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Learn tips from Mindy Crawford, Executive Director of Preservation Pennsylvania, on how to save historic buildings and places that are important to you. Why try to save older buildings? Some places hold special meaning to a community or other groups. While not always possible, these places may be retained if enough people pull together and…

Melinda Meyer, Public Historian, teaches you how to properly store and preserve your organization’s materials so that these important records and artifacts are safeguarded for the future. Why spend time and money to preserve tangible materials? While many organizations are digitizing their files, protecting physical items is just as important. Scanning and photographing items allows…

The Greatest Baseball Town in America: Donora, PA!? Everybody is from somewhere. And when someone accomplishes something impressive, that place rightfully likes to celebrate. Well, the town of Donora in Washington County has A LOT to celebrate, especially in the world of Major League Baseball. Most small towns dream of producing one big sports star, but Donora produced three,…

by Sarah Collier, Executive Director, National Road Heritage Corridor When I was a junior in high school, I dropped out of AP U.S. History. This is still a surprising sentence for me to write. I was a good student, a member of the National Honor Society, and student council president. Humanities were supposed to be…

Learn what it means and how your organization can be a consulting party for PennDOT projects that include historic resources, such as buildings, bridges, and archaeological sites.  What are Section 106 and Consulting Parties? Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 requires projects using federal funds or needing federal permits to review…

The 1920 Vesta Mine Robbery In the early hours of July 13, 1920, the mining town of Richeyville, Washington County became the scene of a daring underground heist. Inside the Vesta Mine, three masked men waited in the dark for their moment. When the paymaster and foreman arrived to deliver wages to the miners, the…

Southwestern Pennsylvania has always been a crossroads of cultures. Nowhere is this more evident than in the holiday season, when old-world customs light up homes, churches, and community halls across Washington and Fayette counties. From Italian Christmas Eve feasts to Orthodox Holy Suppers and Hanukkah celebrations, the region’s holiday season reflects the diversity of its…

Learn how you can use federal and state historic tax credits to support your historic building rehabilitation project, with Angelique Bamberg. (28mins) What is a historic tax credit?  A Historic Tax Credit or (HTC) is a federal or state tax incentive that encourages private investment in the rehabilitation of historic buildings for income-producing use. The federal…

Malcolm Parcell: The Wizard of Moon Lorn Hidden among the hills near Prosperity, Washington County, Pennsylvania, stands a place that seems touched by enchantment. The cottage is called Moon Lorn, and for over sixty years it was home to Malcolm Parcell (1896–1987), one of western Pennsylvania’s most imaginative and quietly brilliant artists. Moon Lorn wasn’t…

Pennsylvania’s October Keystone: The Aster As the hills along the National Road fade from green to gold, one small flower continues to hold the landscape together: the aster. From sunlit meadows to roadside edges, native asters (members of the Symphyotrichum family) bloom when nearly everything else has gone to seed. Their violet, pink, and white…