Preservation Pennsylvania has announced the addition of 8 properties to Pennsylvania At Risk, the list of sites determined to be among the most endangered historic resources in the Commonwealth.  The sites were selected from nominations submitted by the public in 2015 and will become Preservation Pennsylvania’s work priorities in 2016.

The annual Pennsylvania At Risk list seeks to

• draw statewide attention to the plight of Pennsylvania’s historic resources
• promote and support local action to protect historic properties
• encourage funding and legislation that supports preservation activities

Below you can read a brief description of each of this year’s At Risk sites. The Pennsylvania At Risk 2015 publication may be viewed online or downloaded by clicking here.

Preservation Pennsylvania offers individuals, communities and organizations free technical assistance to help prevent historic properties from reaching At Risk crisis status. Consult our free publication, How to Protect and Preserve the Places that Matter to You, at our website www.preservationpa.org

2015 Pennsylvania At Risk List

•       Anderson Brick Block, Elk County
•       Farrandsville Furnace, Clinton County
•       Lewistown Historic District, Mifflin County
•       Lindenwold, Montgomery County
•       Old Economy Bachelors’ Quarters, Beaver County
•       People’s Hall, Chester County
•       St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, Luzerne County
•       West Middletown Historic District, Washington County

Anderson Brick Block, 523-569 Market Street, Johnsonburg, Elk County

THREAT: Physical Deterioration

The Anderson Brick Block was one of the first brick commercial buildings constructed in downtown Johnsonburg. This extraordinary building dominates the east side of Market Street for nearly half the length of the National Register-listed Johnsonburg Commercial Historic District.

The 12-bay brick building is two stories high, with a 3-story bay accentuating each end. Unfortunately, the building has been altered to some extent and its condition is deteriorating. The building is partially vacant, and at risk of disaster, such as fire, or continued deterioration. It is in need of upgrades to attract quality tenants. The current owner is not interested in investing in the needed upgrades, but is willing to sell (or perhaps donate) the building to someone with the capacity to rehabilitate it.

Farrandsville Furnace, 400 Block Farrandsville Road, (Lock Haven) Colebrook Township, Clinton County

THREAT: Physical Deterioration

The Farrandsville Furnace was completed in 1837, and significant for its role in the development of hot blast iron furnaces in America. While the furnace sits at an easily accessible location, physical deterioration of the property has become so severe that it is no longer safe to visit. The furnace is owned by the Clinton County Historical Society, which is committed to stabilizing this property. The Historical Society received a grant to evaluate the cost of rehabilitating the property, but is unable to act upon this report without further funding and support. The owner is well-intentioned, but needs assistance to preserve this important historic site.

Lewistown Historic District, 17-33 East Market Street & 8 North Brown Street, Lewistown, Mifflin County

THREAT: Demolition for Chain Retail Development

The National Register-eligible Lewistown Historic District will be negatively impacted by the proposed demolition of nine historic buildings (17-33 East Market Street and 8 North Brown Street) for the construction of a new CVS pharmacy.

In order to accommodate a new 12,000 square foot, one-story CVS drugstore, its drive through, 53 off-street parking spaces, utilities and stormwater management, 11 properties in Lewistown’s downtown historic district will be acquired and consolidated into a single 1.1-acre lot. All of the buildings standing on these lots will be demolished, including approximately 9 historic buildings and at least 3 outbuildings. In addition to the significant loss of historic buildings, the proposed new development will detract from the overall character of the historic district by inserting a building whose setback, height and materials are not compatible with its historic neighbors.

Lindenwold, 701 S. Bethlehem Pike, (Ambler) Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery County

THREAT: Historic Character Compromised by Development

Lindenwold is currently under an agreement of sale to a development team that hopes to establish a residential community on this 45 acre estate.

The developer believes that by preserving “the castle,” the main entrance, two gate houses, a walking path, sunken garden, lake and 19 acres of open space, they are doing the right thing. But because the character-defining landscape will be negatively impacted by the removal of more than 1500 mature trees, regrading of the site, and the construction of approximately 350 housing units and a parking garage, the community is not satisfied. The essential historic character of the property, built by Dr. Richard V. Mattison, “the man who built Ambler,” will not be preserved by the proposed intensive development. To preserve this historic estate, alternative development plans should be explored.

Old Economy Bachelors’ Quarters, 284 Thirteenth Street, Ambridge, Beaver County

THREAT: Physical Deterioration

Often referred to as the bachelors’ quarters, this building once housed the single men of the Harmony Society and is both historically and architecturally significant.

The Harmonists’ emerging philosophy of celibacy, which is represented by this building, played a critical role in leading to the religious sect’s eventual extinction. The property is located in the Old Economy National Historic Landmark district and in a locally regulated historic district.

Despite its tremendous historic significance, the bachelors’ quarters has deteriorated to the point where its future is uncertain. Used for decades as a multi-unit rental property, the property is now for sale and in need of a new owner who will complete the extensive rehabilitation and get the building back into productive use.

People’s Hall, 810 Doe Run Road, East Fallowfield Township, Chester County

 THREAT: Physical Deterioration

People’s Hall was built in 1845 by the East Fallowfield Anti-Slavery Society, a local Quaker Abolitionist group. This building housed their meetings and served as the local headquarters for the abolitionist movement.

People’s Hall is managed by a board of Trustees, which over time became sparsely populated and marginally functional. As a result, maintenance of the building was deferred, causing interior and exterior damage that needs to be stabilized and repaired. The board has now been restructured, and with new talent and energy, is committed to returning People’s Hall to its rightful status as an important community building. They are seeking additional recognition, support and funding to preserve this threatened property.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 133 W. Green Street, Hazleton, Luzerne County

 THREAT: Physical Deterioration due to Vacancy and Abandonment

Once a lively community center, this vacant historic church is now languishing. The building is deteriorating, and its unique architecture is at risk due to deferred maintenance and vandalism. Because of the church’s design, history and central location, it has strong potential for redevelopment via adaptive reuse.

Members of the community hope to work together and with partners to identify potential new uses and find a new preservation-minded owner to rehabilitate the historic church.

West Middletown Historic District, West Middletown, Washington County

THREAT: Physical Deterioration

West Middletown is a quaint, historic, roadside community that developed circa 1800. It was once a bustling little town of buildings that housed a variety of commercial enterprises, with craftsmen and shopkeepers living in residences connected to their businesses. Today, West Middletown’s aging buildings are in need of significant repairs and upgrades.

As the local and regional economy have changed, the community’s buildings are now owned by local residents that lack the means to upgrade their properties, or absentee landlords who choose not to invest in their rental properties.

The Borough of West Middletown recognizes the value of its historic buildings and their important role in the vitality of the community, and is seeking assistance in their efforts to preserve as many as possible.

You can help!

Not all At Risk properties can be saved, but our track record proves that many can. Calling attention to the plight of these special places gives each one a better chance of finding the right combination of people, support and ideas — the resources necessary to result in a “Save”!

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.

As detailed in Project Manager Jeremy Young’s February 2015 and September 2015 blog posts, the PA SHPO has been hard at work over the past year developing and implementing the Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative. To help them accomplish their goals, the PA SHPO procured the professional services of AECOM Technical Services, Inc. to conduct Phase 1 of a two-phase effort for four pilot counties: Monroe, Bedford, Cameron, and Philadelphia. This is the first time in Pennsylvania, and one of the first few instances in the nation, that there has been preemptive consideration of the flood hazard vulnerability of historic properties. It is an unprecedented study that is long overdue!

The overarching goal of the Phase 1 studies is to identify historic properties in hazard-affected areas and gather detailed information about their hazard-prone character defining features. This information will facilitate more accurate damage assessments and facilitate the repair of historic properties following future disaster events, including floods, wildfires, and severe wind events. For flood-prone historic properties, another key component of the Phase 1 study is documenting precise building elevation information in relation to the flood stages, particularly at the first floor level and openings (basement windows and doors,  for example) where water may enter during a flood event.  This will help planners to better understand which historic buildings are most at risk to damage from flooding, and develop alternatives to better protect and reduce damage to these community assets in a way that minimizes changes to their historic character. Such strategies will be integrated into the counties’ FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plans in collaboration with the counties’ emergency management agencies and the PA SHPO through 2017 as part of Phase 2, which will be awarded in a separate contract.

The first county to launch on Phase 1 of the Initiative was Monroe County, located in the beautiful Pocono Mountains region of eastern Pennsylvania. Since Monroe County was already actively engaged in updating their hazard mitigation plan, they were a perfect candidate. Given that the last comprehensive historic resource survey in Monroe County was conducted over 35 years ago, they were in desperate need of updated documentation on their historic buildings!

Screenshot from PA SHPO’s CRGIS of all currently documented historic resources in Monroe County, including those listed in and eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, and those for which more documentation is necessary to determine NRHP listing eligibility. The many orange triangles represent the latter, mostly recorded at the time of the 1980 Monroe Countywide Survey, and which required updated documentation.

A 21^st Century Historic Resource Survey Strategy

Designing the research and survey methodology for such an unprecedented study and such a vast geographic area required the marriage of traditional techniques and 21^st century digital tools.  Researchers visited traditional repositories to collect background information and previous studies to become familiar with historic contexts and property types in the project area. AECOM worked with PA SHPO staff to obtain paper files and digital GIS files for all Monroe County resources previously recorded in PA SHPO’s publicly accessible Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS).  All previously documented historic resources were mapped in GIS along with the FEMA 100-year and 500-year floodplain boundaries and property-specific parcel data containing information on approximate building construction dates. This allowed the team to identify concentrations of flood-prone and potentially historic properties and strategically plan the survey effort prior to the deployment of staff into the field.

Screenshot from AECOM’s web-based electronic data collection tool Fulcrum, used by the survey teams in the field to document Monroe County’s flood-prone historic resources. The county’s floodplains are shown in yellow, and green points represent each of the buildings surveyed by the team. In total, over 1,600 flood-prone properties in the county were assessed by the team for potential National Register eligibility.

High-Tech Fieldwork

In order to efficiently capture data in the field and minimize desktop analysis, AECOM utilized Wi-Fi-connected hand-held tablets in the field to record property specific information using a web-based application called Fulcrum that was custom designed for the project.  The application allowed the teams to toggle between GIS maps and aerial images of the project area and a pre-designed form (made up of drop-down menus and free text fields) to record important physical information about the historic properties including the exact location of the historic buildings and structures on the property.  Since information from CRGIS was pre-loaded into the database, the teams were also able to update physical and locational information of previously recorded resources that was incorrect or had changed since they were last surveyed.   Following closely behind the architectural survey teams was the elevation team. Armed with a laser range-finder, a Real Time Kinematic (RTK) unit, a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit, and a tablet computer to record elevation points, the elevation team visited each of the significant properties in the floodplain.  Much of this data captured during the survey will be funneled back into the PA SHPO’s CRGIS system so that it will be available for future studies.

AECOM team member Jennifer Robinson records data on an Android tablet for the circa 1862 Reynolds House in Hamilton Twp.

AECOM team member Raymond Dissinger displays the high-tech gadgets used to collect highly accurate building elevation data, after taking measurements for a circa 1830 spring house in Middle Smithfield Twp.

AECOM team member Raymond Dissinger collects detailed building elevation measurements for the former one-room Appenzell school house (circa 1840) in the area once known as “Jackson Corners” in Jackson Township, Monroe County.

Documenting the Flood-Prone Village of Shawnee on Delaware

One area where the survey teams were able to put their technology to good use was the quaint village of Shawnee on Delaware in Smithfield Township. Much of the village is located on the north shore of the Delaware River and falls squarely within the floodplain. Previously surveyed in 1980 as part of the countywide Monroe County Historic Resource Survey, data on the physical condition of the buildings was outdated and in some cases, their precise locations incorrect. Using the mapped layers of CRGIS data and the floodplain boundaries, AECOM was able to resurvey the area and capture building elevation data to inform the mitigation strategies that will be developed during Phase 2 of the Monroe County Disaster Planning for Historic Properties (historic preservation/hazard mitigation integration) project.  The good news is that while many of the buildings in the village had weathered previous floods, they were still largely intact! The village is a an early river town first settled by Europeans in the mid-18^th century and later became a popular Pocono resort destination when wealthy New York industrialist and businessman Charles Campbell Worthington relocated to his summer home there and built the Buckwood Inn (now the Shawnee Inn) in 1904.

Charles Campbell Worthington’s 1904 Buckwood Inn (now Shawnee Inn) in Smithfield Twp.

In addition to the Buckwood Inn/Shawnee Inn, other notable and flood-prone historic buildings in the village of Shawnee on Delaware include the following:

• Fort DePui (circa 1727/1785)
• Shrader-Sittig House (circa 1741/1810)
• Miredl/Stony Brook Inn (circa 1853)
• Shawnee General Store (circa 1859)
• Transue House (circa 1870);
• Eagle Rock Cottage (circa 1850).

These buildings, some seemingly ordinary, exemplify the character of Smithfield Township and contribute to residents’ and visitors’ sense of place. Should these buildings be destroyed during a future flood event, the community could risk losing part of its cultural heritage and identity.

