On a bright, crisp day in Harrisburg last October, several SHPO staff members toured Lincoln Cemetery. Several years before, Rachael Keri Williams, a descendent of ancestors buried at Lincoln Cemetery, started Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL)—an organization of descendants working to restore Lincoln Cemetery’s grounds, and reconnect the community with the cemetery’s story and the lives of those laid to rest on its grounds. This February, Lincoln Cemetery was presented to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board who approved the nomination. It will hopefully be listed in the National Register later this year.
Lincoln Cemetery is one of many historic Black sites around the state that have been listed in the past several years. Many of these sites are churches and cemeteries listed under the Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF), African American Churches and Cemeteries in Pennsylvania, c. 1644-c.1970. A Multiple Property Documentation Form collects a group of related significant properties to the National Register and provides overarching context that helps list them individually. It’s somewhat similar to a historic district, but instead of sharing a common geographic boundary, the sites share themes, trends, and patterns of history. Lincoln Cemetery and Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL), the group preserving the cemetery, was recently named one of the 2025 winners of the PA SHPO Community Initiative Award (CIA) for their work restoring Lincoln Cemetery (2022RE01459) through hands-on conservation work, public education efforts, partnership with community organizations and educational institutions, and exhaustive historical research. You can read more about their work here.
What is an MPDF?
Pennsylvania has many MPDFs that are used to list a wide variety of resources across the state. For example, two MPDFs we use quite often are Agricultural Resources of Pennsylvania, c1700-1960 and Public Elementary and Secondary Schools in Pennsylvania, 1682-1969. We use these not only MPDFs to list sites on the National Register and they are also used to evaluate sites during environmental review.
The PA SHPO tries to develop a variety of historic contexts and MPDFs, to better represent all Pennsylvanians. MPDFs can play a crucial role in making it easier to list properties on the National Register, which in turn increases the diversity of sites we list. When you compare the publishing of two MPDFs that focus on Black religious resources with National Register data, you can see a clear correlation between the years that an MPDF was published and a spike in nominations listed for Black history.
Graph showing the correlation between the years that an MPDF was published and the spike in nominations listed for Black history. Created by Arden Jordan.
How MPDFs Support Research and Ongoing Listings
MDPFs can take several years to create because they involve extensive research and survey of resources. This research results in a thorough historic context, which makes listing under the MPDF easier for individual churches and cemeteries. Individual National Register nominations also involve extensive research, and having the MPDF provides some of that research upfront, which makes listing less burdensome for congregations and caretakers.
Some of the sites listed under the African American Churches and Cemeteries in Pennsylvania MPDF still have active congregations, like First Cambria AME Zion Church, in Johnstown, PA. Other sites like Mount Tabor AME Zion Church & Cemetery in Cumberland County are no longer in use. With Lincoln Cemetery and two churches (Bethel AME Church in Scranton and Campbell AME Church of Media), the PA SHPO is on track to list another three resources under this MPDF this year.
First Cambria AME Zion Church. Credit: Barbara Zaborowski, National Register Nomination
Mount Tabor AME Zion Church & Cemetery. Credit: Becky Zeller, National Register Nomination
Beyond Recognition
In addition to recognition, listing in the National Register helps churches like Cambria AME and cemeteries like Lincoln Cemetery apply for grants to help maintain their buildings and sites. These grants can come from a variety of sources, including: Keystone Grants managed by our office, grants from Partners for Sacred Places, Pittsburgh’s Historic Religious Properties Grant Program, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preserving Black Churches and more. These sites are not only important repositories of Black history—they are also vital community centers. These grants can keep the roof on buildings or repoint the brick, which allows the congregations to continue important work in their communities.
Each year, the PA SHPO funds research on underrepresented resources that will hopefully become a historic context or MPDF. This year, we are funding two studies. One is continuing research on ethnic communities and resources in Southwestern PA and the second is on recreational resources in the Poconos. This research helps us to continue deepening the stories we tell and the places we protect.
Historic photograph of Unity House, a Pocono resort owned by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). An example of the recreational resources that are being researched and documented in an ongoing study. Credit: Kheel Center, Cornell University
Historic photograph of Unity House, a Pocono resort owned by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). An example of the recreational resources that are being researched and documented in an ongoing study. Credit: Kheel Center, Cornell University
What are some underrepresented sites in your community? What histories and sites do you think we should research/study next? Do you know a historically Black church or cemetery in your community that could benefit from listing?
Let us know!
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