Celebrating Fifty Years of State Historical Markers

by George Redman Bey

n a September day in 1946, three men stood alongside The formal marking of Bgore the erection of today's U.S. Route 22, fourteen miles east of Harrisburg, historic sites, however, was familiar state histm'al m r b s , inspecting a distinctive blue and gold sign that had not new to Pennsylvqnia. bronze plaques were aftacked- just been erected. They were James H. Duff, chairman Bronze plaques had been 0 usually with great ceremony-

of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (who in installed between 1914 and to large bould~s. four months would be inaugurated the Commonwealth's thwty- 1933 to commemorate fourth governor), and Commission members Charles G. Webb significant individuals, and Thomas F. Murphy This roadside plaque, entitled "Hanover events, and landmarks by the old Pennsylvania Historical Resolves," was the first of the state historical markers that would Commission, predecessor to the Pennsylvania Historical and eventually appear throughout Pennsylvania's sixty-seven Museum Commission (PHMC). An act of the General counties and which now-exactly a half century later-number Assembly of Pennsylvania, approved July 25,1913, established more than sixteen hundred. the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, mandating that it

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"mark by proper monuments, associated with founder tablets, or markers, places or William Penn. Many of these buildings, within this plaques highlighted Pennsyl- Commonwealth, where vania's colonial history, historical events have tran- Native American settlements spired, and . . . arrange for the and trails, frontier forts, and care and maintenance of such earlv dtarv fipUres. , - - J - 0----

markers or monuments." - Township patriots. Thev committed en plaques dedicated in During two decades, nearly 1924 heralded a new era in the

one hundred and fifty bronze program's histov. A design plaques were placed in forty- introduced by the eminent one counties. They were Philadelphia architect Pad usually dedicated in conjunc- Philippe Cret featured a tion with county or local -- distinctive mderinc of the historical or pakiotic societies. Often the dedications were impressive affairs, with carefully planned ceremonies attended by state and local officials, area residents, and school children.

The first bronze plaque, marking the site of Fort McCord in Franklin County, was jointly dedicated by the Enoch Brown Association and the Pennsylvania Historical Commission in October 1914. The following year, twenty-one plaques were dedicated-the most in any year until 1929- and induded sixteen commemorating the 1777 Battle of Brandywine in Chester and ':

~e law& Counties, and five marking events in Dauphin, Northumberland, Snyder, and Franklin Counties.

During the next eighteen years, plaques were dedicated in every year except three. Of the twenty-six plaques placed in 1929, twenty-scattered throughout Northampton, Monroe, Luzerne, North- umberland, Wyoming, and Bradford Counties-com- memorated the Sullivan Expedition of 1779. Two other special series included a group of thirteen placed in Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland, and Allegheny Counties in 1930 to mark the Forbes Road of 1758, and eight dedicated in Delaware

" Commonwealth's coat of arms. Although several wkk affixed to buildings or structures, most were attached to large stones and boulders. Both the plaques and the dedication ceremonies were usually underwritten by private contributions. JoidAg the public, state and local dignitaries, and partiapating children at the dedications were the Commission's chairman, Henry W. Shoe- maker, and its secretary, Albert Cook Myers, as well as Strong Wolf and War Eagle, each identified as an Indian chief. (Strong Wolf appeared, quite 1 incorrectly, attired in ~LLLI headdresi.) At an appropriate time in the program, Strong Wolf or War Eagle wodd offer an invocation to the Great Spirit. Attendance at some of these events numbered in the hundreds.

The eight bronze plaques placed in 1932 were followed by only one the next year. Commemorating the 1780 Sugarloaf Massacre, dedicat- ed at Conyngham, Luzerne County, in September 1933, it proved to be the last marker erected by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission. This Commission continued for twelve more years, but it concentrated on other maf& programs such as historical *

and archaeological research, c&ty and Philadelphia in publications, aiquisition and 1932 to commemorate sites restoration of historic

properties, and support of

Marking time in the Keysto~ze the endeavors of historical State-from an old bronze tablet societies. During the late

citing William Penn (top) to a twenties and thirties, the marker honoring St. James construction of straighter qnd A.M.E. Church in Erie (bottom). smoother highways accel'erat-

ed automobile speeds, and

the bronze plaques, handsome though they were, became impossible to read-and sometimes even to see-from a speeding vehicle. It became obvious that a different type of marker, better suited to a faster-paced era, was need- ed-but in Pennsylvania its inception was to await the end of World War II.

It was in the Common- wealth of Virginia in 1927 that the nation's first official marker program of the modem type was launched one that used large, double faced cast-metal signs affixe to posts alongside major highways. In 1929, Virginia's Sta Conservation and to Inscriptions on Virginia Highway Histortca 1930s, the new type of marker program began to spread s to other states and was firmly established in both North at the time differed markedly Carolina and West Virginia before the end of the decade. County and local historical

statewide or even national

Murphy, who served as In September 1947, Stevens reported that all Charles G. Webb, and E under the first contract-totaling four December meeting, Commissioners authorized the agency's hundred and ninety-seven-had been delivered and paid for executive director, Donald A. Cadzow, to ask the Department and that most had been erected. He was pressing the of Property and Supplies to solicit bids for at least five hundred markers. At the March 1946 meeting it was reported that Sewah Studios of Marietta, Ohio, had been the successful bidder for the manufacture of these large cast-aluminum markers-

Modem markers honor (from left) conservationist Rachel Carson, inventor Daniel Drawbaugh, artist Horace Pippin.

