that the 2016 Pennsylvania Statewide Conference on Heritage is a REALLY big deal and I’d be derelict in my duties as Education and Outreach Coordinator if I didn’t make sure that all of our dedicated readers know all about it. Continue reading

What is National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week?

I had to quickly learn the answer to that question for the first time this year… Advocacy Week is our annual opportunity to have a mass impact on opinion leaders and policy makers – together with a cohesive message in support of preservation-positive legislation.  Advocacy Week is organized each year by Preservation Action and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Offices (NCSHPO) and brings together over 250 preservationists to Washington, DC to promote sound federal preservation policy and programs.

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5 Things about the New and Improved Archaeological Guidelines

What better way to celebrate archaeology during Preservation50 than to share the PA State Historic Preservation Office’s recently revised and newly issued of the Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Pennsylvania?  Another bit of big news is that the revised Guidelines are being released in tandem with the much-anticipated Pre-Contact Probability Model layer on CRGIS.

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Disaster Planning for Historic Properties in a World Heritage City

by Emily Paulus Everett, AECOM Technical Services

On November 6, 2015, the City of Philadelphia became the first United States city to join the Organization of World Heritage Cities – a prestigious designation that recognizes, among other things, its vast and significant collection of well-preserved historic resources. That same week, representatives from the PA SHPO, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, and AECOM Technical Services, Inc. gathered in Center City, Philadelphia to kick off Phase 1 of a two-phase effort to protect those historic resources before, during, and in the aftermath of, future flooding events.  As part of the PA SHPO’s Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative, Philadelphia County joins Monroe, Bedford, and Cameron as one of four pilot counties to take into account the impact of future flooding events on historic properties.   Continue reading

#FindYourPark: Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

We have probably all visited places or done things in our childhood that we’ve long since forgotten, and certainly didn’t appreciate the significance of it until much later in life.  Thinking about the National Park Service’s Centennial and the #FindYourPark campaign recently brought back a memory of visiting Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site with my parents when I was a kid.  I couldn’t have known it at the time, but I’m beginning to realize that a fun little day trip many years ago helped to pique my interest in and appreciation for historic places in ways that changed my life. Continue reading

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