Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Pennsylvania Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (Page 1 of 3)

Pennsylvania’s First Metropolitan State Park: A Brief History of Gifford Pinchot State Park

A couple times each summer in the 1990’s my dad would pack us three kids into his truck and hook up the pop-up camper and head on over to ‘Pinchot’.  Arrival was a ton of work which often included setting up the camper, unloading the canoe, getting a fire set to light, and finding the nearest bathhouse.

But it was the anticipation of what was to come that kept us motivated. Riding bikes through the campground, swimming in the lake, fishing until dusk, spending time with each other and taking advantage of all the possible activities before us. Our imaginations in this place were limitless. What we always just simply called ‘Pinchot’ as many locals do, this place and all those who made it possible, shaped the principles of how my siblings and I understood the natural world around us.

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Messerall Road Bridge: The Next Chapter

The main character of our story, the Messerall Road Bridge, began its life over Pine Creek near East Titusville in 1876, carrying traffic associated with the local oil and lumber industries. The bridge served as a crossing over Pine Creek nearly 140 years before it was closed to vehicular traffic in 1987.

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Call this Piece of Pennsylvania History “Home!”

In an effort to preserve one of Pennsylvania’s historic homes, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) is marketing for sale, removal, and preservation a two-and-a-half-story, 3 bedroom, one bath, Shingle-Style house with many beautiful original features including wooden floors, trim work, railings, plastered walls, windows, doors, fixtures, and wood shingle detailing on the exterior.

Interested?

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Exploring African American Heritage in Pennsylvania’s DCNR Parks and Forests

Pennsylvania is rife in human history – if you’re in Pennsylvania, consider yourself surrounded with nearly 20,000 years of it! So, it should come as no great surprise that its 121-state park and over 2 million-acre forest system, administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, are steeped in both natural and human history.

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Precious Metal Preservation: the Lift

Nestled amongst the oak-covered hills of rural northwest Pennsylvania until very recently sat an iron artifact from a bygone era. Built in 1876 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, this elegant, metal arch structure is what is termed, in historical bridge parlance, as a bowstring through-truss.

Originally owned and maintained by Crawford County, it has gone by numerous names over the years, including East Titusville Bridge, Pine Creek Bridge and, more recently, Messerall Road Bridge. Whatever name it goes by, it is now more commonly known for being the last of its kind in western Pennsylvania.

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Telling a Fuller Story about African American History in Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Earlier this month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) announced a new pilot project with PHMC, PA DCNR, the states of Maryland and Virginia, and National Park Service Chesapeake Bay to identify, document, and map sites and landscapes in the Chesapeake Bay watershed region significant to African American history and culture.

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