VORK TNTTRR-GTATFFAlR + z & * " * :̂i*:t~Ç¥\r̂ l <> **%-*-#-& ***. ***- 37- &t *&+%<*;p$3$f~s** -&$a: 3 $?*S+* *+:"

?< sfx tecognized as America, ; ildesi$F agricultural fair, dating $s'origii">':

-om a charter issued by the ~enn~s'1; 1765. Discontinued after 1815, the

rair has been conducted annually since 1853 by the York County Agricultural Society. The present ground has been

ised since ' tOOO

York Counts . ,

icot

Department of Highways to place the remaining markers in time for Pennsylvania Week in October.

The first edition of the Guide to the Historical Markers o f Pennsylvania, published in 1948, contained titles, texts, and locations for more than seven

Many early bronze plaques concentrated on Native American histo y, such as the Walking Purchase of 1737 (facing page).

hundred roadsidetype markers in sixty-two counties. Some of these had been manufactured under a second contract for more than three hundred roadside-type markers, which had been awarded to Sewah Studios in April 1947.

Developments in the marker program accelerated. In 1948, the PHMC authorized the production of a property- type marker (similar to the roadside type but with larger lettering and a briefer inscrip- tion) for erection at historic sites it administered. Fifty state-entrance markers (also similar to the roadside type)

m 1852 to 1875. The nearby

y the versatile clown and showman,

were approved for placement on major highways entering Pennsylvania. Smaller and cheaper were approach markers, reading "Historical Marker Ahead." Suggestive of large historical markers in appearance, they were authorized in 1950 and numbered more than two hundred by the following April.

The most important development during this period was the inception of the city-type marker. An order for the manu- facture of these markers was given in June 1949 to Lake Shore Markers, the Erie firm that would manufacture all city and roadside markers for the following forty-two years. Unlike the larger roadside markers being erected alongside highways, the city markers were designed for installation in urban areas, usually at curbside and often in front of the site described. The first fourteen of these new markers were erected in the Cumberland County seat of Carlisle between October December 1949. Sixteen markers were also installed in

December in the City Major installations of markers took place in Lancaster in 1950 and 19 Reading and Bedford in 1951, West Chester in 1952, Chambersburg in 1952 and 1953, Harrisburg, Easton, and Bethlehem in 1953, Somerset and Philadelphia in 1954, and Pittsburgh in 1958. A few city markers were also erected in smaller communities.

City markers were praised for both design and craftsman- ship by residents of the communities in which they were being erected. The PHMC nurtured public interest by

publishing, in 1952, the second edition of the Guide to the Historical Markers of Pennsylvania, containing listings for more than a thousand markers in all counties except Philadelphia. A third edition, released five years later, included the texts of more than twelve hundred roadside, property, and city markers in all sixty-seven counties. Nine years later a supplement to the third edition provided texts of eighty-one markers that had been added or, in six instances, significantly revised. As costs increased and funding diminished, the erection of markers began to decrease. However, numerous markers were erected during the 1960s and early 1970s, many of which-enjoying strong local support- were accompanied by great fanfare and impressive dedications.

Several markers dating from the program's early years would not be erected today-more often than not because they commemorated subjects that would be deemed to be of local or regional significance. Others would not be approved because of

their interpretation. And at least one was removed. The text of the "Tom Quick marker erected in June 1948 on U.S. Route 6, northeast of Milford in Pike County, read: "The Indian-slayer of leg- endary fame lived in this region. Angered by the slaying of his father, pioneer settler of Milford, in 1755, he spent the remaining forty years of his life killing Indians. His tally reached ninety-nine." After a Philadelphia!! strenuously objected to the marker in a letter to Governor Milton J. Shapp, Stevens responded on ~ e ~ t e m b e r 7, 1971,by pledging that he personally would see Fair" marker in September 1978. that the offending marker was removed. It was taken down A major series of events in the history of the marker two days later. program was driven by the statewide celebration of

By the early 1970s, several of the procedures that now guide "Pennsylvania's 300th Birthday: A Celebration of Friends," an the marker program had been initiated, including the require- eighteen month long observance commemorating the granting ment that new markers be approved by the members of the of the charter to William Perm by King Charles II on March 4, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Guidelines 1681, and the founder's arrival in his Province of Pennsylvania for approval were adopted by the PI-CMC in 1975-the year the late the following year. As part of the observance, a city marker fourth edition of the Guide was issued-and three years later was dedicated in each of the county seats (usually at the court- the most important of these criteria was revised to require "that house). The markers, funded by the Commonwealth, focused on the person, event or site to be commemorated have had a the origins and naming of the counties and their seats and meaningful impact on its times and be of statewide or natic--I included at least one distinctive fact about each county. rather than only local The first of the dedications significance.'' Markers were at took place at the Warren first approved on an individ- County Courthou& in Warren ual basis as the occasion in March 1981, and the last warranted, but by 1980 the approval of new markers was based on staff recommenda- tions. Some of these markers were approved for state funding, which had been used in almost all instances in earlier years, but, with appropriations growing increasingly limited and costs rising steadily, production of other approved markers depended on private or alternative funding. By early 1978, the Commonwealth was

- . spending more than five hundred and fifty dollars for '

a roadside marker-up from. seventy-two dollars in 1946Ã and four hundred and fifteen dollars for a city marker.