Stay tuned for AECOM’s follow-up blog posts in the fall, which will present the findings of the flood-prone historic resource identification surveys in Bedford and Cameron counties, slated to begin this spring!

Vanessa Zeoli is a Senior Architectural Historian from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., with over 13 years of historic preservation and cultural resources management experience throughout Pennsylvania and the U.S. Based in AECOM’s Conshohocken office, she serves as the Survey Team Leader for the PA SHPO’s Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Phase 1 (historic resource survey) projects in Monroe, Bedford, and Cameron counties. Vanessa earned a Master of Historic Preservation degree from the University of Kentucky in 2007 and a B.A. in History from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 1999.

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.

THE PAST

The first issue of Pennsylvania Preservation, a quarterly newsletter published from 1979 to 1985, reported that Governor Milton Shapp signed the Commonwealth’s Historic Preservation Act into law on November 22, 1978. The new law called on the Office of Historic Preservation, as it was called then, to initiate a statewide survey of historic resources and to assist individuals and communities in their efforts to preserve these important places. It also officially created the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board as the advisory body charged with reviewing Pennsylvania’s statewide Historic Preservation Plan and evaluating properties for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.  Prior to 1978, this advisory group of experts, which NHPA requires each state preservation program to have, was called the National Register Review Committee.

The first Board was appointed in 1980, and since then it has involved a veritable Who’s Who of leaders in the field of preservation. In fact, the first chairman of the Historic Preservation Board was James Biddle, who had just recently returned to Pennsylvania after serving as president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Other former Board members have included preservation architects Hyman Myers, John Milner, and Mary Werner DeNadai; business leaders like Philadelphia’s Otto Haas and York’s Louis Appell, Jr.; preservation consultants and professionals such as Dr. Richard Tyler of the Philadelphia Historical Commission, Michael Eversmeyer of the Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission, George Thomas of Philadelphia, David Taylor of Brookville and Lynda Waggoner, director of Fallingwater; as well as a number of college professors in history, American Studies, and archaeology, among them Dr. Irwin Richman, Dr. James Adovasio, Dr. Sally McMurray, and Dr. Paul Heberling. Their legacy and the status that they brought to the Board continue to today.

Members of the Historic Preservation Board pose for a photo with the dugout canoe exhibit in 2007. [Standing L to R: Janet Irons, Ann Greene, Cecilia Rusnak, Bruce Thomas, Michael Eversmeyer, Scott Heberling, Charles Hardy, III, Jean Cutler (Director, BHP). Riding in the canoe L to R: Kurt Carr (BHP staff), Jeff Kidder, Scott Standish, Patricia Gibble, Sandra Lee Rosenberg, John Milner (Chair), Emanuel Kelly.]

At their October meeting at the Ephrata Cloister, the 15-member Board welcomed their new officers and members. Stepping into the Chair’s seat is Suzanna Barucco, principal of sbk + partners, LLC, a historic preservation consulting firm in Ardmore.  A native of Long Island, she came to Philadelphia after getting her master’s degree from Cornell University’s historic preservation planning program and has lived and worked in the Delaware Valley ever since.  She brings to the Board a broad range of experience in historic property research and restoration and historic preservation education as a Lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania School of Design and co-developer of  the Historic Preservation program at Philadelphia University, where she is an Adjunct in the College of Architecture and the Built Environment. Suzanna serves her local community as Vice Chair of the Haverford Township Historical Commission and is a board member of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.

The Board’s new vice chair is Jeff Slack, AICP, Preservation Planner with Pfaffmann + Associates in Pittsburgh. Jeff grew up in New Castle, PA, and like Suzanna, he holds a master’s degree in Historic Preservation Planning from Cornell University. Recent projects in the Pittsburgh area include a National Register nomination and master plan for playwright August Wilson’s childhood home and exterior restoration work at the Rachel Carson Homestead and the historic Allegheny Observatory. Each spring Jeff teaches a historic preservation fieldwork course for the Architectural Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

The four new members are:

• Robert Armstrong, the Preservation and Capital Projects Manager for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. Rob holds a Ph.D. in American History from Lehigh University.
• John Conti, a freelance architecture columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and a certified Historic Housing Specialist with Coldwell Banker Real Estate. For many years John was a member and chair of the Mt. Lebanon Historic Preservation Board.
• Sherri Geary, Executive Director of McKean County Economic Development in Smethport. Sherri got involved with preservation when working with the Main Street Program in Geneva, NY and then in that state’s Southern Tier.
• Jane Sheffield, Executive Director of the Allegheny Ridge Heritage Area in Altoona and currently president of Heritage PA , the association of state heritage areas. The Allegheny Ridge is also coordinating local partners to develop the Main Line Canal Greenway along that historic corridor from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg.

Leaving the Historic Preservation Board later this year are Margaret Newman, a consultant from Carversville, Bucks County; Marty Rosenblum, a Philadelphia-based architect; and Steven Gimber, Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University. The PA SHPO wants to thank all of them for the years they have spent serving on the Board and to wish them continued success in their efforts to promote history and preservation in Pennsylvania.

A complete list of all the current serving Board members can be found on the PA SHPO website.

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]

We are excited about the future of the Board.  In October, three new committees were established – Nominating, Education, Outreach, and Preservation50 – to give members an opportunity to be more actively involved in the PA SHPO’s preservation activities between their three Board meetings each year.

At the statewide preservation conference coming up on June 6-8, 2016 in Lewisburg (watch for more information!), Board members will be offering their professional input for Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan that will be released in 2018.  Stay tuned – as we did with the last Plan, everyone will have the chance to contribute again this year through an online survey and public meetings. The staff and Board look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Additional information about the Board and its meeting schedule can be found on the PA SHPO website.

I checked the weather maps, and it looks like most of Pennsylvania is having a cold, dreary, rainy day. What better time to read the latest SHPO Shout-Out for something cheery! So get a nice warm cup of coffee or tea, settle back, and prepare for some good news.

I’m going to start off this month by giving a Shout-Out for two big changes at the PA SHPO office….

If you haven’t already heard the news through the preservation grapevine, I am happy to tell you that our very own Andrea MacDonald has been appointed the new Director of the PA SHPO and the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer! Andrea is has been with the PA SHPO since 2004 as manager of the Division of Preservation Services, which includes our National Register staff, three Community Coordinators, and Hurricane Sandy guru and all their related programs. Andrea is a natural born planner and brought a great wealth of experience with her to Pennsylvania from her planning and preservation jobs in Michigan and Georgia and from her educational background, which a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from Michigan State University and an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Indiana’s Ball State.

PA SHPO Director Andrea MacDonald poses in front of one of the many educational panels at this year’s Farm Show.

So, enough of the boring resume stuff… you’d like to read something more interesting about Andrea, right? If you didn’t read these posts about her trip to Erie with our former Bureau Director, Serena Bellew, you wouldn’t know that Andrea is a PROUD Erie native, from a tiny little neighborhood of Little Hollywood. She is really passionate about Pennsylvania’s food geography and credits learning so much about the history of Pennsylvania’s communities and settlements through experiencing the local food culture. She’s particularly fond of hotdogs with chili sauce (known as Greek sauce in Erie) found in all corners of the coal regions and in Pennsylvania’s industrial hubs.

So, what does Andrea have in mind for the future of the PA SHPO and preservation in Pennsylvania? The quick answer is lots. In her own words, her vision for the PA SHPO is simple: continue to find ways to help Pennsylvanians connect with their unique history and communities.

We are also celebrating because our former intern Elizabeth Shultz will soon be starting as our new GIS/Historic Survey Coordinator. This new hybrid position will give her responsibilities for historic resource data, however it is received, from the planning of survey through its long-term management in our data systems. Born and raised in Lock Haven, Elizabeth comes back to Pennsylvania and us with a BA in Public History with a concentration in Architectural History from Lock Haven University and a Master of Preservation Studies from the Tulane University School of Architecture. We got to know Elizabeth pretty well as a THIS intern and PennDOT intern in our office, where we learned firsthand that she is a really really good baker. Lucky us!

Elizabeth stands with her other PA SHPO friends last year. She is wearing the purple dress, send from the left.

Moving into some construction news we’re psyched about…

Glen Foerd, the last Delaware River mansion in Philadelphia open to the public, has started the restoration of their amazing stained glass laylight on the third floor with the help of a construction grant from the Keystone Historic Preservation grant program. This 19^th century estate in Torresdale was originally built in 1850 as the Italianate-style summer home for wealthy banker Charles Macalester, Jr. and then expanded and redesigned in 1903 as a grand Classical Revival style residence for Congressman Robert H. Foerderer. Glenn Foerd is listed individually on the National Register and is recorded in the Historic American Landscape Survey, and is used a local public park and venue for arts and horticultural programs.

Glen Foerd mansion. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Foerd_on_the_Delaware

The large circular domed laylight needed some well-deserved TLC, and the Keystone grant and the project’s other funding sources will be used to restoration of the surrounding decorative plasterwork, installation of a new lighting mechanism to restore the stained glass’s beautiful glow, and a much needed glass cleaning. Once the restoration is completed, visitors to this historic house museum will have a chance to see the 15-ft Classically-designed stained glass window illuminate the house’s monumental grand stair and spacious foyer.

We’ll wrap up this week’s post with some good news out of Monroe County…

As you may remember from an earlier post, survey consultants have been busy doing Hurricane Sandy-related survey work in that neck of the woods to support the PA SHPO’s disaster and hazard mitigation planning for historic properties initiative. One part of the Monroe County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update process is gathering public input through a Citizen Preparedness Survey for residents to talk about if they’re prepared, how they’re prepared, how public monies should be used and projects prioritized when it comes to disaster planning at the local or regional level. If you live in Monroe County and haven’t checked this out, please do! So, drumroll please…..

This true/false statement was posed to residents in the survey: “Places/properties that reflect my community’s heritage and/or my community’s historic, architectural, cultural, scenic character should be prioritized for risk reduction measures in the Monroe County Hazard Mitigation Plan in order to help prevent major damage from natural hazards and preserve them for future generations.”

Respondents overwhelming answered TRUE that yes, the county’s historic places and spaces should be prioritized and preserved. 85% (171) of the 201 responses so far support historic preservation in their community. Communities in Monroe County value their historic resources and this public input is critical to incorporating historic preservation planning in the hazard plan update – and other planning initiatives in the county and state.  Way to go, Monroe County!

Survey says… Monroe County values their history!

As always, my last SHPO Shout-Out is to thank you for all the good work you do every day to preserve, protect, and promote our historic places!

P.S.

If you or your friends and colleagues are involved in or hear about great preservation happening in Pennsylvania,

please email me at ssplain@pa.gov with your suggestions! While I can’t promise that it will get covered in the monthly Shout-Out, I can promise that we’ll add it to our growing list of great preservation work happening across Pennsylvania. Quick reminder: eligible Shout-Outs must be related to SHPO program areas (the National Register, historic resource survey, historic tax credits, Keystone grants, community coordinators/preservation planning, CRGIS, historic markers, and environmental project review/mitigation) and can recognize small baby steps to large milestones, and everything in between, led by the public, an organization, municipality, community group, regional government, or state or Federal agency. Thanks!

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.

When I was about 10 years old my parents loaded my siblings and I in the car and drove us from our home near Kutztown to the southern tip of Berks County to join in a celebration.  It was 1988 and Hopewell Furnace was celebrating its 50^th anniversary as a unit of the National Park system.  I can remember being confused – was this place real? Are the people talking to us actors? Why were they wearing funny clothes? Doesn’t charcoal come out of a bag?

Ironmaking at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. Courtesy of the National Park Service.

But I can also remember watching with rapt attention as the man with the long apron retrieved the smoking kettle of glowing orange liquid from the fire and turned it into little metal bars right before my eyes.  The wood frame building was enormous to a child my size and the smell of hot smoke was everywhere.  I remember standing next to a different man in a tiny building while he swung a (relatively) huge hammer, turning one of those iron pieces into tiny nails – don’t nails come from the bins at the hardware store? And I remember helping to neatly stack wood into a tight mound that was later lit on fire. Was this going to be a bonfire?

The Cast House at Hopewell Furnace. By Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

A Legacy Forged in Iron

Hopewell Furnace was one of dozens of 18^th-century iron works that made Pennsylvania a critical player in the American Revolution, and later helped launch the state to the forefront of the industrial revolution in the 19^th century.  Founded by Mark Bird in 1771, Hopewell turned iron ore, limestone, and charcoal into pig iron that could be forged into a variety of metal products – nails, hinges, utensils, plows – and stove plates.  The southeastern Pennsylvania countryside was rich with these natural resources and transected by fast flowing creeks that could be dammed for power.  Proximity to Philadelphia, the largest English speaking city outside of London, meant that there was easy access to markets and transportation routes to sell these goods.

