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!
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Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
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!
Continue readingOver 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.
Continue readingThis 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.
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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.
Continue readingIn the last installment about the ongoing Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative we focused on survey work in the City of Harrisburg. Since that time, the survey teams led by Commonwealth Heritage Group and ASC Group have moved on to other communities in Dauphin County.
Located at the northern end of the county, Lykens Borough is home to a large number of properties that are both over 45 years old and located in the 100-year floodplain. The survey teams spent more than a week collecting flood elevation data on 227 buildings throughout the borough. While there, we met many residents who talked about Tropical Storm Agnes and how flooding from the storm changed the community in profound and lasting ways.
Continue readingMuch like the early settlers of Harrisburg, many of us today feel drawn to bodies of water, whether for their natural beauty, ability to fuel industries, or provision of vital resources to developing communities.
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Some of my colleagues are known to check their Facebook accounts while they drink their morning coffee, and on more than one occasion that has resulted in a Facebook message or email with the subject line “I have a great idea…” One of these great ideas led to one of the more interesting, informative, and eye-opening surveys I’ve done – Green Book locations in Philadelphia. Continue reading
A significant part of any good management plan is an understanding of the significance of identified resources. This summer we are looking at resources in Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County. Continue reading
Picture yourself – lounging poolside, lakeside, or on the beach – with your tablet or smart phone (or even good old-fashioned paper) enjoying the hottest summer publication that hasn’t yet made the New York Times bestseller list: #preservationhappenshere, Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan. Continue reading
Hazard Mitigation in a Historic Context – Wrapping up the Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative
Three years ago, the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announced that we were embarking on a new initiative to, for the first time in this office’s history, address the risks posed to historic properties by natural hazards, storms, and disasters. Continue reading
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