Dauphin County Historic Narrative

Strawley, Candice; Yocum, Philip; Osborn, Christina; Hulit, Elissa; Harvey, Benjamin; Stanilla, Michael

Introduction: "As part of the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) was award $1.5 million from the National Park Service to assist with the stabilization and repair of historic resources damaged by Hurricane Sandy, and to support disaster-related planning initiatives for historic resources. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania State Standard All-Hazard Mitigation Plan has identified flooding as the leading natural hazard threatening the built environment in Pennsylvania communities. In part to help plan for future flooding events, the PA SHPO retained Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. (Commonwealth) to conduct a reconnaissance-level historic resource survey in Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry Counties in support of the Disaster Planning for Historic Properties Initiative. This survey project, known as the Tri-County Historic Resource Survey (Tri-County Survey), will survey and inventory properties 45 years in age or older located within the 100-year and 500-year floodplain, as defined by FEMA. For this project, Commonwealth has also partnered with cultural resources staff from ACS Group's Harrisburg office. The project will take place in three stages, one for each of the three counties. The Dauphin County Historic Narrative represents the first in a series of research and planning documents that will be used to guide the selection of historic resources for the Tri-County Survey. This report will examine Dauphin County's historical development in the context of natural disasters, specifically the impact of flooding on the local community's historic resources. The information will be used to identify priority areas for survey to be more fully described in a separate report known as the Dauphin County Survey Plan. The project Scope of Work provided a preliminary analysis of at-risk communities in Dauphin County. The analysis identified the municipalities within the county which have the greatest potential risk to historic properties from a flooding event. The analysis compared the number of tax parcels in each municipality, which contained buildings over 45-years in age and were also located within the 100-year and 500-year floodplains..." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office, Historical and Museum Commission, administered by the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (grant number P18AF00110).

Dauphin County Historic Narrative

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