Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

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Special Announcement: PA SHPO Job Opportunity

April 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

There is an immediate opening for the following position with the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC):

Historic Preservation Specialist

THE POSITION:
This limited-term position will assist State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) staff in the implementation of the annual SHPO/Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (Transportation)/Federal Highways work plan, which outlines tasks to be undertaken by the SHPO to assist Transportation in the implementation of relevant agreements including the Federal Aide Programmatic Agreement (Programmatic Agreement). Please Note: This is a limited-term position, expected to expire on or before June 30, 2019.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK:

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March’s SHPO Shout-Out!

March 30, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Question: What do a Georgian country estate, an African American Methodist Church, the Whiskey Rebellion, and Chester County all have in common?

Stumped? Can’t think of an answer? Then you’re not paying attention! It’s the last Wednesday of the month, which means its SHPO Shout-Out Day, and this month’s Shout Outs go to an interesting array of worthy preservation activities in Pennsylvania. That’s not to say that these are the only good preservation projects out there. We know there are more! You just need to drop me a note and tell me about what’s going on in your neck of the woods.

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Workers with tunnel lining. Image from Borough of Catasauqua website: http://www.catasauqua.org/things-to-do/walking-tours-industrial/davies-thomas-co

New Historical Markers Approved

March 23, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Great news for fans of Pennsylvania’s beloved blue and gold markers – there are going to be more of them soon!  At the March 9th meeting, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission recently approved 23 new historical markers.  Many of the marker applications and approvals were from Philadelphia County this year so we’re anxious to get some great nominations next year for subjects of statewide and/or national significance in Pennsylvania’s other 66 counties!  The Marker Program encourages broad distribution, so individuals and organizations from across the commonwealth are encouraged to research their history and develop nominations for people, places, events, and innovations in their own area.  We know there is more history out there to share!

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Ca. 1916 postcard view of Punxsutawney Post Office. Image courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Spotlight Series: The Punxsutawney Post Office

March 16, 2016 / / 4 Comments

While Punxsutawney, Jefferson County is best known as the home of a renowned weather forecasting groundhog, it is also a community of notable historic buildings, including the grand Classical Revival style US Post Office.  With all this great weather we’ve been having, it looks like that famous groundhog got it right this year with his “early spring” prediction!

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Disaster Planning for Historic Properties in a World Heritage City

March 9, 2016 / / 2 Comments

by Emily Paulus Everett, AECOM Technical Services

On November 6, 2015, the City of Philadelphia became the first United States city to join the Organization of World Heritage Cities – a prestigious designation that recognizes, among other things, its vast and significant collection of well-preserved historic resources. That same week, representatives from the PA SHPO, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management, and AECOM Technical Services, Inc. gathered in Center City, Philadelphia to kick off Phase 1 of a two-phase effort to protect those historic resources before, during, and in the aftermath of, future flooding events.  As part of the PA SHPO’s Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative, Philadelphia County joins Monroe, Bedford, and Cameron as one of four pilot counties to take into account the impact of future flooding events on historic properties.   Continue reading

#FindYourPark: Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

March 2, 2016 / / 3 Comments

We have probably all visited places or done things in our childhood that we’ve long since forgotten, and certainly didn’t appreciate the significance of it until much later in life.  Thinking about the National Park Service’s Centennial and the #FindYourPark campaign recently brought back a memory of visiting Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site with my parents when I was a kid.  I couldn’t have known it at the time, but I’m beginning to realize that a fun little day trip many years ago helped to pique my interest in and appreciation for historic places in ways that changed my life. Continue reading

The Historic Preservation Board at their October 2015 meeting at the Ephrata Cloister. [Standing L to R: Martin Rosenblum, Richard Leonori, John Conti, Susan Hannegan, Robert Armstrong, Jane Sheffield, Steven Gimber. Seated L to R: Jeff Slack, Brian Fritz, Margaret Newman, Suzanna Barucco (Chair), Richard Burkert. Not pictured: Steven Burg, Lloyd Chapman, Sherri Geary]

Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Board: Past, Present, And Future

February 17, 2016 / / 0 Comments

It’s been a happy convergence of events. As planning started for the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, the PA State Historic Preservation Office announced its new name and is currently rehabilitating its office space, adapting and reusing the staff’s original office cubicles from Y2K. All that reorganizing has uncovered some long forgotten records that had been packed up and moved to the Commonwealth Keystone Building when the staff relocated here from their original home on the fifth floor of the State Museum Building. These files are an interesting look back at the early years of the federal/state partnership in historic preservation and the Historic Preservation Board. Continue reading

Getting High-Tech to Identify Monroe County’s Flood-Prone Historic Places

February 10, 2016 / / 1 Comment

by Vanessa Zeoli, AECOM Technical Services

A potentially trendsetting countywide survey has just been completed in the floodplains of Monroe County, in the heart of the Pocono Mountains region of northeastern Pennsylvania, identifying all flood-prone historic properties there and laying the groundwork for the development of strategies to better protect the county’s historic built environment from future flood damage. Continue reading

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