Project:
Beaver County Heritage Plan

Location:
Beaver County, Pennsylvania

Our Role:
Inventory and create Master Plan with themes

CDC inventoried and assessed 681 historic and heritage sites in Beaver County and created a series of interpretive themes. A master plan with mapping of inventoried properties was included. The consulting team consisting of cultural resource managers, engineers, an environmental planner, and an architect will assess historic and heritage sites for the following purposes: 1) to determine the potential site significance; 2) to prepare property descriptions; 3) to accurately delineate the site on project mapping; 4) to determine property ownership; 5) to prepare recommendations for future planning purposes; 6) to define the property’s condition and identify potential environmental issues or other problems that could relate with future use, development or acquisition.

Additional Interest: The Preservation Plan provided vision and direction for promoting the county’s cultural resources and for protecting their rich heritage.

Project:
Hannas Town

Location:
Westmoreland County

Our Role:
Master Plan

The Hannas Town Archaeological Site is listed on the National Register and recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s most significant cultural resources. For more than 30 years, teams of professional and amateur archaeologists, volunteers and students have performed archaeological excavations on the site. The planning process for future excavations began with a data evaluation process followed by the preparation of a series of digital site maps. From these maps CDC participated in establishing strategic project goals and recommendations for future planning purposes. The boundaries of the Hannas Town Site and the location of potential features such as roads, privies, and two of the three forts were not known. Both Magnetometer (MAG) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys were used to plan future excavations at the site. This image shows the results of these combined surveys.

Additional Interest: MAG surveys measure and digitally record the intensity of the earth’s magnetic field. From these surveys foundations, fire or debris pits, well shafts, and other structural remains can be identified. GPR surveys produce cross sections of subsurface features and changes in soil chemistry, moisture and organic content. These differences are mapped and overlaid on a site base map.

Client:

Project:
Point State Park Master Plan

Location:
Point State Park, Pittsburgh

Our Role:
Cultural Resource Analysis/ Phase IA Archaeological Survey

CDC prepared the Cultural Resource Analysis of Point State Park as part of the Comprehensive Master Plan. Point State Park is a National Historic Landmark in the City of Pittsburgh and the analysis involved a study of past archaeological projects and recommendations for future work. The project was sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Riverlife Task Force.

Additional Interest: The cultural resources at Point State Park are of national significance and have been deeply impacted by urban development, highway construction, and the creation of the Park’s landscape. What remains of Fort Pitt, Fort Duquesne, and other archaeological resources at the Point possess a high level of historical importance not only to Pittsburgh, but to the Commonwealth and the Nation. What is viewed on the site today is an interpretation of Fort Pitt based on the work of landscape designers with the input of historians and archaeologists. Military features are reconstructed using mid-20th century bricks created by a local brickmaker based on the color and size of the original Fort Pitt bricks. Significant changes have been made to these features to accommodate the new land-use. And the Fort Pitt landscape is presented in an exclusionary manner as the park primarily interprets only one of its many occupations. Pittsburgh’s famous Point was first a significant place to Native Americans and later to the French, English, and Virginians as well as to the thousands of immigrants who moved to the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Point also was significant to the region’s industrial powers.