Ten plate cookstoves cast at Hopewell Furnace. By National Park Service Digital Image Archives [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Architectural details of Tenant house No. 1 at Hopewell Furnace from the Historic American Buildings Survey. By Related names: Null, Druscilla J, historian Koch, Paul U, delineator [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Who Says You Can’t Go Back Again?

Some years after my first visit to Hopewell with my family, I again found myself wandering past the buildings unexpectedly.  Each summer starting at age 7, I spent a week at a camp that nearly bordered the furnace, which is entirely surrounded by French Creek State Park.  One of our activities during camp would be a day hike to a nearby church, St. Peter’s Village, or if you were old enough, to Hopewell Furnace.  I can remember the line of kids and our college-aged counselors marching along the Horseshoe Trail, winding down the craggy hillsides, and navigating the rocky creek crossings.  Modern day French Creek State Park had once been the land that supplied Hopewell with water, stone, timber, and iron and scattered amongst the forest were remnants of the charcoal pits, mill races, and rock outcroppings.  When the National Park Service assumed ownership of the 5,000+ acres of the Hopewell property during World War II, they kept the historic core of the furnace and gave the surrounding land to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for use as a park.  I eventually became a counselor at the camp and led my own groups of campers on day trips and overnight excursions through French Creek and Hopewell Furnace.

Hopewell Furnace showcases an early American industrial landscape from natural resource extraction to enlightened conservation. By National Park Service Digital Image Archives [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

by Emily Paulus Everett, AECOM Technical Services

On November 6, 2015, the City of Philadelphia became the first World Heritage City in the United States – 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.  

In the most urban and densely populated county of the four pilot areas, this project is vital.  Climatologists tell us that rainfall and snowmelt affects urban areas very differently than rural ones because much of the land surface is covered by roads and buildings and there is less overall absorption coupled with more rapid runoff.  When combined with the dense, layered built environment and urban infrastructure of a large city, the impact of a serious flooding event on historic buildings has the potential to be catastrophic.  Thus, having an accurate, up-to-date inventory of historic resources in vulnerable areas is key to an informed and quick response when disasters strike and can also aid in promoting both physical and social resilience in their aftermath.

Mapping the City

Staff at the PA SHPO generated the initial data set that would become the work plan for the project by overlaying listed or contributing resources in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (PRHP) and in the publicly accessible Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS) on a layer of various flood inundation zones in GIS.  The final analysis revealed that Philadelphia’s flood zones contain nearly 600 registered historic properties.  A registered property is one that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (including National Historic Landmarks) or the PRHP, or that contributes to a National Register or Philadelphia Register Historic District.

An AECOM GIS map showing registered properties within the flood zone in red along the Schuylkill River (note boathouse row in the upper left-hand corner). A registered property is one that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, or that contributes to a National Register or Philadelphia Register Historic District.

Once mapped, three distinct concentrations of registered historic properties became evident, illustrating an essential nexus between flooding and historic preservation: that early historic settlements are often found near waterways.  Indeed, the first concentration is along the Schuylkill River toward Center City, where the establishment of maritime trades, manufacturing, and associated workers housing developed throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The second area, the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, is situated along the Delaware River at the city’s south end and contains historic resources associated with naval vessel construction and repair.  Finally, the third concentration is found along the north Schuylkill banks, where the milling industry and accompanying workers housing established neighborhoods such as Manayunk and East Falls.  The building types found in these areas run the gamut from modest workingman’s rowhouses to industrial loft to International Style apartment buildings and nearly everything in between.

AECOM team members evaluating rowhouses on Manning Street in the Ramcat/Schuylkill Historic District.

View along the flood-prone southern end of Main Street in the Manayunk Historic District, showing the G.J. Littlewood & Sons complex. G.J. Littlewood & Sons has been in operation for more than 140 years, specializing in dyeing of natural fibers.

Next, AECOM’s GIS Team imported shapefiles for the registered historic properties along with the flood hazard area layers into Fulcrum – a cloud-based mobile data collection platform – so that surveyors could reference the GIS maps in the field as well as capture data via hand-held tablets. Fulcrum was equipped with a special Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Data Form, which was used to capture flood-prone architectural details and character-defining features for each property.  The data forms will serve to both update existing records and present information in a methodical, searchable, and consistent manner.  As of this writing, field survey is nearly complete and the project team will begin finalizing the data forms and photographs for review by the PA SHPO.

USACE Team Leader Matthew Tuttle captures building elevation data in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Meanwhile our project partners at the USACE, led by Matthew Tuttle, Land Survey Party Chief, have also been hard at work since early January recording building elevation measurements for each property. They use a GPS antenna/receiver set-up that allows them to determine the exact elevation of the first floor and adjacent grades of the buildings, for use in understanding where water would enter the building during a flooding event.  According to Mr. Tuttle, “we have completed first floor flood studies in the past, but none have had the historical impact that these sites have had.  This project has been special to us in that we have learned very interesting history from the locals and historians at almost every site.  We are honored to help protect, preserve and help bring some of the lesser known, but extremely important sites to light!”

USACE team member Nick Spina installs survey reference points in front of the ca. 1700 Gloria Dei Church – a National Historic Site.

Water, Water Everywhere

View of flooding in 2012 along Admiral Perry Way on the grounds of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

Present-day view of Admiral Perry Way on the grounds of the Naval Shipyard

Reminders of the need for this study were seemingly at every turn throughout the course of the field survey, from the presence of high water marks to evidence of water damage and decay.   On the morning of February 4^th, following a period of rain and snow melt, surveyors even happened upon minor flooding while surveying the Philadelphia Canoe Club.  Housed in a former 18^th century stone mill within the Fairmount Park System, the Philadelphia Canoe Club is located at the confluence of Wissahickon Creek and the Schuylkill River.  Surveyors were invited onto the property to view the building’s riverside elevation and visit the interior, where accommodations such as furniture on wheels and handcrafted canoes hanging from ceilings are made.  Likewise, at the Fairmount Water Works, surveyors were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the esplanade and river-facing portion of the complex by Building Manager Garrett Selby, who pointed out vulnerable areas.

A flood-damaged, vacant rowhouse on the south side of Main Street in the Manayunk Historic District.

Tidal flood waters encroaching on the Philadelphia Canoe Club on the morning of February 4, 2016.

Fairmount Water Works Building Manager Garrett Selby pointing out high water areas to AECOM team members Nicole McKairnes, Samantha Kuntz, and Benjamin Buckley.

Surveyors were also treated to a tour of the long-shuttered Kelly Natatorium within the water works facility, which has been closed since 1972 when it was flooded by Hurricane Agnes!  Beth Beatty, Executive Director at Fort Mifflin, a National Historic Landmark where flooding is routine, points out that “the Fort was built on Mud Island, the location identified as a “muddy island almost drowned at high tide” on an engineer’s map circa 1777, so we have been battling our location for over 200 years!”  One of the most tangible aspects of this project has been the stories graciously shared by property and business owners along the way, giving surveyors a glimpse of the unique challenges they face due to their location in a floodplain.  Thankfully, Phase 2 of this project will bring historically-sensitive mitigation solutions to reduce the flood risk to these irreplaceable resources.

USACE team member Nick Spina recording building elevation data at Fort Mifflin – a National Historic Landmark.

Look for AECOM’s follow-up blog post in April, which will present progress of non-disaster related survey work in the Lower Northwest and North Delaware plan districts in Philadelphia, slated to begin later this month!

Emily Paulus Everett is a Senior Architectural Historian for AECOM Technical Services, Inc. with over 15 years of historic preservation planning experience throughout the Mid-Atlantic and New England Regions. Based in AECOM’s Cultural Resources Department in Burlington, New Jersey, she serves as the Survey Team Leader for the PA SHPO’s Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Phase 1 (historic resource survey) project in Philadelphia. Ms. Everett earned an M.A. in Historic Preservation from the University of Delaware and has worked as an Architectural Historian for both the District of Columbia and New Hampshire State Historic Preservation Offices.

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!

The classically designed Punxsutawney Post Office, shown in the circa 1916 postcard below, with its imposing Ionic limestone columns served as such from its completion in 1914 until 1998.   Quick fun note… historic postcards such as this one are not only great works of art in and of themselves, but can also be very helpful to anyone researching the original appearance of historic buildings and places.  Views of downtown commercial districts or local landmark buildings and landscapes are common subjects for early postcards, aiding efforts to document and preserve these significant places. The Pennsylvania State Archives historic postcard collection can be useful in planning the rehabilitation of historic buildings and also can help in the evaluation of properties for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

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

Prior to the completion of this handsome red brick building, the duties of the US Post Office in Punxsutawney were carried out in a variety of buildings from general stores to the elegant Hotel Pantall. As the bituminous coal industry flourished in this region at the turn of the 20^th century, Punxsutawney grew as well, warranting the construction of a new post office to reflect its growing importance.  Designed by James Knox Taylor, who served as the Supervising Architect of the federal Department of the Treasury from 1897-1912, the Punxsutawney Post Office was one of his last commissions.  Taylor created original designs for numerous post offices throughout the county and believed that government buildings should be both monumental and beautiful to represent the ideals of democracy.  He designed numerous post offices throughout the country, often in the Classical Revival or Colonial Revival styles, creating a unique design for each location.

The vacant Punxsutawney Post Office was listed in the National Register in 2000 as part of an effort to encourage redevelopment of this landmark building. In 2001 it was converted to the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center and approved for a PHMC Keystone Preservation Construction Grant to assist in the restoration of the exterior and improve accessibility.   The Keystone Preservation Grant program offers grants to nonprofit organizations and local governments for bricks and mortar projects benefiting National Register eligible or listed properties in Pennsylvania.

The Punxsutawney Post Office was rehabilitated into the Weather Discovery Center using a Keystone Grant from PHMC. Image from http://www.whereandwhen.com/Articles/Weather+Discovery+Center/

The preservation and reuse of the Punxsutawney Post Office highlights a positive outcome for a growing national problem, the closure of historic post offices throughout the USA.   The US Postal Service has announced plans to close many historic post offices to address its financial deficit.  Thus far, a comprehensive strategy to protect and repurpose historic post office buildings has yet to be developed and they remain at risk.  In many smaller communities, the post office may be one of the most iconic buildings in town, essential to convey local identity and a sense of place. Some historic post offices also have architecturally significant interiors.  Distinctive Works Progress Administration (WPA) era artwork and murals by a variety of impressive artists can be found in post offices throughout the state.   Post offices in Pennsylvania were home to 88 WPA murals, more than any other state, except New York.  More information about the historic murals in PA post office buildings can be found on our website.

Such classic  and character giving American places deserve recognition and preservation. Communities can follow Punxsutawney’s lead in finding successful adaptive reuse strategies to keep historic post office buildings as functional local landmarks.  Historic post office buildings should be more than memories captured on old postcards.

PHMC features a historic postcard story in current issues of its quarterly publication, the Pennsylvania Heritage magazine. The PA SHPO helps provide a preservation perspective on historic postcards by regularly contributing articles.  An article about historic post offices  and postcards appeared in the spring 2015 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage.

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!

In Philadelphia County…

Subjects that received approval in Philadelphia were quite varied this year:

Barbara Gittings, an early LGBT leader who was instrumental in having homosexuality removed from classification as a mental illness and promoting the inclusion of gay publications in libraries across the nation;

Baruch S. Blumberg, Nobel Prize recipient in 1976 for identifying the hepatitis B virus and developing its diagnostic test and vaccine;

A NASA portrait of Dr. Baruch Blumberg in 1999.

The Dixie Hummingbirds, a nationally recognized soul gospel music group, they were on the cutting edge of the genre for 30 years, influencing artists such as: the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and James Brown;

Harvey Pollack, basketball statistician for the NBA, Pollack developed a system of record-keeping adopted across the league and revolutionized the way players were assessed that impacted coaching, recruiting, trading, and strategic play;

Hotel Brotherhood USA, one of the earliest African American labor unions established in 1883 that protested pay inequities as compared to white workers, established benevolent aid fund for members, and spawned chapters in many major US cities;

Insurance Company of North America (INA), the first incorporated stock insurance company in the nation, established in 1792, INA was the first company to insure the contents of a building from fire and pioneered the Homeowners Insurance Policy;

Penn’s Landing: Arrival Point of First Africans, the first slave ship arrived at the port in 1684 carrying African slaves to William Penn’s newly established colony. Although known as a state of many prominent abolitionists, slavery was an institution in early PA history;

Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, established in 1974, the institution houses the families of hospitalized children for free and has expanded to over 350 houses throughout the US and in 38 countries.

Philadelphia’s Ronald McDonald House. Image from www.philarmh.org/

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania…

Other markers approved across the Commonwealth include:

Century Farm Program (Towanda, Bradford Co.) – a statewide program, which was featured in the PA SHPO’s booth at this year’s Farm Show, administered by the Dept. of Agriculture to recognize PA farmers whose property has been in the same family for 100 years or more;

Chief Cornplanter (Oil City, Venango Co.) – a Native American leader in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Cornplanter was a key negotiator with the PA government and was granted several tracts of land for Seneca settlement in northwestern PA;

Chief Cornplanter, portrait by Frederick Bartoli, 1796.

