Irish-Townsend House

Posted by on Jun 11, 2025 in | Comments Off on Irish-Townsend House In 2021, members of the New Brighton Historical Society (NBHS) learned that the asking price on the Irish-Townsend House had been slashed by 50 percent. The historic building had been sitting empty and deteriorating for years, and its out-of-state owner wanted to sell. Mike Spratt, president of NBHS, took the walkthrough with the realtor. “The [NBHS] leadership team was amazed how much of the...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director Yesterday, I attended a birthday party for a very special deer — the Court House Deer — who makes his home outside the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. This statue, which just celebrated its 158th birthday, was recently conserved through funding in part by a Keystone Historic Preservation grant from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. It is very different from most of...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director The American philosopher Edward S. Casey examines the ideas of place in Western thought. Although much of his work is a challenging read, he wrote the following in very plain language: “Whatever is true for space and time, this much is true for place: we are immersed in it and could not do without it. . . . We are surrounded by places. We walk over them and through them. We live in places,...
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Cambria City

Posted by on Nov 29, 2021 in | Comments Off on Cambria City Nestled between a bend in the Conemaugh River and a steep bluff, Cambria City is a distinctive, dense neighborhood that tells the story of hundreds of immigrants who came to work in Pennsylvania’s steel mills and coal mines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Following the founding of the Cambria Iron Works in 1852, investors purchased land across the river from the mill, subdivided it,...
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PA-SHARE Strengthens Preservation in the 21st Century

Posted by on Jun 7, 2021 in | Comments Off on PA-SHARE Strengthens Preservation in the 21st Century   It has been more than 50 years since the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) was created. Over the past half century, PA SHPO has helped thousands of Pennsylvanians, municipalities and partners through state and federal historic preservation programs like the National Register of Historic Places, Historic Tax Credits, Pennsylvania Historical Markers, Keystone Grants,...
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Community Initiative Awards Honor Historic Preservation Successes

Posted by on Mar 25, 2021 in | Comments Off on Community Initiative Awards Honor Historic Preservation Successes The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) has announced its Community Initiative Awards for 2020. These awards recognize individuals, organizations, municipalities, agencies and others for their hard work and dedication in achieving preservation successes throughout the commonwealth. The awards are a program of PA SHPO’s innovative statewide historic preservation plan,...
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Community Initiative Award Recipients Featured in PA SHPO Videos

Posted by on Feb 25, 2020 in | Comments Off on Community Initiative Award Recipients Featured in PA SHPO Videos A core mission of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) is to educate the public regarding state and federal preservation programs. The production of testimonial videos is one way in which PA SHPO shares preservation’s positive outcomes and its importance for Pennsylvania’s many diverse communities. In 2018 PA SHPO honored three organizations with Community Initiative...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director For almost six years it has been my privilege and honor to serve as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC). This July I will complete my 50th year of public service as an educator, historian, museum director and preservationist. I can think of no better way to spend a life than in promoting and protecting America’s history and culture. It is very...
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Seeing the Light at Glen Foerd on the Delaware

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Seeing the Light at Glen Foerd on the Delaware Visitors to Glen Foerd on the Delaware marvel at the decorative plasterwork that surrounds the domed, stained-glass laylight crowning the mansion’s central staircase. On tours they see, from their vantage point on the third-floor landing, beams of light pouring in through the 15-foot interior skylight, bringing into sharp relief the buttery yellow plaster with inlays. But until last...
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Lost and Found

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lost and Found Lost In bold defiance of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which required citizens to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves, Quaker abolitionist Thomas Bon­sall offered sanctuary to escaping slaves on his farm in West Caln Township, Chester County. Bon­sall, a stationmaster on the Underground Railroad for thirty years, secreted southern run­aways in the second-floor granary of his bank barn, a stop...
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