Happy Preservation Month!

May is Preservation Month! Join us in celebrating the preservation of special Pennsylvania places all this month! Preservation Pennsylvania has put together a few ideas to help get you inspired.

Centers for Innovation: Westinghouse R&D Center and Bell Labs Holmdel

This is a two part webinar that will explore two major examples of midcentury corporate campus design, once home to innovative thinkers who helped forge technologies that shaped modern America. One is vacant and was nearly demolished for warehouse development. The other has been re-envisioned, revitalized and reopened as Bell Works, a thriving mixed use community hub.

Pittsburgh’s Immaculate Conception Church

Pittsburgh’s Immaculate Conception Church was added to Preservation Pennsylvania’s Pennsylvania At Risk in 2022, after the church was closed by the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh. The building faces several challenges, including intense development pressure, pressing maintenance issues, and the challenges of finding an appropriate reuse. While Pittsburgh has a number of outstanding houses of worship in various styles, the Immaculate Conception Church is unlike any other religious building in the region.

WEBINAR: Historic Real Estate with Whitney Martinko

June’s webinar featured Dr. Whitney Martinko discussing her book Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States. The webinar was presented in partnership with our colleagues at the Preservation League of New York State. If you weren’t able to attend, watch the webinar recording.

WEBINAR RECAP: Save It! Start It! Build It!: How to Access American Rescue Plan Funds for Historic Preservation & Economic Development

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) offers a historic opportunity for counties and local municipalities to invest in local projects, programs and organizations. This webinar will explain why and how you can find funding for historic preservation and economic redevelopment projects in your community. Presented by Pennsylvania Downtown Center and Preservation Pennsylvania.

Save It! Start It! Build It! How to Access American Rescue Plan Funds for Historic Preservation & Economic Development

WEBINAR: East Broad Top Railroad: Revival of a National Historic Landmark

Join us to ride the rails (via webinar) and learn about the East Broad Top Railroad (Rockhill Furnace, Huntingdon County). Once called “the dormant gem of railway preservation,” the EBT RR is a rare narrow-gauge railway and time capsule of industrial technology.

WEBINAR: Historic Real Estate with Whitney Martinko

In Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States, Whitney Martinko shows how Americans in the fledgling United States pointed to evidence of the past in the world around them and debated whether, and how, to preserve historic structures as permanent features of the new nation’s landscape.

Webinar: Landmarks We Love

This online tour by Preservation Pennsylvania Executive Director (and author of Historic Pennsylvania: A Tour of the State’s Top 100 National Historic Landmarks) is sure to add some new places to your “must visit” travel itinerary.

Apply for the Louis J. Appell, Jr., Preservation Fund for Central Pennsylvania

The Louis J. Appell, Jr., Preservation Fund for Central Pennsylvania, jointly administered by Preservation Pennsylvania and the National Trust for Historic Preservation is designed to encourage preservation at the local level and provides money for the maintenance and preservation of historic places in Central Pennsylvania.

The Relevancy Project: Keynote by Bonnie McDonald

Preservation Pennsylvania welcomed Bonnie McDonald, President & CEO of Landmarks Illinois, to give the keynote talk at our 2021 Honor Awards. The Relevancy Project is a forward-looking effort to catalogue the issues and challenges of the preservation field as it exists and to instigate change to help build a more relevant and just movement.

Mod Betty’s Whirlwind Tour of Pennsylvania

Preservation Pennsylvania recently hosted Mod Betty of Retro Roadmap for a whirlwind tour of Pennsylvania. For the full-capacity free webinar, she divulged the niftiest spots to visit in each of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties. The event was sponsored by Lincoln Highway Legacy.

Tour PA’s retro best in just one hour with Mod Betty!

Join us for a whirlwind tour via Zoom on Thursday, June 8, when Mod Betty of Retro Roadmap will reveal her #1 retro pick for each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.

Celebrate Barns!

We celebrated barn preservation and a new issue of USPS postcard stamps with a webinar. Here’s a link to the replay, the Pennsylvania breakout room and a round-up of barn preservation-related resources.