Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
On this day 12 years ago….
*Insert horrible photo with questionable style choices and aggressive side bangs*
Thankfully, this is not that kind of blast from the past. This is your yearly recap on archaeological site recording and survey efforts throughout Pennsylvania.
I’m happy to introduce you to some of my colleagues who joined the SHPO team over the last six months. I’ve asked each of them to answer a few questions to help us get to know them. Welcome to the team, Blair, Liz, Arden, and Lauren!
This edition of Just Listed! includes a variety of Pennsylvania places from across the Commonwealth representing education, homes, industry, commerce, healthcare, community, and religion.
Two Black men, Edenborough Smith and John Harshberger appear in the 1850 census on tracts of land now situated in Laurel Ridge State Park overlooking Johnstown’s West End. From at least the 1820s, and possibly as early as the turn of the 19th century, Smith, Harshberger and their families lived in a community of Black, White, and Indigenous people that has been referred to as the Laurel Hill Settlement, Brown Farm and “the Mountain.” Eight generations lived on the Mountain until the property was claimed by the state in 1967.
This is part of a biannual blog series highlighting the agreement documents executed by PA SHPO in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and its implementing regulations.
As we welcome the new year, we also continue to welcome improvements to PA-SHARE as part of the 2.0 Project.
2024 saw several significant improvements to PA-SHARE, including the photo gallery, streamlining of the Quick Search, updates to External User queues, and enhanced functionality to allow for batch uploading and downloading of photos and attachments, to name a few. 2025 will include additional upgrades to PA-SHARE as we move towards finalizing 2.0.
On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress’ adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
My favorite authors are those who write about travel. I’m attracted to books that not only transport me to another place, but also another time.
You’re probably wondering what this postcard has to do with PA SHPO and historic preservation, let alone New Year’s or 2025. I came across this gem while searching the PA State Archives digital collections for images that I could use for a New Year’s Day blog post.
Is it even the end of a year if you don’t see at least a dozen “year in review” lists?
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