Category: Survey (Page 4 of 6)

2020 Blog in Review

December 30, 2020 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 0 Comments

In this crazy year, the PA SHPO’s blog is the one thing you could count on every week to bring you all sorts of current, relevant, fun and interesting information. I have actually won a trivia contest or two because of something I read in one of our weekly posts!

Here is a short recap of the year at pahistoricpreservation.com…

Colorized historic postcard of large department store with trolleys, horses, carts, and people in the foreground. — Historic postcard of Kaufman's Department Store in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County. PA SHPO files.

Window Shopping at 5 of Pennsylvania’s Historic Department Stores

December 23, 2020 / Elizabeth Shultz / 12 Comments

With the widespread availability of plate glass at the end of the nineteenth century, department stores and window-shopping culture flourished in cities and towns throughout Pennsylvania – especially during the holiday shopping season near the end of the calendar year.

Row of brick buildings along a street with cars. — Buildings on the north side of West Main Street west of 2nd Street. These buildings are located in a district that has been previously determined eligible (Key No. 087062). Photo by Benjamin Harvey, ASC Group, Inc.

Surveying Western Pennsylvania Communities

December 16, 2020 / Guest Contributor / 2 Comments

With support from the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation office, this summer, a team from ASC Group, Inc. and Aurora Research Associates, LLC undertook a community survey project in the Beaver and Monongahela river valleys in western Pennsylvania.

PA-SHARE in Your Pocket means Efficiency!

October 19, 2020 / Multiple Authors / 0 Comments

PA-SHARE is an innovative platform designed to streamline project submissions. PA-SHPO’s staff, key stakeholders and digital experts came together to design an online system to unite data sources, streamline systems, reduce unnecessary searching, and speed reviews.

One of the great results? Surveyor, a mobile tool that is like having PA-SHARE in your pocket.

Another great result? Increased efficiency for all of us, which is one of the 4 great reasons to make PA-SHARE part of your plan.

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

October 14, 2020 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 1 Comment

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.

Preservation Planning through Mitigation in Western PA

September 23, 2020 / Bill Callahan / 0 Comments

In spring of 2015, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO), Shell Chemical Appalachia, LLC (applicant) and the Seneca Nation of Indians (SNI) concluded consultation after 18 months of discussions under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act about the construction of a petrochemical complex in Beaver County along the Ohio River.

June 14, 1958 aerial showing farm, fields, and roads.

No More Penn Pilot for Historical Aerial Photos!

July 29, 2020 / Shelby Weaver Splain / 12 Comments

PA SHPO recently learned that the Penn Pilot website for historical aerial photographs will be taken offline in the near future. Two new online websites offer free access to these photographs, so update your bookmarks!

Documenting Historic Flood-Prone Communities in Central Pennsylvania

July 15, 2020 / John Gardosik / 2 Comments

Over the last year, architectural historians and survey engineers with Commonwealth Heritage Group and ASC Group have been documenting historic properties and communities in Dauphin, Cumberland, and Perry Counties.

Of Paper and Parks: A Varied History of Mount Holly Springs

February 19, 2020 / Guest Contributor / 4 Comments

This week’s post about Mount Holly Springs in Cumberland County is the third in our series about the Tri-County Survey for PA SHPO’s Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative. In previous posts, we wrote about Lykens, Dauphin County and Blain, Perry County.

One-story building with rail car — View of the Blain Railroad Station, restored by the Blain Lion’s Club in 1983. Photo by Candice N. Strawley, Commonwealth Heritage Group.

From a Creek Came a Village: A Brief History of the Town of Blain

November 13, 2019 / Guest Contributor / 5 Comments

Since our last update on the Tri-County survey project in Dauphin County, the Commonwealth Heritage Group and ASC Group survey teams have crossed the Susquehanna River and begun surveying communities in Cumberland and Perry Counties.