There are many types of historic landscapes to consider as cultural resources. They may be urban, rural or suburban or agricultural, recreational, institutional, industrial, cemeterial, or residential in nature. Some historic landscapes may represent important military battles or engagements, such as the Brandywine Battlefield or the Gettysburg Battlefield. Even scenic highways and rivers can be considered as part of historic landscapes. Some historic landscapes are significant because of their association with historic events, activities or persons. Some are significant for the design aesthetic they embody as the work of a master landscape architect or gardener or horticulturalist. Other landscapes are significant for the vernacular tradition they represent. Ethnographic landscapes contain a variety of natural and cultural resource associated with a particular people.

Looking at landscapes, rather than individual buildings or properties allows us to more fully understand the significance of the historic event or theme. Many properties may lack sufficient architectural integrity for individual eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places, but as part of a larger resource may contribute to a historic district or historic landscape. Looking at the big picture of historic landscapes has changed the way historic resources are evaluated and understood. The National Park Service offers two informative publications on this topic, National Register Bulletin #18 "How to Evaluate and Nominate Designed Historic Landscapes," and Preservation Brief #36 "Protecting Cultural Landscapes:Planning, Treatment and Management of Historic Landscapes." Both publications and a host of others on related topics are available online via the NPS website at www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins and www.cr.nps.gov/hps/tps/briefs/presbhom.htm.

Historic landscapes, just as all historic resources, have character-defining features which help identify the presence of and boundaries for the resourcea historic landscape. In historic landscapes, character-defining features might include: vegetation patterns, topography, water features such as streams, ponds, rivers and fountains, roads, paths , steps, walls, buildings, fences, benches, lights and sculpture. Different types of historic landscapes obviously will have different character-defining features. The important components of a historic battlefield will be far different from those of a historic park or college campus or a rural village or agricultural landscape.

Urban Historic Landscapes

Urban landscapes may include both commercial, residential and industrial resources, but are always densely developed. Many urban historic districts encompass all those themes. A historic district may include the city's commercial core or Main Street, its historic residential neighborhoods, and perhaps industrial facilities that provided the impetus for the growth of the community. An urban landscape has certain common features that help define it. Setback from the street, height and width of buildings, public spaces, landscape features and the layout of street gridwork are all important elements in an urban landscape. Character defining features like fenestraton patterns, building materials, and architectural styles help create a sense of place and define a historic district. When too many changes to the urban landscape have occurred, such as inappropriate alterations to historic buildings, demolitions creating gaps in the streetscape, or the construction of infill buildings that are of disproportionate size or scale, the pattern of the urban settlement has changed and an intact historic urban landscape is no longer present.

Carlisle Streetscape, Cumberland Co.	Carlisle Commercial District Streetscape, Cumberland Co.
Carlisle Streetscape, Cumberland Co.	Allentown Streetscape, Lehigh Co.

Broad Street, Philadelphia

Suburban Historic Landscapes

Only recently have we begun to look at suburban landscapes as potential historic resources. While urban or rural historic districts ususally involve older resources, suburban landscapes of 20th century buildings can be both historic and significant. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries some neighborhoods were developed as "streetcar suburbs," extending residential settlements into those areas served by this form of urban transportation. These clusters of turn of the century or early 20th century houses often have architectural merit as fine collections of the styles popular in that era, especially Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and Craftsman or Bungalow styles. Tree lined streets and landscaped parks and public areas area an important component of such suburban historic districts. Many of the communities that developed along the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad west of Philadelphia are identifiable as such turn of the century historic surburban landscapes. Other planned surburban neighborhoods developed as part of the early 20th century City Beautiful movement - a nationwide effort to beautify the urban environment and provide improved recreational and public works amenities. With its formally styled homes set into a lavishly landscaped, naturalistic environment, the Bellevue Park Historic District in Harrisburg is an excellent example of this effort. Designed in 1910 by Warren Manning, a prominent landscape architect who had previously worked with Frederick Law Olmstead, Bellevue Park incorporates all the elements of a early landscaped suburban neighborhood: curvilinear streets, underground utilities, created and natural ponds, streams and parks, and architect designed homes executed in the popular revival styles of the early 20th century. In the midst of this designed suburban landscape is "Breeze Hill," the 1873 Italianate Villa mansion once owned by J. Horace McFarland, a local civic leader, investor in the development of Bellevue Park and national force in both the City Beautiful movement and the natural landscape conservation efforts. The plan of Bellevue Park represents the work of two visionary leaders in this field.

As all the post World War II suburbs turn 50 years old, rendering them potentially eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, new attention is being paid to what constitutes a historic surburban landscape or district. Levittown in Bucks County is a classic example of a historically significant post WWII surburban landscape. At the time of its creation, it represented a new approach to residential development, involving dependence on the automobile, affordable housing that could be quickly built to accommodate the booming post-war baby boom population, curving roads, shopping centers-- not historic downtowns, and neighborhood recreational amenities like parks, pools and playgrounds. While many of the original homes of Levittown have been altered and expanded in the years since their construction in the 1940s and 1950s, the overall plan and layout of the community is still discernable. Historic as the story of Levittown is, it also represents the beginning of "suburban sprawl," a practice where large tracts of previously agricultural land are swallowed up to create residential neighborhoods far removed from the traditonal urban core. The many surburban developments that followed the successful Levittown formula may or may not have historic merit. An understanding of the overall context of such development, and the planning, design features, architectural significance and degreee of intactness of the area under consideration are required to determine the historic value of each surburban neighborhood. For help in identifying historic surburban landscapes and resources consult the National Register Bulletin Historic Residential Suburbs, a extensive and well-researched study on this topic, available online at www.cr.nps.gov.nr/publications/bulletins/suburbs/suburbs-start.htm.

