Harrisburg, PA - The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) recently announced its Community Initiative Award recipients for work completed in 2024. The two recipients and their projects demonstrate the importance of embracing and preserving local history and the places that help tell their communities’ stories.
The Community Initiative Awards recognize the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies, and individuals whose work embodies the theme of Pennsylvania’s statewide historic preservation plan. The plan provides a framework of activities and goals that will help Pennsylvanians better understand historic preservation and its benefits, foster appreciation for Pennsylvania's rich history and shared heritage as told through historic places, and guide communities in balancing historic preservation and economic development for sustainable change.
This year’s winners are:
The Welsh Church Project, Borough of Lansford, Carbon County
The Lansford Historical Society (LHS) is recognized for its stewardship and preservation of Lansford’s historic Welsh Church.
Built in 1850 as the Welsh Congregational Church on land donated by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, 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 church 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.
Restoration of the Huntingdon Borough Clock, Borough of Huntingdon, Huntingdon County
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 borough and 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 had stopped working.
The project to restore the Borough’s clock started in 2017. Through fundraising and public funding initiatives, Huntingdon Borough, Huntingdon Presbyterian Church, Huntingdon Landmarks and the Huntingdon County Planning Department pooled their resources to fund and 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.
For more information or to see the list of past award winners, visit the Community Initiative Awards webpage.
About the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office
PA SHPO coordinates state and federal historic preservation programs including the National Register of Historic Places, state and federal tax credits, and review of state and federal projects for their impact on historic resources. For news on the PA SHPO’s preservation efforts subscribe to the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation blog.
The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission is the official history agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Learn more by visiting PHMC online or following us on Facebook, X, Instagram or LinkedIn.