Pennsylvania’s Architectural Heritage: The Preservation Movement in the Keystone State, 1950-1981

Posted by John Snyder on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s Architectural Heritage: The Preservation Movement in the Keystone State, 1950-1981 As the last in a four-part series about Pennsylvania s architecture, this conclusion focuses on the develop­ments which have occurred in the field of preservation over the past thirty years. Although this temporal division may seem disproportionate when com­pared with the one hundred fifty years covered in rite preceding article. it has been dictated by both the incentives and challenges to...
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September 2001 Meeting of Historic Preservation Board

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on September 2001 Meeting of Historic Preservation Board In the dizzying aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans realized that their lives would be forever changed. Terrorism even impacted the routine – and frequently mundane – ways in which business had been conducted. For its September 2001 meeting-held, incidentally, on Tuesday, September 11 – the Commonwealth’s Historic...
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Bookshelf

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf County Courthouses of Pennsylva­nia: A Guide By Oliver P. Williams Stackpole Books, 2001 (244 pages, paper, $19.95) An admitted “full-fledged courthouse junkie,” the author traces his interest in county courthouses, courthouse squares, and their immediate surroundings to a curiosity piqued by plaques, monuments, and fountains bearing witness to some aspect of local history. His...
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To Forge History for the Future

Posted by John Leighow on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on To Forge History for the Future Not infrequently, the history of how an object, artifact, or even building or structure has been preserved for the future is every bit at least as interesting as the reasons for which it was saved. Historical organizations and cultural institutions – from large city museums to county historical societies – brim with compelling “behind-the-scenes” stories that provide...
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Letters to the Editor

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Letters to the Editor Member of the Crew I found the piece about the SS United States quite interesting [see “Lost & Found,” Spring 2003]. I am privileged to have sailed on her as a member of the crew in 1962. In my Coast Guard Mer­chant Seaman’s papers, I was designated an “ordinary seaman.” This voyage was from New York to Newport News, Virginia, and back. The ship went into dry...
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PHMC Highlights

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on PHMC Highlights To celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the New Deal, the PHMC created an attractive commemorative poster. Kathleen Alsvary of the Publications and Sales Division designed the poster and Bureau for Historic Preservation historian Kenneth C. Wolensky authored the historical context appearing on the reverse. Commemorating Pennsylvania’s role in the New Deal economic recovery programs during...
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Birthplace of Commercial Ice Cream Production

Posted by PA Heritage Staff on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Birthplace of Commercial Ice Cream Production The small southern York County borough of Seven Valleys – which counted a population of 517 residents in the 2010 Census – has a lengthy history dating to the earliest German settlers in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1838 after the Northern Central Railroad Company’s line linked Baltimore, Maryland, with York, Jacob Smyser and John E. Ziegler opened the first store and...
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Advanced Technology “Rubs” the Ancient Past

Posted by Kurt Carr on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Advanced Technology “Rubs” the Ancient Past With more than 400,000 visitors, the Pennsylvania Farm Show, held each January, is a terrific opportunity to highlight the best of Pennsylvania agriculture. It’s also an exciting venue to showcase Pennsylvania archaeology and remind the public that archaeological sites are important endangered resources that need protection. Since 1980, PHMC’s Bureau for Historic Preservation and The...
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Built by the New Deal

Posted by Michael O'Malley on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Built by the New Deal With the nation mired in the grim depths of the Great Depression, industrial Pennsylvania was far from being immune to the financial instability with the closing of 5,000 manufacturing firms and the loss of 270,000 factory jobs by 1933. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched his New Deal, a series of innovative programs targeted to giving work to the unemployed, stabilizing a downward...
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Driving a Call to Action for Pennsylvania’s Historic Bridges

Posted by Susan Zacher on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Driving a Call to Action for Pennsylvania’s Historic Bridges Pennsylvania could just as easily be called the “land of bridges” as it is the Keystone State. With more than 83,161 miles of rivers and streams, there has always been a need for residents and visitors to cross water by ferry, ford, or bridge. The Commonwealth’s topography, with its mountain ranges and valleys, also require structures facilitating passage. Today, the Keystone...
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