Davies and Thomas Company (Catasauqua, Lehigh Co.) – originally organized as an iron foundry, the company began manufacturing iron plates for lining tunnels in the early 1900s and achieved widespread success due to their high quality and innovation;

Dr. Alice C. Evans (LeRaysville, Bradford Co.) – a bacteriologist who worked for the USDA promoting the pasteurization of milk and was instrumental in the development of pasteurization laws passed in the 1920s;

Alice Catherine Evans in the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture between 1910 and 1920.

Dr. Anna Elizabeth Broomall (Chester, Delaware Co.) – an early woman OB/GYN, she expanded and improved nurse training, organized one of the nation’s first prenatal clinics and perfected and promoted birth-related procedures that led to a reduction in mortality;

Father John Christian Frederick Heyer (Friedens, Somerset Co.) – a Lutheran pastor and first American Lutheran missionary to India, instrumental in the founding of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the country’s first; the

First Puddling Ironmaking Furnace in America (Menallen Twp., Fayette Co.) – the process pioneered in the US at this furnace in 1817 revolutionized the iron industry and greatly advanced the industrial revolution;

Fleetwood Metal Body Company (Fleetwood, Berks Co.) – one of the foremost custom car body manufacturers in the nation, Fleetwood started in PA in 1909 and remained for 20 years before becoming a subsidiary of General Motors;

Jackie Ormes (New Eagle, Washington Co.) – the first African American woman cartoonist, Ormes produced a nationally syndicated column in the 1930s for the Pittsburgh Courier and other newspapers that went against stereotype;

Cartoonist Jackie Ormes. Image from www.jackieormes.com

John S. Fine (Nanticoke, Luzerne Co.) – Governor of PA from 1951 to 1955, his administration instituted the first permanent sales tax in PA, ended segregation of the National Guard, and opened the State Police to African Americans;

Jonathan Letterman (Canonsburg, Washington Co.) – a Civil War doctor considered the Father of Battlefield Medicine whose principles are still used in modern warfare;

Pepper Hill Fire of 1938 (Sinnemahoning, Cameron Co.) – a tragic incident in which an untrained Civilian Conservation Corps unit was sent to fight a forest fire, it is used as a case study in training today and principles of wild land firefighting were developed as a result;

Ruth McGinnis (Honesdale, Wayne Co.) – a billiards prodigy who was the Women’s Pocket Billiard Champion of the World from 1932 to 1940, toured the US with Willie Mosconi, and soundly defeated the great athlete Babe Didrikson Zaharias;

Stephanie Louise Kwolek (a location in southwestern PA to be determined) – a polymer scientist who invented Kevlar which is used in bullet-proof vests, protective gear critical to the safety of law enforcement personnel world-wide;

William W. Scranton (Scranton, Lackawanna Co.) – Governor of PA from 1963 to 1967, focusing on public works, the Peace Corps and other economic aid, and fiscal responsibility. He went on to be an advisor to presidents Eisenhower, Johnson, and Ford, an ambassador and UN representative.

Former Pennsylvania Governor William W. Scranton. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania State Archives.

This is surely an impressive list of subjects and the marker program continues its great work documenting and celebrating Pennsylvania’s rich history.  If you are interested in learning more about the marker program or how to nominate a marker, you can always visit our website and check out this great post.  As a quick reminder, marker applications are due by December 1 and subjects must have a documented statewide and/or national level of significance to be eligible.

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.

The Woodlands

We’ll start off with this Georgian estate in Philadelphia. These folks have been hard at work preserving and restoring William Hamilton’s 18^th century country home, The Woodlands. After an inspirational trip to England, Hamilton began a massive inside-and-out renovation in 1786 of his neoclassical home into the more fashionable Georgian style. Many cite The Woodlands as the nation’s first example of Federal architecture. One of the really cool things Hamilton did was to add a cryptoporticus (this is your SAT word of the day!). I had to go dig out my old-school architectural dictionaries for this one – it’s an underground, covered passageway that is wholly or partially concealed and lit along one-side. This vaulted brick space became part of the subterranean passageways that guiding servants throughout the building’s foundation to different domestic work spaces, cellar, stable, kitchen garden and other service areas. The Woodlands cryptoporticus is largely concealed with only the open tops of an arcade visible at ground level.

The cryptoporticus before restoration, with metal and concrete block supports.

Time and gravity took its toll on this underground walkway, and the temporary interventions made it difficult and eventually unsafe to share the space with visitors. In 2012, The Woodlands started a lengthy restoration process of the cryptoporticus with the goal of re-opening the space and begin interpreting the domestic functions of the house and how they connect to the greater landscape of the site. The restoration included a detailed conditions assessment, structural and materials analyses and recommendations, extensive documentation, archaeological monitoring, and construction. Some lucky workers got to number all of the 10,000 bricks that were removed and re-installed! The reconstructed passageway includes hidden stainless steel rods and a carefully designed concrete topping slab to address the engineering issues that led the space’s deterioration in the 20^th century. With the structure sound, the new terrace and original marble steps and coping stones were conserved and reinstalled. The next phase of work, happening now, includes wood conservation, window restoration, roof work, painting, repointing, and exterior lighting.

The restored cryptoporticus is now ready for visitors.  Visit The Woodlands to see it for yourself!

Chester County

On March 1 our staff had the pleasure of spending a day in Chester County, and visited a wide range of great projects.  Kudos to Upper Oxford Township, for their efforts to preserve and celebrate their agricultural character and rural sense of place; to the County’s Parks Department, for their interpretation and preservation plans for a canal branch near Phoenixville; to the Callahans, for their stewardship of and enthusiasm for the lovely Mendenhall-Valentine-Edge House; to the volunteers working to stabilize and reuse the Bondsville Mill as part of a new East Brandywine Township Park; and to West Nantmeal Township, for their promotion of local iron industry heritage and the sisters managing Langoma at Isabella Furnace for keeping the buildings in active and well-maintained use.  And thanks to the County’s Planning Department for organizing such an inspiring and rewarding tour!

The Callahans are doing a wonderful job maintaining the Edge House and restoring outbuildings; the Edge family certainly found the perfect new stewards for this property! A different owner is doing an equally admirable job rehabbing the former Edge mill across the street.

Woodville Plantation

We are excited to share the news that the Neville House Associates (NHA) have wrapped up some preservation work at the Woodville Plantation, Allegheny County, thanks to a Keystone Historic Preservation Construction grant. Woodville is the home of John and Presley Neville, first built in the late 19^th century and expanded and redesigned into its current state in the mid to late 19^th century. John Neville was a prominent citizen and became the local tax collector responsible for collecting the unpopular tax on whiskey, which led to the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. Much of Neville’s house and property were burned in protest of the tax.

As stewards of the National Historic Landmark Woodville Plantation, NHA was able to secure a Keystone grant to repair and restore selected sash and glazing, and replace the copper gutters and downspouts to redirect drainage system away from the house to prevent future water damage to the house. Not only did this grant allow them to make key repairs, but it was also a big boost that enabled them to increase their capacity and solidify relationships with other funders. Through the generosity of a grant from the Allegheny Foundation, NHA has also been able to hire a part time administrator to keep this treasure going.

Volunteers with NHA working with restored wood windows.

Ebenezer Methodist Church

On February 29, eastern region Community Coordinator Cory Kegerise attended Ebenezer Methodist Church’s 175^th anniversary celebration in Norristown, Montgomery County.  The congregation dates to 1840 and the church was constructed in 1872. Before and during the Civil War, church members, along with local Quakers, were active in the abolition movement and helping runaway slaves escape from Maryland and Delaware.

The anniversary event and local marker dedication took place after their morning service, and in addition to the congregation, included members of other black churches in Norristown, local and state elected officials, and the press.  In addition to presentations of citations from Congress, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and Norristown Municipal Council, Cory spoke to the congregation about the importance of their recognition of their history and the Executive Director of the Historical Society of Montgomery County made a few remarks. The church also presented plaques to the other churches in the community commemorating various historical ties and shared events in their pasts.  Concluding the celebration was the dedication of their own self-funded historical marker (not to be confused with the official Pennsylvania Historical Markers).

Dedication of the local marker

As always, my last SHPO Shout-Out is to thank you for all the good work you do every day to preserve, protect, and promote our historic places!

P.S.

If you or your friends and colleagues are involved in or hear about great preservation happening in Pennsylvania,

please email me at ssplain@pa.gov with your suggestions! While I can’t promise that it will get covered in the monthly Shout-Out, I can promise that we’ll add it to our growing list of great preservation work happening across Pennsylvania. Quick reminder: eligible Shout-Outs must be related to SHPO program areas (the National Register, historic resource survey, historic tax credits, Keystone grants, community coordinators/preservation planning, CRGIS, historic markers, and environmental project review/mitigation) and can recognize small baby steps to large milestones, and everything in between, led by the public, an organization, municipality, community group, regional government, or state or Federal agency. Thanks!

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

Historic Preservation Specialist

The incumbent:

Provides copies of documentation in the files of the SHPO to Transportation cultural resources professional staff as requested. Assists in the management of historic resources in Transportation right-of-way or control and historic resources affected by Transportation activities including: Assisting in the development of improved eligibility guidance, thematic contexts, and resource plans. Assisting in updates to statewide historic bridge survey including data analysis to determine bridge population loss, revaluation of remaining bridge population, and updates to the Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS). Assisting in bridge repurposing initiatives including marketing of bridges; development of educational materials; and formation of partnerships for the successful preservation, relocation, and continued use of historic metal truss bridges. Assisting in the development and implementation of the Historic Metal Truss Bridge Management Plan, including the review of relevant documentation, participation in monthly metal truss bridge meetings, and development of procedures for the long term maintenance and/or preservation of metal truss bridges. Assisting in the development of educational tools for the application of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards to historic bridges. Assists in the implementation of best practices to simplify Section 106 reviews including: Providing training to Transportation staff or consultants. Participating in meetings to focus on parts of the Programmatic Agreement and its performance. Participating in revisions to the Cultural Resources Handbook and other guidance documents for the implementation of the Programmatic Agreement. Assists in the integration of historic preservation into Transportation project planning including: Participating in activities that involve linking historic preservation planning and National Environmental Policy Act. Participating in the development of advanced mitigation strategies. Conducts related tasks to improve the Programmatic Agreement and its performance as defined by SHPO and Transportation. Adheres to PHMC general safety rules and the safety rules specific to this position and immediately corrects any safety hazards in the work area and report same to supervisor. Performs related work as required.

HOW TO APPLY: 

This position is filled through a Non-Civil Service process coordinated through the Bureau of State Employment (BSE).  All applications must go through BSE’s employment website at www.employment.pa.gov.  We cannot accept any applications directly.  Please see below how to apply:

From www.employment.pa.gov, click on the Job Opportunities tab under Non-Civil Service. Scroll to the chart and select the position titled “Historic Preservation Specialist”.  If interested, click on “Apply.” If you are not currently registered with NEOGOV, you may create an account and apply for this or any other listed category.  Registration is free.  Returning applicants should enter their current username and password, and follow the steps to create a profile and apply under Historic Preservation Specialist category. If you have any questions during the application process, please contact the Bureau of State Employment at 717.787.5703.

Applications are due April 14, 2016.

Required Experience:

Two or more years of experience working on an architectural survey, an architectural restoration and preservation project or program, and a bachelor’s degree in architectural history, American history, art history, or course work in Pennsylvania history. OR Any equivalent combination of experience and training. 

Additional Information:

Employment Type: Limited-Term, Full-Time

Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Compensation: $45,692-$69,477/annually

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is proud to be an equal opportunity employer supporting workplace diversity.

What better way to celebrate archaeology during Preservation50 than to share the PA State Historic Preservation Office’s recently revised and newly issued of the Guidelines for Archaeological Investigations in Pennsylvania?  Another bit of big news is that the revised Guidelines are being released in tandem with the much-anticipated Pre-Contact Probability Model layer on CRGIS.

Now that I have your attention, let me tell you some more…

The newest version of the Guidelines for Archaeological Investigation  will be posted on our website’s Forms and Guidance page in a day or two.  If it’s not there right away, make sure you check back soon and we’ll have worked out any glitches.

Here are 5 things to know about the new and improved Archaeological Guidelines:

1. The Archaeological Guidelines have been rewritten to be more clear and concise
2. Guidance has been provided for how to integrate the new Pre-Contact Probability Model Layer into archaeological survey in PA
3. The Phase II Site Context Development and Phase III survey guidance sections have been enhanced
4. A checklist for Report and Form Submission Procedures has been added
5. Updated guidance for underwater survey (these will be issued on or before May 27, 2016)

This photo shows an excavation at the Johnston Site (36IN0002) field school.

I know the next bit of news you’re looking for is about the Pre-Contact Probability Model Layer.  I can only give you a quick peak into this awesome new GIS tool.  Look for a more detailed blog from our CRGIS guru, Noel Strattan, in a few more weeks.

