Community Initiative Awards

The Friends of the Sheepford Road Bridge unveil their Save Our Bridge banner, June 2020.
West Shore Historical Society

Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announced the winners of its Community Initiative Awards acknowledging accomplishments made in 2022.

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 preservation in Pennsylvania.

PA SHPO considered more than 50 candidates this year from different communities across the commonwealth. The four recipients and their projects showcase a range of preservation success stories, demonstrating the value of volunteers, creativity and community engagement.

Blairsville Area Underground Railroad

An entirely volunteer organization of people from Indiana and Westmoreland counties, Blairsville Area Underground Railroad (BVUGRR) is recognized for its ongoing dedication to educating residents and visitors about an underrepresented part of the region’s history and its partnership with a local brewery to reach audiences in a creative and accessible way.

The Blairsville Area Underground Railroad and Levity Brewing Co. teamed up to release the Freedom Seeker Series of beers in 2021. This label features Lewis Johnston, an Underground Railroad conductor in Blairsville and Allegheny City.
Levity Brewing Co. / Blairsville Area Underground Railroad

BVUGRR maintains a museum, archives and history center in the former 1917 Second Baptist Church building. The history center features exhibits that examine enslavement, Indiana County’s 93 Underground Railroad conductors and stationmasters, and local African American soldiers in the Civil War. BVUGRR has also developed self-guided walking tours of Blairsville and a driving tour through Indiana County.

In 2021 BVUGRR began an innovative partnership with Indiana-based Levity Brewing Co. for the Freedom Seeker Series of beer, honoring Underground Railroad conductors and freedom seekers by featuring their images and QR codes linking to their stories on the labels. The first series featured Lewis Johnston, George Atcheson, Anthony Hollingsworth and Catherine Black. The second series will feature four more people associated with the Underground Railroad in the area.

Concord Township and the Preservation of Spring Valley AME Church

Spring Valley AME Church, prior to restoration and after exterior work was completed, February 2023.
Concord Township

Concord Township in Delaware County is recognized for its stewardship and preservation of the historic Spring Valley African Methodist Episcopal Church and outreach efforts in the local Black community. The church was built on an acre of land purchased in 1880 and was the focal point of the area’s Black community for a century. Painter Andrew Wyeth and his family attended the church, and he immortalized Spring Valley’s deacon, Andrew Davis, in his 1984 painting The Turtleneck.

By 1980 the congregation had dwindled, and the church was closed. The building sat vacant for more than two decades and was damaged by fire before Concord Township purchased the property in 2014 from a private developer. Realizing the historic value of the church, the township worked closely with its historical commission and the Concord Township Historical Society and started outreach in the area to learn more.

The effort paid off: The group discovered death certificates that alerted them to an unknown cemetery on the property and learned through ground-penetrating radar the location of unmarked graves, which they commemorated with a new monument. They also met former and descendent members of the congregation, as well as photographer Ted Goldman, who specializes in documenting local African American churches, and artist Jamie Wyeth, who attended the church as a child and wanted to be involved in the restoration project.

Concord Township received a Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund historic preservation work on the church, including exterior repairs, electrical system upgrades, and installment of a new floor, a wall, ceiling finishes and an accessible entrance.

Friends of Sheepford Road Bridge

A committee of the West Shore Historical Society, the Friends of Sheepford Road Bridge is recognized for its grassroots effort to save the historic bridge that spans the Yellow Breeches Creek between Lower Allen Township, Cumberland County, and Fairview Township, York County.

Built in 1887 by the Phoenix Bridge Co., the Sheepford Road Bridge is a 114-foot-long Pratt metal thru truss bridge. It is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for its engineering significance and retains integrity with very few changes since it was installed more than a century ago.

In late 2019 the bridge failed a routine inspection and was determined unsafe for vehicles. The Friends organized shortly after learning about the bridge’s closure and launched a “Save Our Bridge” campaign in November 2020 that included a video, website and area signs to build awareness and support. For two years, the Friends were successful in delaying removal of the bridge, working to find a new owner, and raising funds to restore it.

In April 2022 York County received $1.4 million in Transportation Alternative Set Aside funds to rehabilitate the bridge for bicycle and pedestrian use. The bridge is also one of the first to receive funds from PennDOT’s Historic Metal Truss Capital Rehabilitation Program, newly created to promote the rehabilitation of historic metal truss bridges. The West Shore Historical Society, the new stewards of the bridge, are currently planning preconstruction activities for restoring it.

Hay Creek Valley Historical Association

Hay Creek Valley Historical Association (HCVHA), a mostly volunteer organization, is recognized for exemplary stewardship of the historic Joanna Furnace and its ongoing programming.

A volunteer of the Hay Creek Valley Historical Association demonstrates in the blacksmith shop at Joanna Furnace.
Hay Creek Valley Historical Association

In 1792 Samuel Potts and three other investors opened Joanna Furnace, named after Potts’ wife, along Hay Creek in Robeson Township in southern Berks County. It was a cold-blast, single-stack, charcoal iron furnace that included a charcoal barn, tenant houses, outbuildings, and an ironmaster’s mansion. The furnace operated throughout the 19th century and closed with the death of ironmaster L. Heber Smith in 1898. The property was eventually acquired by Bethlehem Steel.

HCVHA started in 1975 as a small local history organization and in 1979 accepted the furnace property as a donation from Bethlehem Steel. By the time they became the steward of the property, many resources had been demolished, but those that remain form one of the most industrially significant sites in Berks County.

For the last four decades, HCVHA volunteers have worked diligently to reclaim and maintain Joanna’s buildings and 26 acres. A recent Keystone Historic Preservation Grant supported the stabilization of the furnace’s bosh, the firebrick lining of the lower funnelshaped section of the blast furnace where the temperatures were the hottest.

HCVHA shares the site with a wide range of visitors annually through school programs, classes, workshops, tours, archeological investigations, and the popular Hay Creek Festival each September.

Update: Fighter’s Heaven

PA SHPO’s Community Initiative Award is a metal time capsule. Recipients are encouraged to use the capsule not only to preserve photographs, documents and other memorabilia related to the effort being recognized by the award but also to encourage and foster community engagement around an important historic place.

Last year, Fighter’s Heaven, a 2019 awardee, hosted a ceremony to bury their time capsule. From 1972 to 1980 Fighter’s Heaven was Muhammed Ali’s camp in Pennsylvania where he trained for some of his most legendary victories. The time capsule includes images, articles (including the issue of Pennsylvania Heritage with a feature about Fighter’s Heaven), and other materials about the camp and its preservation by owner Mike Madden.

You can learn more about PA SHPO’s Community Initiative Awards at phmc.pa.gov/Preservation/education-outreach.

Shelby Weaver Splain is the education and special initiatives coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office.