The hundreds of historical markers erected in the early years after 1946Ñunlik the bronze plaques placed between 1914 and 1933Ñwer in most cases installed without ceremony. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, a small but significant number of local participating organi-

,

erected since 1946. Topics found to have had extensive coverage were the period from 1750 to 1900, public officials (especially governors), military figures, churches (especially Presbyterian), houses and taverns predating 1900, educational institutions, forts built between 1750 and 1800, Indian paths and villages, canals (especially state-owned), forges and *

furnaces, military campaigns and battles, conflicts between Native Americans and settlers, and the French and Indian, tion, ~ u d i as jwist1Maohad A. Revolutionary, and Civil Wars Musinanff~, lyricist Oscar (but no others). Staff members also identified areas that ¥leade Bayard-ilustm, and deserved greater coverage: history since 1865 and, especially, Avenue i-ioa Station. And since 1900; minority and ethnic history; women's hisfory; agriculture and labor history; entertainers, performers, and sports figures; communications and the media; and twentieth- century architects and architecture.

In December 1987, in the most recent revision of the pro- gram's guidelines, a standard was adopted, urging "at

awarded by the William Porn Foundation to the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University financed the placement from 1990 to 1993 of sixty-five markers chronicling African American history in Philadelphia. Among these are markers commemorating sailmaker James Forten, Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, singer Paid Robeson, Freedom Theatre, opera contralto

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for the markers are keyed to numbers tin the maps that introduce the regional sections. More comprehensive than bonist Tommy Dorsey (1905- previous versions, this fifth edition of the Guide includes saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey (190 titles, texts, locations, and dates of erection (or dedica- tion) for the plaques installed by the old Pennsylvania rew up and began their musical careers Historical chnmhion in place-as well as for more than fifteen hundred markers erected by the PHMC between 1946 and 1991.

As the nineties progress, the marker program faces many new and unprecedented challenges. One is cost containment. The cost of a roadside marker has risen to nearly twelve hundred dollars, while the price of city markers has reached nine hundred dollars. (Because of spiraling c markers are increasingly being paid far by various sources.) Nevertheless, public interest in Pennsylvania's state historical marker program continues unabated, evidenced by the number that have recently been dedicated-forty-eight in 1994 and thirty-one in 1995Ñi conjunction with local organisations. Only about a third of the markers proposed each year are approved, a result of today's stringent jpiid$tu-ies.

The materials used in the productton of state historical markers have until now scarce other than the change from steel posts in the 1950s and occas

T. Morris Chester marker in Harrisburg (below). 1967 dedication of Veterans of Foreign Wars marker in Pittsburgh {right).

imagination, will be the state historical marker program's continuing challenge~and its abiding opportunity-in the years to come. +

George Redman Beyer joined the staff of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1961 Kaufmann. Widely admired and has served as coordinator o f its h~st~rt~cd marker program since its design, it is dramatically 1977. B O ~ in ,Lynchburg, cantilevered over a waterfall; Virginia, he grew up in Mamfleld, Tk<si County, 'where his father was

t exemplifies Wright's desire to a college professor fir twenty-five oin architecture with nature. years. The author holds degrees from Mansfield University and Cornell Univer*. Before assuming his present responsibili- onservancy in 1963. ties, he served as an archivist for the PUMC and directed its micrqfilm program.

The Pennsytvania Historical and Museum Commission staff welcomes comment on the state historical marker program. ~ndiind&ls who wish to report a damaged or m i s s i n g M a r k e r s . Philadelphia: The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American marker, nominate a new marker, should write: State Historical Marker Collection and The William Penn Foundation, 1992. Program, Pennsylvank Historical and Museum Commission, Post Office Box im6, Havisbuq, Pennsylvania 17108-2026; or tdephone NichO1sf-Smf f Penns*ania H i & ~ r i c a g a n d ~ ~ @ u m (71 7) 787-3034. Persons who are deaf, hard o f hearing, or qpeech Ccimmis&n: ~&tony. ffarrisburg: Pennsylmnia Historical and

impaired, who wish to contact a hearing person via Text Telephone may Museum C o r n i s h use the PA Relay Center at (800) 654-5984. Pisn y, Raymond E HistonCal Markers: A BtbS6yaphy. Vero-ny,

Va.: ~ c C f w i Press, 1977.