Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

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Log dwelling in East St. Clair Township, June 24, 2016. Photo provided by AECOM, Kaitlin Pluskota, photographer.

Surveying Rural PA: Update on the Disaster Planning Initiative

September 21, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Bedford and Cameron Counties are the latest counties to be surveyed as part of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office’s (PASHPO) Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative, following up on the surveys done in Monroe County and the City of Philadelphia by AECOM Technical Services.

Architectural historians from AECOM canvassed the two counties to catalog historic resources over 45 years of age within 100- and 500-year flood hazard areas. Each county presented a remarkable variety of historic structures, from the Bedford Springs Resort — a National Historic Landmark in Bedford County – to Civilian Conservation Corps structures in Cameron County’s Sizerville State Park.

AECOM sought to locate and document significant historic resources from vernacular to high-style in design, and ranging from Colonial-era to mid-century modern in period, in order to thoroughly identify flood-prone historic resources in the two counties. Continue reading

Historical marker for Humphrey Marshall, one of the first nurseryman in the nation. Image courtesy of Marshallton Conservation Trust.

Know of a cool person, place, or event? Maybe it should have a PHMC Marker!

September 7, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Question: What do Albert M. Greenfield, Eddie Adams, and Mr. Rogers have in common? One was a Philly businessman, politician, and influential member of the Planning Commission. Another was a Westmoreland County native who won a Pulitzer Prize for his photojournalism of the Vietnam War.  And who doesn’t know Mr. Rogers, whose show on PBS stations everywhere taught us all about being good neighbors? Continue reading

August’s SHPO Shout-Out!

August 31, 2016 / / 0 Comments

It’s that time again!

As some of you may know, the National Park Service highlighted Pennsylvania in their #50for50 social media campaign earlier this month.  This initiative is part of their broader effort to celebrate and recognize the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act this year.  Each week, NPS has been promoting the interesting, meaningful, and successful historic preservation work being done in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.  (FYI, this week is South Carolina’s turn!)

Here at PHMC, we participated by adding the #50for50 and #Preservation50 hashtags to all of the preservation-related posts on the Pennsylvania Trails of History Facebook page and @PHMC Twitter feed.   I think NPS could have featured Pennsylvania’s successes for a year and still not have gotten through them all, but alas, we need to share the limelight.  So, I thought it would be a great idea to share with you some of the stories that didn’t get aired that week and that we haven’t covered in previous posts and Shout-Outs.

shout out 4

Continue reading

1803 George Armstrong house, approximately 17 x 17 feet, now at Depreciation Lands Museum. Photograph by Charles Richmond, 2013.

Marketing Archaeology: A Non-Scientific Survey about Public Outreach Tools

August 24, 2016 / / 2 Comments

Fostering a public appreciation for historic resources and archaeology is one of the most important keys to protecting our history.

Unfortunately, many cultural resources professionals struggle with how to make their work accessible and interesting to the general public. In this blog post, we take on this challenge and announce the launch of a non-scientific, but very intriguing experiment to explore how the public responds to different avenues of communication – brochures, social media and web tools. Continue reading

Talking Local Preservation at FORUM 2016 in Mobile

August 17, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Every two years, the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions hosts a conference unlike any other – an event focused on providing training and education on issues relevant to historic preservation commissions, review boards, and local governments.  FORUM is a truly national event, drawing participants from all over the country to share ideas, war stories, and best practices for making local preservation efforts more effective.  You might remember that FORUM 2014 was held in Philadelphia and attracted nearly 800 attendees from 48 states!  Mobile, Alabama played host to FORUM 2016 from July 27-31, and nearly 600 people gathered to bask in the balmy Gulf Coast weather and Southern hospitality, including a few of us from Pennsylvania.  Here are some of the highlights. Continue reading

Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Tax Credit Year 3 Recap

August 10, 2016 / / 3 Comments

Due to Fiscal Year 2015-2016 budget challenges, the status of Year 3 of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit program was up in the air through March 2016.  With the enactment of a budget, there was a brief application window with a March 24, 2016 deadline. The shortened budget period did impact the total number of applications to the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) as the total decreased from 30 in the second round to 23 applications for the third round.

PHMC quickly reviewed the applications to ensure applicants owned qualified historic buildings and that proposed rehabilitation plans met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.  As the qualified applications far exceed the limited $3 million in available credits, DCED used a fair and balanced selection process based on a first -come, first serve basis with regional distribution to select the first round of projects.  Continue reading

July’s PA SHPO Shout Out!

July 27, 2016 / / 0 Comments

We’re all looking for ways to cool off these days – this heat wave is one for the records!  Grab your iced tea, sit next to the AC, and take a few minutes to read this month’s PA SHPO Shout Out.  We’ll cover an unusual historic marker, a really cool Section 106 project, and a reader submitted Shout Out.  If you’re still looking for something to do while you cool down, catch up on any older posts that you might have missed and, if you haven’t already, take our Community Connections online survey to help inform Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan.  We’re at 1600 responses already! I really want to break last time’s record of 2,200 and I think we can do it. Continue reading

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