Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Fall 2025

Posted by on Dec 1, 2025 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Fall 2025 Topics in the Fall 2025 Newsletter: PHF Scholarship Fund Awards Selected PHF Welcomes New President Markosky PHF Recognizes President Fisher’s Service PHF Announces New Board Member Join Us on a Bucks County Adventure Fall-20250-PHF-Newsletter...
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The Seventh Annual Community Initiative Awards

Posted by on Nov 18, 2024 in | Comments Off on The Seventh Annual Community Initiative Awards Each May, to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announces the winners of its annual Community Initiative Awards. PA SHPO started the awards program in 2016 to recognize the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies and individuals that advance and expand the definition of historic...
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Historic County Prisons in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on Historic County Prisons in Pennsylvania This 1906 postcard shows the castle-like Montgomery County Prison in Norristown. It has stood guard over the city since it was first built on Airy Street in 1851. The building was designed by notable Philadelphia architect Napoleon LeBrun (1821–1901), who was also responsible for the 1852 Schuylkill County Prison and numerous churches, courthouses and other important public buildings. LeBrun was...
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A Gem in Bucks County: Pearl S. Buck International at 60

Posted by on Mar 29, 2024 in | Comments Off on A Gem in Bucks County: Pearl S. Buck International at 60   To many Pennsylvanians, the name Pearl S. Buck is familiar as a famous past resident. Some know her as the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good Earth and a Nobel laureate in literature. Others are aware of her as the founder of a child adoption agency, a civil rights activist, and a humanitarian. All these attributes in and of themselves are accurate descriptions of this notable...
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Perkasie Park Camp Meeting

Posted by on Jul 24, 2023 in | Comments Off on Perkasie Park Camp Meeting Pennsylvania’s religious groups have long sought peace in gatherings away from the commonwealth’s bustling cities. In the 19th century, this led to a rise in camp meetings across the state, especially among the pietist sects. Located in Bucks County, the Perkasie Park Camp Meeting was founded in 1882, when nine investors agreed to purchase property and form a camp meeting association. The first...
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A Place for All: Three Stories of Integration in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Sep 12, 2022 in | Comments Off on A Place for All: Three Stories of Integration in Pennsylvania The American Civil Rights Movement focused public attention on segregation in the South and the laws and practices that kept Southern Blacks disenfranchised. By the late 1950s places such as Montgomery, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Greensboro, North Carolina, had become household names in the battle to dismantle the racial caste system of “Jim Crow.” But discrimination based on race, much...
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The Legacy of George Way

Posted by on Mar 14, 2022 in | Comments Off on The Legacy of George Way On February 2 this year, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of winter. We’ll know soon whether or not he was correct. But regardless of the weather, this is the time of year that we mark the anniversary of Pennsylvania’s founding. In March 1681 King Charles II of England granted land on the east coast of North America to William Penn as repayment for funds...
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A Gift to America: Maxo Vanka and the Millvale Murals

Posted by on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off on A Gift to America: Maxo Vanka and the Millvale Murals “This is my gift to America,” declared Croatian artist Maksimilijan “Maxo” Vanka (1889–1963) in 1941, when he completed a vast mural cycle for a small Catholic church in Millvale, Pennsylvania, a working-class town just across the river from Pittsburgh. A recent émigré, Vanka had not yet been in the United States a full decade when he completed the 4,500 square feet of wall painting for St....
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William Penn’s Side Chair

Posted by on Dec 13, 2016 in | Comments Off on William Penn’s Side Chair Pennsylvania founder and first proprietor William Penn lived in his colony for a total of only four years during two trips of two years each, 1682-84 and 1699-1701. Even before his first visit he had engaged his agent to purchase from the Lenapes land along the Delaware River that would become Pennsbury Manor, intended to be his permanent summer home in America. As fate would have it, however,...
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Remember Dec. 7th

Posted by on Sep 9, 2016 in | Comments Off on Remember Dec. 7th After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and Congress’ declaration of war on Japan the following day, the U.S. officially entered World War II. As the nation moved into full-force mobilization, the government initiated a propaganda effort to boost morale and patriotism. Several wartime agencies produced and disseminated propaganda, including the Office of War Information (OWI)...
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