What I can tell you is…

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), and PHMC partnered with URS Corporation to develop a statewide pre-contact archaeological predictive model for Pennsylvania. The project involved developing statistical models to analyze the landscape at known Native American archaeological sites in Pennsylvania and extrapolating identified patterns to all areas of the commonwealth. Due to the variability of environments and pre-contact cultures throughout Pennsylvania, many different models were produced for different areas. One of the major accomplishments of the project is a complete statewide layer of archaeological sensitivity aggregated from 132 spatial subareas. This has been included in CRGIS as a pair of layers that indicate high and moderate probability.

These layers are currently available to registered archaeological users of CRGIS and will be released to registered planner users by June.  Not registered yet? No worries – just visit our website for requirements and directions.

Users can find the tool on the legend between ‘Political Boundaries’ and ‘Environmental’. Although the ‘High’ and ‘Moderate’ layers can be selected separately, both should be considered when evaluating the archaeological potential of a project area.  Areas for which the models give a low probability of containing pre-contact archaeological sites will have no color; the other two layers are semi-transparent, so they can be layered on top of either the topographic maps or the aerial photography. It is important to remember that there are only these two colors!  If you see more than two, these other color variations will be the result of the colorations on the base maps or other layers.

And, it goes without saying: these models are intended to be used as a planning tool and are not a substitute for consultation with the friendly PA SHPO. The models only evaluate the potential for pre-contact sites. The probability of the presence of Contact Period and historic archaeological sites should still be evaluated using historic documentation.

Confused? Intrigued? Want to learn more?

Training on how to use these updates – as well as more detailed information on how to use the Pre-Contact Probability Model Layer – will be available at the 2016 Statewide Conference on Heritage in Lewisburg on Wednesday, June 8th. Be sure to register for these two informative sessions!

I had to quickly learn the answer to that question for the first time this year… Advocacy Week is our annual opportunity to have a mass impact on opinion leaders and policy makers – together with a cohesive message in support of preservation-positive legislation.  Advocacy Week is organized each year by Preservation Action and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Offices (NCSHPO) and brings together over 250 preservationists to Washington, DC to promote sound federal preservation policy and programs.

In the nearly 12 years I’ve worked for the Pennsylvania SHPO, I’ve somehow evaded participation in National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week. Each year when several staffers in our office would be searching for the best projects and photos to highlight in each of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts, crunching program numbers, and preparing our snappy packets of information, I wasn’t the one waving my arm excitedly asking my boss to take me with her to Washington, DC to hobnob with our United States House of Representatives. It was an unavoidable responsibility for me this year …because now I’m the boss. Gulp. I can’t explain why the thought of “hill visits” gave me the strong desire to call in sick. I love people. I love learning about people. I love Pennsylvania. But “hill visits“ stirred up visions of slamming doors, general disinterest and sore feet.

I couldn’t have been more wrong and worried-for-nothing! We were well prepared: we came equipped with our new “Your Guide to the Federal Programs of the of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office” and customized reports and maps for each district (here is an example for District 1) illustrating historic preservation activity related to the National Register, Certified Local Government and Rehabilitation Investment Tax Credit programs. We were strong in numbers too. Since this was the year the preservation community is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, we wanted to make a statement by sending a larger than usual delegation to Advocacy Week. In addition to our Preservation Pennsylvania partners, volunteers, advocates, consultants, and a graduate student, the PA SHPO was nicely represented with four staffers.

Pennsylvania’s delegation included:

• Peter Benton, Chair, Preservation Pennylvania, Birchrunville
• Mindy Crawford, Preservation Pennsylvania, Executive Director, Harrisburg
• Brenda Barrett, Living Landscape Observer, Harrisburg
• A. Roy Smith, Preservation Action, West Chester
• Wade Catts, Commonwealth Heritage Group, West Chester
• John Martin, Commonwealth Heritage Group, West Chester
• Melissa Butler, University of MD Historic Preservation grad student, Bucks County
• Andrea MacDonald, PA SHPO, Harrisburg
• Shelby Splain, PA SHPO, Harrisburg
• Jeremy Young, PA SHPO, Harrisburg
• Scott Doyle, PA SHPO, Harrisburg

(from left) Mindy Crawford, Shelby Splain, me, and Scott Doyle took a minute to get a photo in front of the Capitol, currently undergoing a large restoration project on the iconic dome.  Photo courtesy of Preservation Pennsylvania.

The Game Plan

The week’s activities began with training for all state delegations. Participants were given a crash course in policy and the political climate on the hill, fundamentals of a successful hill meeting, and talking points for this year’s policy issues (a.k.a. the “Asks” -what we’re asking our congressmen for). From what I learned, this year’s “Asks” weren’t much different from previous years:

• Support the reauthorization of the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) & sign on to the HPF Dear Colleague Letter
• Support full funding of the Historic Preservation Fund request of $94.485 million for FFY2017 and full allocation of the authorized $150 million by 2020
• Support the Historic Tax Credit through tax reform (Historic Tax Credit Improvement Act, H.R. 3846)
• Join the Congressional Historic Preservation Caucus

If you’d like to take a look at this year’s talking points, you can read the Advocacy Week Issue One-Pagers at: http://www.preservationaction.org/advocacy-week/.

On day two, each state delegation was cut loose to meet with their senators and representatives. [photos of us outside] The United States is divided into 435 congressional districts, each with a population of about 710,000 individuals; Pennsylvania has 18 congressional districts + 2 senators representing the entire state.  Overall, during 2016 National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week there were over 200 meetings scheduled, representing 37 states!  We decided to divide and conquer and broke off into teams to cover the scheduled visits which were scattered among various capitol buildings. I instantly felt at home during our first meeting with Congressman Shuster’s office (District 9) when we were welcomed and immediately offered classic Pennsylvania snacks!  Congressman Shuster’s Legislative Director, Dennis Wirtz, was attentive, knowledgeable about historic preservation programs, and seemed receptive to our Asks.

I love snacks! It was fun to see some PA snacks in Rep. Shuster’s office.

Most visits were equally as encouraging.   What I found most rewarding was learning about the impact our visits had following Advocacy Week. One of our “Asks urged our members of congress to sign-on to the FFY 2017 Historic Preservation Fund Dear Colleague Letter to show support for the Historic Preservation Fund. Over 100 members of congress signed on to the letter including five representatives from Pennsylvania! Please help me in thanking Congressmen Boyle, Fattah, Cartwright, Fitzpatrick, and Brady for their support!

PA’s delegation visited 13 congressional offices for scheduled appointments and dropped off our information packets to 7 offices as noted below.  All of the legislators with an asterisk signed on to the FFY2017 Historic Preservation Fund “Dear Colleague” letter after our visit!

So, what did we think about the experience?

I have a confession… I actually liked National Advocacy Week and I unexpectedly grasped a little about what makes DC tick. These decision-makers can make or break the historic preservation world and it’s our job to continually educate them about all of the good preservation practices and programs create for our communities. I also asked some of my Advocacy Week cohorts to share their thoughts, impressions, take-aways, experience, etc. regarding our hill visits this year. It was comforting to discover I wasn’t alone in my newly-found appreciation for National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week.   Here is what some of my colleagues had to say:

Mindy Crawford’s experience…

When I started my job as Executive Director of Preservation Pennsylvania, I admit that the thought of being a “statewide advocate” seemed a bit daunting. Sure, I could fight to save a historic resource…I had done it many times. But the idea of meeting with elected officials and actually asking them for support of funding or legislation made me a little weak in the knees. When I headed off to Washington, DC for my first Advocacy Week in 2007, I was more than a little nervous.   I followed behind the “veterans”, those that had been doing it for years, hoping to not make a fool of myself. Guess what? It was actually a lot of fun and if you really believe in something, it is pretty easy to ask for what you want and need.

This year’s Advocacy Week was no different. Appointments were made, teams were assembled and the Pennsylvania contingent headed to DC for a day of preparation and then a full day of legislative appointments with our Pennsylvania Representatives and Senators. I admit to being a bit disappointed that congress was not in session so we would be meeting with staff only. In past years, the halls have been packed with a variety of special interest groups making their calls too and often meetings had to take place in the hall or in some very crowded front offices. This year was totally different. There was so much less chaos and each meeting was at least 20-30 minutes in length. I felt we were able to have real conversations about the need for HPF funding and the importance of protecting the historic tax credit program. We had some great meetings and, even better, a lot of follow-up from district staff once we returned to Harrisburg.

It was great fun to experience Lobby Day through the eyes of some of my colleagues who were doing it for the first time. I reflected back to my first time and realized that now I’m a “veteran” and it’s still a great experience.

 Shelby Splain’s memoir…

I’m very much a Type A personality and tend to be a glass-half-empty person by nature.  I like to know what I’m doing, be (overly) prepared, and feel like I’ll have some measure of control over how things will turn out, so I was VERY nervous about our visit to the Hill during Advocacy Week.  We prepared our information packets, I did my research on lobbying and previous Advocacy Week efforts, and gave myself a good pep talk but the butterflies persisted.  Why? Well, I think it was because I feared some difficult conversations and uphill battles that day.  I wasn’t sure how much impact our visits could really have or how receptive the Congressmen’s offices would be.  I know there are lots and lots of elected leaders who support preservation, but I also know that preservation can be a touchy hot-button issue for others who don’t see any benefit to it at all.  I took a deep breath, told myself to do my best, and steeled myself for our first visit.  Turns out, I didn’t need to be worried at all.  Sure, I had one or two visits that were more challenging than the others, but at the end of the day, I think we got our message across.  And did it in a way that communicated the most important things: preservation matters, the PA SHPO is a resource to help, not hinder, communities, and we are smart, reasonable, professional human beings.  Definitely no ‘hysterical preservationists’ here.  The enthusiasm I saw from the staff at Congressmen Marino’s, Fitzpatrick’s and Fattah’s offices made me realize that this audience is one that has been long-neglected and needs our attention just as much as the many other constituents we serve.  I think there is a lot more support out there than we know about and we just have to keep talking to people – especially our elected leaders – about preservation and the support will follow.

Jeremy Young’s observations…

To me, our visits on The Hill highlighted that Pennsylvania’s members of Congress (and their staff) could likely benefit from additional or more frequent outreach from the PA SHPO and our preservation partners beyond our annual visits, and in particular, more education about why preservation is so important to maintaining a high quality of life in the many communities within their district. One question I left with was, “How can we better include all sorts of elected officials and their staff in future historic preservation education and outreach activities?” I also believe that one area we could improve in our communications with the congressional representatives is to really drive home the connection between historic preservation and the economy (and jobs); for example, making clear the contributions of historic places to heritage tourism. (Tourism is among the largest sectors of Pennsylvania’s economy.)

PA SHPO-er Jeremy Young poses for this great pic at the Capitol.

A bonus!

I believe our efforts were justified when we received a subsequent invitation to visit Congressman Scott Perry’s district office in Wormleysburg (located just across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg). The purpose of the meeting was for us to elaborate on historic preservation funding. Three of us from the original DC delegation gladly accepted the invitation and again prepared packets of information to share about preservation successes and in particular those from the congressman’s district. [photo of us and Perry] We came to know the congressman’s interests include historic farms, barns, and a love of historic building materials and disappearing craftsmanship; we talked for nearly an hour. Following the meeting Congressman Perry expressed an interest in joining the Historic Preservation Caucus. We hope to see his name on the list in the near future!

Mindy Crawford, Brenda Barrett, and I met with Congressman Perry after Advocacy Week.

by Abigail Watson-Popescu 

As a child growing up in Titusville the first thing you are taught about your hometown is that Edwin Drake struck oil here on August 27, 1859. The thing you notice, though, is that your town feels very different from other towns. With wrought iron fences lining slate sidewalks, horse hitching posts and carriage mounting blocks dotting the streets, and gigantic Victorian houses abounding there is a feeling of actually living in another time.

As the birthplace of the modern petroleum industry, Titusville is one of the most historically significant towns in Western Pennsylvania. Architecturally, the town displays a remarkable compendium of popular nineteenth century American styles such as Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, and Colonial Revival.

Victorian Homes on Main Street, Titusville, Crawford County, 2016. Photo courtesy of Abigail Watson-Popescu.

View of Main Street, Titusville, Crawford County, 2016. Photo courtesy of Abigail Watson-Popescu.

Although the oil boom petered out in the 1870s, Titusville successfully stabilized itself economically by developing other industry related to the producing, transporting, and selling of oil. The wealth that came about from petroleum related industries resulted in the construction of a great many incredible Victorian commercial and residential buildings. Early on, Titusville residents had a vision for this idyllic rural town. They yearned for community permanence and were optimistic that the town had moved beyond the boom/bust cycle, which resulted in a more orderly approach to town planning. As Brian Black’s fine book, Petrolia: The Landscape of America’s First Oil Boom points out, the residents of Titusville, tired of the raucous troubles associated with boomtown life, established “community committees” to control the planning and development aspects of the town in 1865 after a national cholera epidemic.[1] Titusville was designed to be the ideal nineteenth century streetscape that we see today: flat and walk-able, with wide tree lined streets forming a grid, dotted with several beautiful green parks. There is an orderly flow between the shaded, peaceful residential Main Street and the commercial and industrial sections beyond. The Victorian plan of the town continues to shape the way we live and move about today.

