SALTSBURG -- Indiana County's most southeastern borough is the first in the county to be recognized as a Preserve America Community, under a federal program that supports local historic preservation as a way to share knowledge about the nation's past while boosting local pride and economic vitality.
Saltsburg will celebrate its new designation by unveiling an official "Preserve America" community sign at 5 p.m. Saturday, during annual Heritage Days activities along the town's historic canal bed.
Borough officials have yet to settle on the most appropriate spot for permanently displaying the sign. After all, most of Saltsburg's downtown already is recognized as an historic district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Saltsburg Mayor Ron Wagner Sr. also received a letter and signed certificate from First Lady Laura Bush, the honorary chair of the Preserve America initiative.
More importantly, Saltsburg will be mentioned in Preserve America postings to state tourism offices and on a Web-based directory, as well as in National Register Travel Itineraries and educational materials created by the National Park Service. Also, it will be eligible to apply for Preserve America matching grants that can be used for research, planning, marketing and interpretation in local heritage and tourism efforts.
While such grants could not be used for "bricks and mortar" projects to actually restore historic structures, mentioning Preserve America status can add weight to applications submitted to other preservation funding sources, noted Leann Chaney, a borough grant consultant who prepared Saltsburg's Preserve America application.
"It enhances (Saltsburg's) opportunity for funding when they apply for other programs," Chaney said of the Preserve America designation. "It raises their profile."
According to Chaney, Saltsburg's strong track record of commitment to historic preservation and its wealth of significant older buildings made it a natural for inclusion in the Preserve America program.
"They had everything in place to apply for this designation," she said. "They met the criteria without question."
Saltsburg met one of the criteria by having an historic district in place.
The district contains about 130 buildings, a number of which date from the town's boom era of the mid 19th century, when it was a primary stop along the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal, or from the Victorian era of the later 1800s.
The borough building itself, located on upper Point Street, is a restored station along one of the later railroad lines that succeeded the canal as a major transportation route.
Other important buildings on lower Point Street, which crosses the historic canal bed and head toward the Kiskiminetas River, include the Rebecca M. Hadden Stone House Museum, a canal-era structure from 1830 with additions that serves as headquarters for the Saltsburg Historical Society, and Altman's Mill, a former grist mill that still contains its operational equipment. The latter structure is now home to the Saltsburg River and Trail business.
William Greenacre currently is chairman of Saltsburg's nine-member Historic Architecture Review Board, which meets monthly, when needed, to review plans for any exterior alterations or additions to buildings in the historic district that would be visible from a public street. He said the board's intent is to help owners "keep or bring back the historical elements of their buildings," while considering if the alterations would clash with the historic atmosphere of the downtown area.
If an owner replaces windows in a building in the historic district, HARB requests that the new windows be consistent with the shape and dimension of the old ones, Greenacre explained.
The presence of an active HARB panel is another point that helped qualify Saltsburg for Preserve America status. The board advises borough council, which makes the decision on whether or not to grant a given building permit in the historic district. Permits for alterations affecting the interior of a building are under the jurisdiction of the county planning office, which serves as a consultant to the borough.
As part of the Preserve America qualifying process, Chaney also cited a recent historic preservation effort in Saltsburg--an interpretive landscaping project that traces for onlookers the outlines of the former Lock No. 8 in the North Park section of the canal bed.
Jack Maguire, who is treasurer and former president of the Saltsburg Historical Society, indicated the society served as a consultant on that project.
Maguire also has drawn upon his background as a civil engineer and his interest in history to work on another preservation project with other volunteers that including Harold Shetter of Loyalhanna Township, who is experienced in the construction field.
With $5,000 for materials, provided by the Pittsburgh 250 organization, the volunteers have partially completed work to stabilize the former W.R. McIllwain Store and Warehouse near the canal bed on Point Street. Maguire said a fire-damaged rear garage addition to the borough-owned structure, popularly but erroneously known as the "mule barn," has been removed.
The project also is addressing structural members on the outside of the building that have deteriorated through water damage and infestation.
Still, Maguire said, "It's a very strong, old timber-framed building. Huge oak timbers support the building, like a barn."
He expects the stabilization work to be completed by early November and is hopeful additional funding can be found to eventually restore the building's storefront to its original appearance, documented in an 1880s photo in the historical society's collection.
Maguire and Greenacre mentioned two other historic buildings that currently are undergoing restoration work. Adjacent to the "mule barn," a building dating from the 1880s that formerly housed the P. D. Shupe hardware store is being revitalized by owners John and Stephanie Molyneaux. The first floor now houses a country craft store, while the owners have considered using the top floor as apartments.
A block away, on Washington Street, HARB member Robert Sekora is working to restore a stone house at 214 Washington Sr. that reportedly was constructed in 1827 and has a facade similar to that of the Rebecca Hadden museum.
Chaney currently is helping Blairsville Borough also apply for Preserve America status.
