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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Trailheads

Posted by on Dec 1, 2021 in | Comments Off on Trailheads When we rang in 2021, Pennsylvania’s Trails of History sites had been closed to the public for nine months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maintenance and security staff had continued to report to sites to perform their duties, while others of us had adapted to telework. The new year dawned with hope of spring reopenings, and on April 30 sites implemented new public schedules designed to ease...
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Artful Trails

Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Artful Trails In honor of the 50th Art of the State exhibition, open through September 10, 2017, at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, we’re exploring art at other historic sites and museums along PHMC’s Pennsylvania Trails of History. As visual storytellers, our sites employ a multidisciplinary approach to documenting and sharing Pennsylvania heritage. Artworks frequently play a role in the study...
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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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Pithole City

Posted by on Apr 12, 2016 in | Comments Off on Pithole City At first sight, there is not much to Pithole City 150 years after it was established. There are cellar holes, a grass-covered but visible street grid, a 1972 visitor center and interpretive guideposts. The property today looks much the same as when it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 1973, for its significance to industrial history. It is amazing to think that...
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Civil War Frying Pan at Drake Well Museum

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in | Comments Off on Civil War Frying Pan at Drake Well Museum The Reverend Darius S. Steadman (1831–1907), born in Columbus, Warren County, along U.S. Route 6 in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, was licensed to preach in 1857. He served congregations in Clarion County before being commissioned, on October 7, 1861, a captain and chaplain of the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (PVI) known as the Wild Cat Regiment. The unit was raised in Jefferson, Clarion...
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Warren County: Gem of the Alleghenies

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Warren County: Gem of the Alleghenies “To the south … an expanse of arable land upon the gentle slope from the volley to the distant heights, dotted with green fields, waving grain, fruitful orchards and farm buildings with ever and anon an oasis of growing timber, remnants of the dense growth of stately pine and hemlock that formerly forested the region, present an alluring scene of beauty and grandeur, excelling...
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Pennsylvania Architectural Heritage: The Preservation Movement in the Keystone State, 1800-1950

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Architectural Heritage: The Preservation Movement in the Keystone State, 1800-1950 The primary focus of this series of four articles is the architectural heritage of Pennsylvania through the past three centuries. However, in the context of history, architecture is neither an isolated creation nor an assured cultural resource for the future. As buildings ore the products of the interaction of many facets of a society, so. too, the preservation of architecture is the result of...
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John Wilkes Booth and the Land of Oil

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on John Wilkes Booth and the Land of Oil Beginning about 10:25 on the evening of April 14, 1865, the time and date President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Washington’s Ford Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, a mass of information including evidence and myths has accumulated regarding the act and those connected with it, particularJy about the assassin him­self. John Wilkes Booth was the ninth of ten children born to Junius...
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Tioga County: A Last Frontier

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Tioga County: A Last Frontier Fallbrook, Hoytville, Landrus and Leetonia are names that evoke memories of the past for some Tiogans, while for others, build­ings or a place on a map serve as re­minders of what has been. These names are evidence of the establish­ment, growth and demise of economic centers – coal mines, lumber mills and tanneries – important in Tioga County’s past. Today, these enterprises...
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