Birds eye view of the city of Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania 1871. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Ruger, A. Chicago Lithographing Co. (Chicago) Chicago Lithographing Co. (1871) https://lccn.loc.gov/73694524

While the inhabitants of Titusville after the oil boom placed the town on a path of order and stability with regards to city planning, the intervening years have not been necessarily kind to the Victorian intentions. Over the course of the twentieth century, with the tumultuous ups and downs of the manufacturing sector typical of any rust belt city or town, Titusville was unable to maintain several of the grand Victorian buildings that made it so remarkable. There have been great losses, not all in the distant past: The Citizens Bank Flatiron-style building demolished in 1966 to build a strip mall (according to the Titusville Herald), The Colonel Drake Hotel, which was sold and torn down in 1998 to make way for a CVS Pharmacy, and The Odd Fellows Building in 2009, an anchor building on a corner torn down to make way for a parking lot.[2]

Citizens Bank (Flatiron Building), Spring & Diamond Streets, Titusville, Crawford County, 1873.
Courtesy of PHMC, Drake Well Museum, Titusville, PA

Some destruction has not been intentional, however. Most significantly, on March 18, 2015 Titusville very nearly lost its most important historic commercial building to fire. Built in 1877, the Towne Square Building, historically known as the Chase and Stewart Block, is now owned by the Titusville Redevelopment Authority. Home to Titusville’s popular Blue Canoe Brewery, the building became engulfed in flames when a fire in an adjoining building reignited. This was a truly unfortunate turn of events, as the Redevelopment Authority had just wrapped up a successful multi-year rehabilitation project of the building. The building sustained nearly 2 million gallons of water, smoke damage, as well as the loss of the entire fourth floor (including a mansard-style shingled parapet with window detailing). Yet, the Redevelopment Authority decided to rehabilitate, once again, this important historic building that had served as the hub of the community.[3] After standing helplessly on the sidewalk watching fire engulf their beloved downtown building, Titusville’s citizens came out in droves to vocally and financially support the effort to rehabilitate Towne Square. As of this writing, The Blue Canoe Brewery has opened for business to the delight of its many fans far and wide!

Towne Square/Chase and Stewart Block Pre-2015 Fire, Titusville, Crawford County, 2010.

The fire ignited a sense of urgency among Titusville’s citizens about how vulnerable the remaining historic architecture is, and has spurred an effort to take the steps towards historic preservation that have eluded the town for so many years. The City of Titusville has a large historic district that was listed on the National Register in 1985. The Titusville Planning Commission has spent many years attempting to identify how best to deal with the historic overlay district that exists on the zoning map, yet holds no legal protections. After many years of investigation, the Planning Commission recommended that City Council decide the next step towards preserving our historic district. With discussion playing out in the town newspaper and at City Council meetings, there was something of a sea change among town residents. Many people came out to vocalize their support for the preservation of Titusville’s historic buildings. Indeed, the Council did vote 4-1 to apply for a Keystone Historic Preservation Grant to procure design guidelines. It is the hopes of lifelong residents and preservationists like myself that the design guideline process will result in a lot of public input and feedback on the best way forward to protect the historical structures that make up our town—one that is truly a unique snapshot of a momentous era of American industrial history.

[1] Black, Brian, Petrolia: The Landscape of America’s First Oil Boom. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 132-133.

[2] Weber, David. Photo Captions. The Titusville Herald, June 14, 2007.

[3] http://www.tcda.org/townesquare.php

The author of today’s post is Abigail Watson-Popescu.  Here is a little bit about her…

While my higher education background is in English Literature, I was introduced to historic preservation eight years ago as a volunteer for the Oil Region Alliance’s Ida Tarbell House restoration project. In the time since, I have acquired an AAS degree in Building Preservation/Restoration from Belmont College in St. Clairsville, OH. I am a member of the Titusville Planning Commission, a group of five individuals appointed by City Council to address and make recommendations on various planning matters in the town.

Time for April’s SHPO Shout-Out! I’m going to mix it up a bit this month and Shout Out about something that’s happening soon rather than something that’s already happened or is in the process of happening. It’s not that I don’t have a whole bunch of great things waiting in the wings – it’s just that the 2016 Pennsylvania Statewide Conference on Heritage is a REALLY big deal and I’d be derelict in my duties as Education and Outreach Coordinator if I didn’t make sure that all of our dedicated readers know all about it.

Here are the conference basics:

• The conference is Monday, June 6 through Wednesday, June 8. Heads up!! This is a month earlier than it’s been for the last several years, so don’t think there is still lots of time to register. It’s only a short 6 weeks away! I’ve made it easy for you to register – just click here!
• We’ll be gathering in historic Lewisburg, Union County, making this conference feel like a vacation at the same time. If you’ve never been, Lewisburg is one of Pennsylvania’s small town gems. Located on the Susquehanna River between Harrisburg and Williamsport, Lewisburg is the county seat and home to Bucknell University. It’s got lots of places listed in the National Register, including the Lewisburg Historic District, a great downtown, and beautiful neighborhoods. The conference sessions and events will be held in some of Lewisburg’s cool historic downtown venues like the Campus Theatre.

• The Art Deco Campus Theatre is the conference hotspot this year
• Because we’re not doing the conference hotel thing this year, accommodations are on your own. Visit the conference website for a list of places to stay to book a room in one of Lewisburg’s B&Bs, at a local hotel, or even return to your student days and stay in the Bucknell dorms.
• The conference is being hosted by Preservation Pennsylvania, PHMC, the PA Department of Transportation, and the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation.  It not only takes a village to raise a family, but also to host a conference!

  PHMC is sponsoring the tote bag this year, which is reason enough to come to the conference!

• Conference sponsorships are still available! Sponsoring an event or session is a great way to reach the conference’s large and diverse audience. There won’t be an exhibit hall this year, and interested sponsors should check out the conference website to include materials in the conference tote bags or on an information table.

In addition to traditional conference offerings, like an engaging plenary session, a fun reception, and lots of networking opportunities, there are also going to be some new things this year. Read on for information about the sessions and the schedule.

Original 1942 movie poster

On Monday, Preservation Pennsylvania hosts their Annual Meeting luncheon at Elizabeth’s Bistro from 12:30 to 2:00 for some good food and fun while listening to Jim Vaughan, PHMC’s Executive Director, give the keynote talk, “So, a planner, a historian, an architect and a politician go to Europe…” After lunch, enjoy one of the special “explore Lewisburg” activities in the afternoon, stop in at the historic Campus Theatre to connect with a “Meet & Eat” dinner group to head out for a fine meal with some preservation-centric conversation starters.  End the day with the 1942 cinematic hit, “George Washington Slept Here,” at the theater.

On Tuesday, start the day off with the opening plenary session, “If the Past Teaches, What Does the Future Learn,” featuring Christopher Wilson from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and Jason Illari from the Cumberland County Historical Society. The rest of the day includes lots of options for interesting sessions and speakers on the topics of architectural history, lead paint, archaeology, historic windows, student presentations, highway planning, town & gown communities, community revitalization, and a Preservation50 listening session. I don’t have nearly enough space here to list all the speakers and sessions, so please visit the conference website for the latest and greatest information.

On Wednesday, you’ll have the choice between attending the PA SHPO training or the Symposium on Flooding & Pennsylvania’s Historic River Towns.  While we’re not doing the Cultural Resources Essentials (CRE) training this year, we are offering an in-depth, hands-on tutorial of our CRGIS system and an overview of our newly revised and released Archaeology Guidelines. In response to past conference feedback, we have expanded the CRGIS training time and content and, for the first time, you can bring your own laptop for some hands-on instruction or just watch the demos. Highlighted will be the new Statewide Pre-Contact Probability layer for planners and archaeologists, the spatial search, and advanced data searches. You’ll also get the chance to meet the PA SHPO’s newest SHPO-er, Elizabeth Shultz, and talk about our developing strategy for statewide historic resource survey. Stick around in the afternoon to learn more about the guidelines, how to use them, and get all of your burning questions answered.

The Symposium on Flooding & Pennsylvania’s Historic River Towns is intended for preservationists, emergency managers, engineers, architects, floodplain managers, planners, concerned citizens and property owners, and elected officials, and seeks to foster a common understanding of the critical issues surrounding hazard planning and its challenges, as well as facilitate the creation of new interdisciplinary alliances to address them. For more information on the Symposium’s sessions and expert speakers, please visit the Flood Symposium page on the conference website.

Register through the conference website to attend!

I promise I’ll be back next month with our regular Shout-Outs to let you know about all the great preservation happening in PA. As always, my last SHPO Shout-Out is to thank you for all the good work you do every day to preserve, protect, and promote our historic places!

P.S.

If you or your friends and colleagues are involved in or hear about great preservation happening in Pennsylvania, please email me at ssplain@pa.gov with your suggestions! While I can’t promise that it will get covered in the monthly Shout-Out, I can promise that we’ll add it to our growing list of great preservation work happening across Pennsylvania. Quick reminder: eligible Shout-Outs must be related to SHPO program areas (the National Register, historic resource survey, historic tax credits, Keystone grants, community coordinators/preservation planning, CRGIS, historic markers, and environmental project review/mitigation) and can recognize small baby steps to large milestones, and everything in between, led by the public, an organization, municipality, community group, regional government, or state or Federal agency. Thanks!

As the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) turns fifty this year, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO), a bureau of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC), has begun outreach and strategic planning for Pennsylvania’s next statewide comprehensive historic preservation plan. We believe that this important anniversary is the right opportunity to engage with Pennsylvanians and find out how we can collectively guide preservation in Pennsylvania for the next fifty years.

Pennsylvania’s current statewide comprehensive historic preservation plan, Building Better Communities: The Preservation of Place in Pennsylvania will expire at the end of 2017.  The NHPA requires that state historic preservation offices (SHPOs) develop and maintain statewide plans, which are intended to guide local, regional, and statewide preservation efforts over a period of time.  In Pennsylvania, the PA SHPO is responsible for guiding the development of the Plan, securing its approval from the National Park Service, and distributing it as a resource for agencies, organizations, municipalities, and the public.

Click here for Plan fast facts to learn more about statewide preservation plans and why they matter.

Pennsylvania’s (Next) Statewide Comprehensive Historic Preservation Plan

The statewide historic preservation plan isn’t the PA SHPO’s plan, it’s Pennsylvania’s plan. We see our role as a leader, convener, partner, collaborator, contributor, and champion.  We want to connect with as many traditional and non-traditional communities – and everyone in between – as we can during this process to create a plan with clear, practical goals that serve as a general guide for decision-making and a resource for anyone working with older and historic places.

The foundation of any good planning effort is engagement, so we created “Community Connections” as the engagement strategy for the statewide preservation planning process. Generally, this is a two-pronged strategy:  1) engaging the public through an online survey and, later this year, in regional forums and 2) collaborating with our many partners through a State Plan Task Force, focus groups, and regular updates.

Public Survey

One of the easiest ways to participate in the planning process is to take a few minutes to take our online survey.

∗ Click Here to Take the Survey ∗

Your input helps identify issues and create a vision for the future of older and historic places in our communities.  Your feedback is a crucial part of the planning process.  Please take a few minutes to complete a brief online survey by clinking on the link above.  Share this post with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues and ask them to take the survey, too.  We also used a public survey in 2011 to inform the current statewide plan and got over 2,700 responses, with at least one from every county.  Our goal is to beat that number this year and have even more voices tell us what matters to them.

News and Updates

Check in frequently! We’ll be updating this page often with new information and updates on the planning process, upcoming focus groups and public forums, and other important and interesting information.  You can also follow our progress with our blog, e-newsletter, and email announcements through our mailing list.  If you’re not already signed up, simply go to www.pahistoricpreservation.com and fill in the Sign Me Up! screen.

May is National Historic Preservation Month and a great time to announce two new exciting preservation initiatives at the PA SHPO.   We’re celebrating this year by kicking off our “Community Connections” campaign, the outreach and planning efforts for Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan, and our Preservation50 Community Recognition campaign. 

Why are we talking about ‘Community’ so much?

You might have noticed that both initiatives have the word ‘community’ in the title. The timing of the 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) this year coincides nicely with our kicking off the planning process for the next statewide historic preservation plan in 2018.  Both initiatives provide an opportunity to deepen our understanding of community, the connection between community and historic preservation, and craft a plan to help us launch the next phase of the preservation movement in partnership with communities old and new, traditional and non-traditional.

Community members gather at the Herberlig-Parlmer Park in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a clean up day coordinated by the West Side Neighbors Association. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

When we talk about ‘communities,’ we mean people connected to a place (think neighborhood organizations, friends groups, municipalities, etc.) or individuals linked by common interests and goals (think Preservation educators, bloggers, etc.).  Communities provide experiences (such as festivals, learning opportunities, tours, workshops); activism, advocacy, fundraising, and resource management; testimony that preservation matters; showcases for impactful projects; and important information for preservation leaders about what matters to them.

