The Eighth Community Initiative Awards

Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announced the winners of its Community Initiative Awards acknowledging accomplishments made in 2024.

The Community Initiative Awards program recognizes the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies and individuals that advance and expand the definition of historic preservation in Pennsylvania. Launched in 2016 for the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, the Community Initiative Awards is now an annual program. Each year the list of candidates has grown from a few staff suggestions to dozens and dozens of different places and projects across the commonwealth.

The two 2024 winners and their projects demonstrate the importance of embracing and preserving local history and the places that help tell their communities’ stories.

Huntingdon Presbyterian Church after the restoration of the 1911 clock face in 2024.
Huntingdon Landmarks

Restoration of the Huntingdon Borough Clock

Huntingdon Borough, Huntingdon Presbyterian Church, Huntingdon Landmarks, and the Huntingdon County Planning Department are recognized for their successful collaboration to restore and reinterpret the 1911 borough clock.

For 143 years, a clock in the Huntingdon Presbyterian Church steeple marked time for residents in the small Huntington County seat. Through an agreement between Huntingdon Borough and the church, the first clock was installed in 1873 and replaced after a fire in 1911 with a Seth Thomas clock. In the 1950s the borough changed the clock’s operation from mechanical to electrical, but by 2016 the clock stopped working.

The project to restore the clock began in 2017. Through fundraising and public funding initiatives, the four groups pooled their resources to manage the restoration work. In 2022 they hired Balzer Family Clock Works of Freeport, Maine, to return the clock to like-new condition. While the clock face was restored in the steeple, the 1911 mechanism was installed inside the church’s main doors to engage the community in this piece of local history through its new, visible location.

In 2020, members of the Lansford Historical Society began working on the church’s wood clapboards.
Lansford Historical Society

The Welsh Church Project

The Lansford Historical Society (LHS) in Lansford, Carbon County, is recognized for its stewardship and preservation of the borough’s historic Welsh Church.

Built in 1850 as the Welsh Congregational Church on land donated by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co., the building has held an important place in the local community for 175 years and is the second oldest Welsh Congregational Church in Pennsylvania. The congregation and its Welsh Congregational Church Preservation Society restored the building in 1985, but a 2009 fire left significant exterior and interior damage.

In 2018, after learning that the church was slated for imminent demolition, LHS mobilized their resources to purchase the building and begin stabilization work. Over the past several years, they have invested in stabilizing and restoring the Welsh Church and reconnecting the community with this local landmark. LHS continues to raise funds to complete the church’s restoration and share their work at events like the North American Festival of Wales.

Past Award Winner Updates

Last fall, Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County, had a ceremony at Slate Hill Cemetery to celebrate their Community Initiative Award and share their progress cleaning and restoring grave markers and rolling out their education program. Elected officials, PHMC members, and people from the Lower Makefield community had a chance to learn more about the cemetery and the township’s work.

PA SHPO’s Jennifer Thornton presented Bob Joyce from the Titusville Iron Works in Titusville, Crawford County, with a PA SHPO Community Initiative Award for the work he and his team accomplished. They turned the historic industrial property into a multipurpose community gathering spot with a bar, restaurant, museum and event venue, preserving a part of Titusville’s history and spurring revitalization of the city’s downtown.

Members of the Nicholson Heritage Association in Nicholson, Wyoming County, received a Community Initiative Award for their rehabilitation of the 1849 Nicholson Train Station as the area’s new visitor center.

These award winners were highlighted in the Fall 2024 issue of Pennsylvania Heritage.

Shelby Weaver Splain is the survey and education supervisor for the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office.