We can all rattle off the names of communities very familiar to Pennsylvania’s preservation world. But there is more going on out there, more people and groups that share our goals, are having positive impacts that haven’t received much attention, and aren’t working closely with the SHPO. We need to identify them, develop relationships, learn from them, and share their innovations or strategies with others.  To do this, we need to expand our definition of community; connecting with them will help us deepen our resources, broaden our network, and improve prospects for future successes.

Connecting with Communities for the Next Statewide Plan

Community Connections

One way we all benefit from strong communities is by their participation with the statewide historic preservation plan. I hope you’re as excited as we are that it’s time once again to start thinking about the next statewide historic preservation plan.   The current plan, Building Better Communities: The Preservation of Place in Pennsylvania, expires at the end of 2017.  It may seem like it’s early to start talking about the next plan if it doesn’t need to be in place until 2018, but we take our role as the plan facilitators very seriously and want to make sure that every ‘community’ that wants to be involved, can be.

That’s right – I did say we are the plan facilitators.  The statewide historic preservation plan isn’t the PA SHPO’s plan, it’s Pennsylvania’s plan.  We see our role as a leader, convener, partner, collaborator, contributor, and champion.  We want to connect with as many traditional and non-traditional communities – and everyone in between – as we can during this process to create a plan with clear, practical goals that serve as a general guide for decision-making and a resource for anyone working with older and historic places.

The foundation of any good planning effort is engagement, so we created “Community Connections: Planning for Preservation in Pennsylvania” as the engagement strategy for the statewide preservation planning process. Generally, this is a two-pronged strategy:  1) engaging the public through an online survey and, later this year, in regional forums and 2) collaborating with our many partners through a State Plan Task Force, focus groups, and regular updates.

∗ Click Here to Take the Survey ∗

Right now we need your help! Your input helps identify issues and create a vision for the future of older and historic places in our communities.  Your feedback is a crucial part of the planning process.  Please take a few minutes to complete a brief online survey by clinking on the link above.  Share this post with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues and ask them to take the survey, too.  We also used a public survey in 2011 to inform the current statewide plan and got over 2,700 responses, with at least one from every county.  Our goal is to beat that number this year and have even more voices tell us what matters to them.

Tune in again later to learn more about the engagement part the planning process and the next steps in future posts.

Preservation50 logos from www.Preservation50.org

Preservation50 Community Recognition

Part of creating that strong community network is recognizing those communities that are models for what can be achieved through lots of hard work, dedication, and optimism.

As part of the Preservation50 commemoration this year, the PA SHPO will be recognizing notable achievements and innovative contributions to the historic preservation movement made by all sorts of communities. Some may be established and familiar, and some will be new or lesser-known ones that can inspire us to move into the next 50 years with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

Our Preservation50 efforts and activities will take place between May and October. We’ll be recognizing communities and their achievements in our newsletter and as blog post “shout-outs,” nominating one (or more!) for a special Preservation PA award, featuring several during a national social media blitz, and incorporating them into our “Community Connections” statewide plan outreach efforts.

The 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act serves as a threshold. It’s certainly not a mile marker or a finish line. Instead, it’s an opportunity for us to reflect on past preservation successes so we can build on the efforts supporting them. And, more importantly, it’s an opportunity to consider what we’re missing out on, and what we can do differently.  Only then can we move forward with a clear vision for implementing the SHPO’s aspirations, and support to help others succeed in theirs.

The actions of state and federal agencies working in conjunction with the SHPO have achieved some significant outcomes, but most true success stories include a substantial contribution from concerned citizens and municipal governments—or are often entirely the result of community effort. With or without state or federal involvement, the involvement of a caring and effective community is essential to ensure the future of any resource.

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

Historic Preservation Manager

THE POSITION:

This position is responsible for the direction and operation of the Division of Preservation Services within the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), a bureau of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). This division provides for the identification, evaluation, and preservation of significant historic properties through the administration of state and federal historic preservation programs

DESCRIPTION OF WORK:

The incumbent:

Management and Supervision:

• Assists the Bureau Director in the management of the SHPO.
• Serves as part of the SHPO leadership team to strategically manage the bureau’s priorities.
• Coordinates programs and activities with other divisions and sections within the SHPO and with other PHMC bureaus.
• Develops strategic partnerships with agencies and coordinates historic preservation programs and activities with federal and state agencies, local governments, and other partner organizations.
• Assists with preparing and implementing a comprehensive statewide historic preservation plan as well as the preparation and implementation of a strategic plan for the PHMC.
• Participates in all required Commonwealth training for supervisors to successfully carry out position responsibilities.
• Develops an annual professional development plan in collaboration with the SHPO leadership team and division staff.
• Develops annual division work plans for staff responsibilities and initiatives to prioritize work.
• Directs and coordinates the activities of professional and administrative staff, as well as interns and volunteers, to meet SHPO goals and priorities.
• Determines staffing requirements and participates in the hiring process to recruit, interview, and select staff.
• Supervises, directs, and evaluates work plan activities of personnel in the Division of Preservation Services.
• Contributes to SHPO and PHMC publications such as the Blog of the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office and Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine.
• Advises and assists in the evaluation of historic properties for rehabilitation projects that may qualify for federal or state preservation tax incentives including certifications of eligibility and rehabilitation of properties according to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, as may be needed and requested.
• Assists in the preparation of the SHPO’s various annual and quarterly reports.
• Assists with the interpretation and fulfillment of Right to Know Law information requests as needed.
• Adheres to PHMC general safety rules and safety rules specific to this position and immediately corrects any safety hazards in the work area and report same to supervisor.
• National Register of Historic Places Program:
  • Administers the National Register of Historic Places program in Pennsylvania and directs staff in reviewing National Register nominations.
  • Advises and consults with the public concerning the nomination of properties to the National Register of Historic Places in accordance with federal law and regulations.
  • Directs staff assistance to the Historic Preservation Board.
  • Oversees the function of Secretary to the Historic Preservation Board.
  • Reviews SHPO opinions of determinations of eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
• Survey and Historic Property Identification:
  • Manages Pennsylvania’s Inventory of Historic Properties survey program and directs research as needed for the development and publication of historic contexts.
  • Coordinates Preservation Services Division programs with staff in the Cultural Resources Geographic Information System Section to ensure consistency in documenting historic properties.
  • Assists in ensuring survey/identification, documentation, and appropriate treatment of historic properties is ongoing and disseminates results for public use and planning purposes.
• Community Outreach:
  • Manages technical and preservation planning assistance to local governments and partner organizations and oversees SHPO’s regional community preservation coordinators.
  • Administers the Certified Local Government Program (CLG) in Pennsylvania including the allocation of the annual CLG grant funding.
  • Manages procedures which authorize local governments in Pennsylvania to establish and administer historic districts under the Pennsylvania Historic District Act.
  • Promotes use of provisions within the Municipal Planning Code that allow for the incorporation of historic preservation provisions within local zoning ordinances.
  • Assists other government agencies by evaluating the potential for preserving and reusing historic properties.
  • Assists in promoting and developing historic preservation communication/training through various means, including but not limited to, the development of guidance/published materials, public meetings, media, seminars, brochures, newsletters, programs, and exhibits.
  • Advises and consults on issues relating to historic preservation grants and grants administration, as may be needed or requested.

Performs related work as required.

HOW TO APPLY: 

This position is filled through a Non-Civil Service process coordinated through the Bureau of State Employment (BSE).  All applications must go through BSE’s employment website at www.employment.pa.gov.  We cannot accept any applications directly.  Please see below how to apply:

From www.employment.pa.gov, click on the Job Opportunities tab under Non-Civil Service. Scroll to the chart and select the position titled “Historic Preservation Manager”.  If interested, click on “Apply.” If you are not currently registered with NEOGOV, you may create an account and apply for this or any other listed category.  Registration is free.  Returning applicants should enter their current username and password, and follow the steps to create a profile and apply under Historic Preservation Manager category. If you have any questions during the application process, please contact the Bureau of State Employment at 717.787.5703.

Applications are due May 24, 2016.

Required Experience:

A Master’s Degree in Architectural History, Archaeology, or a closely related field; and one year in the Historic Preservation Supervisor classification; OR A Master’s Degree in Architectural History, American History, Archaeology, or a closely related field, plus three years’ experience working on an architectural survey, an architectural restoration and preservation project, historic preservation program, or a preservation assistance project; OR Any equivalent combination of experience and training.

 Additional Information:

Employment Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Location: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Compensation: $58,719-$89,213/annually

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is proud to be an equal opportunity employer supporting workplace diversity.

Western Pennsylvania has been a hotbed of National Register activity during the past year. From three Washington County farms, to an industrial facility and a Salvation Army building in Pittsburgh, to a Masonic lodge in Latrobe and a synagogue in Brownsville, the National Park Service has recently listed an eclectic variety of properties in that part of the state.

Before Washington County became a leading producer of coal, oil, and natural gas, its rolling landscape was dotted with farms that included diversified cropland and sheep pastures (See the agricultural context for Southwestern PA on the PHMC website). Each of the three farms have notable farmhouses and historic outbuildings:

Nesbit-Walker Farm, Canton Township, LISTED, 2/02/16

This farm features an architecturally significant example of an I-House (c. 1880) and an 1845 log barn. The “I-House” was one of the more common patterns used in farmhouse construction in this county in the second half of the nineteenth century. This two-story, side-gabled vernacular house form is characteristically one-room-deep and was identified by cultural geographers in the 1930s. The I-House form is closely associated with rural culture in the southwestern counties of Western Pennsylvania and continued spreading into the Midwest from there.

Nesbit-Walker Farm, Washington County

The barn is a notable surviving example of its type and is significant for the functional way the form meets the agricultural functions of processing grain, housing animals, and storing fodder under one roof.

Nesbit-Walker Farm Barn, Washington County

Plantation Plenty, Independence Township, LISTED 2/02/16

The farmstead at Plantation Plenty was originally listed in the National Register in 1975, focusing on the architecturally significant, early 19th century, brick, Georgian farmhouse, so this recent nomination describes and defines the farm’s agricultural significance. The property contains many building types, farm fields and landscape components, several early examples of built-in farm equipment, and other facilities that were innovative for their time.  The farm was a leader in introducing fine-wooled sheep in this region. Its nomination reads “No truly comparable farms are known to have survived with integrity at this scale and complexity in this county or region, and no other farm in the area is known to show this level of functional design, innovation, and integration.”

Plantation Plenty, Washington County

David Slusher Farm, Amwell Township, LISTED 2/02/16

Like many families in this area, David Slusher’s father, Christopher, came here after living for a period in Virginia. Featuring an 1849 residence with a Georgian floor plan and Greek Revival-style detailing, the property evolved almost continually to adjust to different trends in raising livestock including, cows and horses, followed by an emphasis on sheep, and later swine and poultry. In addition, the owners raised crops, produced maple sugar, operated a dairy, and processed pork and other meats.

David Slusher Farm House, Washington County

In contrast with these agricultural properties, two characteristically urban buildings were listed in the city of Pittsburgh:

Pittsburgh Brass Manufacturing Company Building, 147-3155 Penn Avenue, LISTED 2/02/16

The 1903 Pittsburgh Brass Manufacturing Company Building is significant as an independent specialty metal manufacturer. Categorized as a “brass founder and finisher,” the company manufactured bronze, brass and aluminum products and was “one of the largest brass manufacturing concerns in the Pittsburgh district.” All of its operations were combined under one roof: a brass foundry, machine shop, erecting shop and a shipping room. At this property, the company manufactured and developed new products for industrial clients, including those from the iron and steel industry, as well as producing ornamental metal work. Among their most successful innovations were a frost-proof water closet and the patented bronze roto-flex ball pipe joint.

Pittsburgh Brass Manufacturing Co.

Salvation Army Building, 425-435 Boulevard of the Allies, LISTED, 2/02/16

The Salvation Army Building is significant in the area of Social History, as a prominent charitable social service institution in Pittsburgh. One of the most important of their services was known as the Evangeline Residence, providing affordable long-term housing and social activities for professional women. This 1924 building also allowed the Salvation Army to consolidate the administrative offices of the Western Pennsylvania Division of the Salvation Army into one location. In addition to these functions, the building housed an auditorium, swimming pool and other spaces for their staff and residents.

Salvation Army Building, Allegheny County

Salvation Army Building,
Allegheny County

And then there are two newly-listed properties in the boroughs of Latrobe and Brownsville:

• The Loyalhanna Lodge No. 275 in Latrobe is a significant example of early twentieth century mixed-use commercial architecture in western Pennsylvania. Funded in part by the sale of life insurance to members of the Lodge, the five story building provided retail space, residential apartments, and a Masonic lodge. It was said to be the “largest business structure ever erected in Latrobe” when it was constructed in 1926.

  Loyalhanna Lodge No. 275, Latrobe, Westmoreland County

• An often overlooked story is revealed in Temple Ohave Israel in Brownsville. Constructed in 1919, this building is significant for its role as the center of the small, but influential Jewish community in Brownsville. In addition to providing religious services for its members, Temple Ohave Israel cultivated and strengthened its community by educating the community’s children and providing meeting space for social organizations. Among the many recent immigrants arriving in Brownsville after 1900 were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Charter members of the temple included a tailor from Hungary, as well as merchants and business owners from Austria and Germany.

Entrance, Temple Ohave Israel, Brownsville, Fayette County

While a few of these properties were nominated to take advantage of federal tax credits for rehabilitation, most were submitted by owners who wanted to recognize and commemorate the significant local history of their farms and communities. Congratulations to all.

By Samantha Kuntz

Philadelphia has managed to accrue some significant historic resources over the past, oh, 300 years or so. It is home to no fewer than 550 resources (including districts) listed on National Register of Historic Places, and it holds over 11,087 resources (including districts) on the local Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.  Philadelphia possesses relics of our nascent nation (the U.S. Constitution, the Liberty Bell), contains a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Independence Hall), and boasts an impressive new heritage association (full membership in the Organization of World Heritage Cities).

In other words, there must be something in the (Schuylkill and Delaware) water here.

With such a vast inventory of historic properties comes an increased need for documentation. Throughout the past year, the PA SHPO has been working to transform the approach to cultural resource protection by integrating historic preservation into local hazard mitigation planning via the Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative. For Philadelphia, this primarily meant documenting over 600 registered historic properties located in flood hazard zones for consideration in citywide disaster planning.

However, it also meant considering stewardship from another angle: what about resources not yet recognized by either Register?

 Community Landmarks and the Citywide Vision

 To help answer this question, AECOM was tasked with a second survey to explore potential historic resources hiding in plain sight. Working beyond the identified flood hazard boundaries that defined the first phase of the Philadelphia survey, the AECOM team launched an additional, non-flood related cultural resource survey in two of Philadelphia’s city planning districts to suss out historic properties that have not yet been documented or designated.

Castle Row (above, 1888) and Battleship Row (below, 1880) in Tacony. Examples of housing built specifically to house Henry Disston’s incoming labor force in Tacony. Workers’ rowhomes were historically part of a building-and-loan program established by Disston as part of his comprehensive company town. Photo by Jenn Robinson from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016.

Since the beginning of the Disaster Planning project in Philadelphia – and in concurrent surveys throughout Monroe, Bedford, and Cameron counties – the PA SHPO has emphasized the importance of identifying resources with substantial local and historic value that are not protected by designation. Deemed Community Landmarks, these properties form the core of continuing survey work in Philadelphia.

For the purposes of the resulting survey, Community Landmarks are known as buildings, structures, sites, districts, or objects that are eligible for listing in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (PRHP) and hold value within the local community due to their ability to convey information about its local history, identity, or social and cultural heritage.  Furthermore, Community Landmarks need either have been identified by city agencies as worthy of study, or have been a focal point for neighborhood advocacy efforts.

Devon Theater (1946) on the edge of Wissinoming and Mayfair. The Mid-Century Modern theater on Frankford Ave underwent a multi-million dollar rehabilitation in 2008 but was unable to continue operating as a theater. Now adaptively reused, the theater now houses the Kingdom of Life Christian Center. Photo by Kaitlin Pluskota from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 23, 2016.

You may know them as your neighborhood park, the civic meeting center, or even the diner where you had your first date.

And there are thousands of them spread throughout Philadelphia. To narrow the scope, the PA SHPO partnered with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC, recent recipient of the American Planning Association’s (APA) 2016 National Planning Excellence Award for a Planning Agency) and selected two planning districts to ground the Community Landmark pilot surveys: North Delaware and Lower Northwest.

 Delving into the Districts

 AECOM’s cultural resource team completed survey of the North Delaware planning district in early April. In total, 40 resources were assessed for potential listing on the National and Philadelphia Registers of Historic Places.  Ranging from neighborhood parks to roadside inns, workers housing blocks to wealthy mansions, and civic facilities to local shops, these resources reflect a broad collection of architectural styles, construction eras, and historical development types – capturing a diverse subset of historic resources grounded in local heritage.  Take, for example, the following sites:

Rocky Hill Village House (ca. 1790) located on the border of Wissinoming and Mayfair. The dwelling is one of only two remaining structures remaining from Rocky Hill Village (or Rockville), an early neighborhood centered around the intersection of Frankford, Cheltenham, and Bustleton Avenues in what was then known as Oxford Township. Photo by Kaitlin Pluskota from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 23, 2016

Photo Caption: The Pennypack Mill House (ca. 1830) in Holmesburg is situated alongside Pennypack Creek. This form of twin worker housing at the original site of the Pennypack Grist Mills recalls high-volume mill industry in Holmesburg. hoto by Jennifer Robinson from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

Ethelhurst (1882) in Holmesburg. Dwelling designed by and built for local resident Amos C. Shallcross. Photo by Samantha Kuntz from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

Originally known as Harbot’s Hotel (1904), the Colonial Inn and Tavern stands today as Curran’s Inn in Tacony. It is one of the few significant properties of that era to survive the construction of I-95. Photo by Jennifer Robinson from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

Lardner’s Point (1906) in North Delaware was the largest water pumping station in the world when originally built to serve the Torresdale Water Works. Photo by Kaitlin Pluskota from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

The Disston Recreation Center (1931) in Tacony. The now prominent community gathering spot was built after the park grounds were established in 1912. Photo by Jennifer Robinson from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

Stein’s Florist (ca. 1950) on the border of Tacony and Mayfair has served the Northeast Philadelphia community since 1886. Its current location, however, is a Mid-Century adaptation of a Frankford Avenue rowhouse, with original period neon signage remaining. Photo by Jennifer Robinson from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

Mayfair Diner (1954) was established in the Mayfair neighborhood as the Morrison and Strumm boxcar eatery in 1932. There have been several remodeling efforts since settling in its current location in 1938. Photo by Kaitlin Pluskota from AECOM Technical Services, Inc., March 24, 2016

All of these resources have been documented in the North Delaware district. Despite their differences, each site helps to communicate a sense of place germane to a particular time, place, and group of people. Each serves as an anchor to the neighborhood and its history.

If found eligible for listing on the National and Philadelphia Registers of Historic Places, these properties may qualify for financial incentives related to rehabilitation work.

With North Delaware district survey worked wrapped, the Community Landmark and National Register identification efforts will continue in the Lower Northwest planning district in the coming weeks. AECOM has slated approximately 120 resources for survey in the district, including Frank Furness rowhouses, Mid-Century Modern dwellings, and WPA-era park structures in the Wissahickon area of northwest Philadelphia.

Check back this summer for more on Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative as AECOM gears up to survey historic resources in flood-hazard areas in Bedford and Cameron counties next month!

Samantha Kuntz is an Architectural Historian for AECOM Technical Services, Inc. A recent addition to the AECOM Cultural Resources Department based in Burlington, New Jersey, Ms. Kuntz is a Philly resident, former PCPC intern, and a new member of the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance Steering Committee. She has a M.S. in Historic Preservation (MSHP) and an M.A. in City and Regional Planning (MCP) from the University of Pennsylvania.

We’re back to our regular SHPO Shout-Out post this month, and I get to tell you about some great local preservation activities, two national award winners, and a cool new park in Jefferson County. Two quick things before I launch into my list of happy news: have you taken our online survey for the next statewide historic preservation plan yet? Or have you registered for the upcoming Statewide Conference on Heritage? There is still time to do both!

Buy Local, Preserve Local

I see the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” bumper stickers and magnets all over the place encouraging people to support their local merchants and farmers by spending their hard-earned dollars close to home. I think we need to add “Preserve Local” to that phrase. Sure, there are regional, statewide, and national preservation programs and efforts, but to be most successful, preservation also needs to happen at home, led by communities that want to recognize and protect the older and historic places and spaces that make their place special. Within the last few weeks, PA SHPO staff have participated in several great local preservation workshops in communities that are committed to preserving their historical and architectural treasures. I’m sure there are many more out there, so please tell me about them!

• At the Bellefonte Old House Fair, Central Region Community Coordinator Bryan Van Sweden led a walking tour and a session on historic building materials. This two-day event was funded in part by a Certified Local Government (CLG) Scholarship Grant and organized and managed by the Centre County Historical Society and the Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association. Bryan tells me that the Fair was held at the historic Match Factory, a successful example of an adaptive re-use project owned and managed by the American Philatelic Society.
• Bill Callahan, Western Region Community Coordinator, and Scott Doyle, PA SHPO’s historic tax credit reviewer, made the trip to Bradford, Mc Kean County (a great little place you may remember from this post and one of PA’s 45 CLGs) to participate in a historic preservation workshop hosted by the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford last week. This all-day workshop focused on the financing tools for historic building rehabs and a tour of a recently-completed rehab project.

  Downtown Bradford. Source: Erin Hammerstedt/Preservation Pennsylvania, 2014.

• Scott also joined folks in Huntingdon last month for their Downtown Opportunity Showcase, which was focused on economic development opportunities in Huntingdon, the historic tax credit program, and providing entrepreneurial guidance to small businesses.
• The Chester County Historic Preservation Network also held a very well-attended 2016 Spring Public Relations and Preservation50 workshop in March. This annual workshop offered some things we don’t often see at preservation conferences like effective communication strategies, dos and don’ts for dealing with the press and social media, and pros and cons of websites and how to manage them effectively.

Congrats to DCNR for their 2016 SCORP Excellence Award!

I was happy to learn a few weeks ago that DCNR won the SCORP Excellence Award from the National Park Service and the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals for the recent updates to their comprehensive plan. PA SHPO staff members Bryan Van Sweden and Andrea MacDonald served on the SCORP Technical Advisory Committee and I was happy to join them on the SCORP team to help with implementing the plan.

What is SCORP? Well, that is the Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. In Pennsylvania, DCNR’s Bureau for Recreation & Conservation takes the lead on researching, developing, updating, and implementing the plan with its dozens of planning and implementing partners. If you haven’t already, take a look at the plan called Natural Connections: Pennsylvania’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, 2014-2019 on the DCNR website to learn about how the Plan can help your community. PHMC will work with DCNR and other public and private partners on topics like heritage tourism and planning/management of historic buildings and sites in parks.

Carlisle wins the 2016 Strong Towns award!

Carlisle, PA, a small borough of 19,000 and one of Pennsylvania’s 45 Certified Local Governments, won the 2016 Strong Towns award, narrowly beating Hoboken, NJ by only 4% of the votes. The Strong Towns organization, a national non-profit dedicated to creating financially strong and resilient cities, towns, and neighborhoods through smart development, sponsored the award to celebrate and tell others about the places where “everyday people …working together to improve their neighborhoods and towns, with results to show for it.” After vetting dozens of applications from across the country, the Strong Towns settled on 16 that matched Carlisle – the only town in PA to apply – and small towns and cities, rural to urban, across the country like Boulder, CO, Pasadena, CA, Fargo, ND, and Annapolis, MD.

Community members gather at the Herberlig-Parlmer Park in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a clean up day coordinated by the West Side Neighbors Association. Photo courtesy of Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

One of the things the Strong Towns folks noted that almost all of these places had in common? Historic downtowns that they had worked hard to preserve. As a CLG, the Borough demonstrates their commitment to historic preservation and celebrating Carlisle’s many historical and architectural assets like their historic downtown. Carlisle was also one of the lucky places chosen to participate in the Orton Family Foundation’s Heart & Soul program, which is currently taking place in a number of Pennsylvania’s communities thanks to the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

Another reason to visit Jefferson County

PA SHPO staff who attended the Society Pennsylvania Archaeology (SPA) conference in April told me about this great place in Pine Creek Township, Jefferson County for an archaeology Shout-Out. The Scripture Rocks Heritage Park will have its grand opening on Saturday, June 11^th with a dedication ceremony and guided tours.

Survey of Scripture Rocks.

The Jefferson County History Center and the SPA Norfolk Chapter 29 have been working hard for 6 years to complete the Scripture Rocks Heritage Project, which is a free outdoor museum and park with miles of wooded trails that take visitors throughout the area to see the mysterious carved sandstone boulders that Douglas M. Stahlman engraved between 1910 and 1913 as part of his personal religious calling.   Visitors can use the trail guide and interpretive panels to understand the engravings and their meanings and learn about local history, lumber heritage, wildlife, geology, and a small prehistoric archaeological site. Scripture Rocks was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 and the same year received a $10,000 Keystone Historic Preservation planning grant to create a detailed cultural heritage resource site map of the Port Barnett Scripture Rock.

As always, my last SHPO Shout-Out is to thank you for all the good work you do every day to preserve, protect, and promote our historic places!

P.S.

If you or your friends and colleagues are involved in or hear about great preservation happening in Pennsylvania,

please email me at ssplain@pa.gov with your suggestions! While I can’t promise that it will get covered in the monthly Shout-Out, I can promise that we’ll add it to our growing list of great preservation work happening across Pennsylvania. Thanks!