Four Square Houses, Oil City, Venango Co.

Bungalow, Camp Hill, Cumberland Co.

Agricultural Historic Landscapes

Evaluating a farmstead for agricultual significance requires examination of the inter-relationship of the buildings to one another and the surrounding open space. The farm fields, hedgerows, natural land features and the placement of buildings are all important elements to consider. A farm complex may contain numerous primary buildings and outbuildings of varying eras. Common agricultural buildings in Pennsylvania include farm houses, barns, tenent houses, milk houses, silos, smokehouses, springhouses, root cellers, wash houses, summer kitchens, outhouses, stables, carriage houses, mushroom houses and chicken coops. It is necessary to evaluate each farmstead in context to the surrounding agricultural area. Toward that effort the PHMC and PADOT have undertaken an extensive study of historic agricultual patterns in the various regions of the state to better understand differences and commonalities. Common patterns may be noted such as the location of the house and barn accross the road from one another, type of farm house or barn erected, typical acreage of each farm, number or assortment of outbuildings and crops produced. Looking at farmsteads within a larger context allows us to better evaluate individual resources and to look for broader historic resouces as well. Rural historic districts are comprised of a number of farmsteads which viewed as a single landscape, reflect the historic agricultural patterns of the area. While in Pennsylvania's more rural, more agricultural past, broad areas of uninterrupted agricultural use would have been very common, today, with encroaching development, intact rural historic districts are more rare. One of the most distinctive rural historic districts indentified in Pennsylanial is the Brush Valley Rural Historic District in Centre County. This large district is defined by a bowl-shaped plateau of fertile agricultural land, resting on limestone bedrock. The land features clearly define this area and create common agricultural practices within that make it a discernable and distinctive district. It can be more difficult to establish clear boundaries for other rural historic districts without such pronounced geographic features. Sometimes those previously much larger agricultural areas have been pared down by modern development, or altered by highway and road construction. Evaluation requires not just research into the historic agricutural practices of the area, photographs of all contributing structures and aerial views of the landscape, but site visits to fully experience the setting or feeling of the district. Another issue to consider in the assessment of rural agricultural landscapes is evidence of ethnographic cultural significance, such as the Amish presence throughout central and southeast Pennsylvania. This concept of traditional cultural properties has most often been applied to Native American settlements, but may also apply to other cultures whose folkways and land use patterns are distinctive. National Register Bulletin #30 "Guidlines for Evaluating and Documenting Rural Historic Landscapes" available at www.cr.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb30 and National Register Bulletin "Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Traditional Cultural Properties" are good resources to better understand these issues.

Agricultural Landscape, Chester Co.

Farm Complex, Lancaster Co.

Farm Complex, Mifflin Co.

Industrial Historic Landscapes

Industrial historic landscapes exist throughout the state and take a wide variety of forms. Each industry depending upon its purpose, date of construction, size, level of production and geographic location has a distinctive historic appearance. Industrial landscapes might include early iron forges, such as Cornwall Iron Furnace in Lebanon County or steel mill complexes such as Bethlehem Steel Company in Steelton, Dauphin County or Bethlehem, Lehigh County. Other industrial historic landscapes might include bituminous and anthracite mining complexes, glass, textile, or brick factories, and railroad complexes like the Enola Yards in Cumberland County or the Sayre Railroad Yard in Sayre, Bradford County. Brewery complexes such as those found in the Brewerytown Hictoric District in Philadelphia or the Yuengling Brewery in Pottstown are also examples of historic industrial landscapes. Industrial complexes are made up of a variety of special purpose buildings, usually surrounded by specific landscape features important to each industry-- rivers or streams for water power or shipping access, railroad lines for product transportation, proximinity to natural resources like coal veins or underground minerals. Sometimes worker housing is a part of the historic industrial landscape and included within the historic district boundaries for the resource. Groups of related industries may form historic districts as well, such as the clusters of knitting mills in Reading.

Silk Mill, Nazareth, Northampton Co.

Clear Spring Mill, York Co.

Globe Knitting Mills, Montgomery Co.

Moravian Tileworks, Doylestown, Bucks Co.

Breaker #4, Eckley Miners Village, Luzerne Co.

Recreational Historic Landscapes

Historic landscapes also include recreational facilities such as state and local parks, trails, golf courses, formal gardens and horticultural parks and amusement parks. Planned amenities, such as man-made lakes, fishing docks, nature trails, picnic or camping pavillions, dance halls, club houses, cabins and amusement park rides can all be elements in a historic recreational landscape. Kennywood Park in Allegheny County is a historic amusement park created in 1898 and now a National Historic Landmark. Early golf courses like the Merion Golf Club in Delaware County and the Longue Vue Club and Golf Course in Allegheny County are considered historic recreational landscapes. Fairmont Park in Philadelphia is a good example of a public park type of recreational historic landscape incorporating the significant architecture of Boathouse Row into a natural setting with planned park amenities. Several state parks have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places for their important natural and designed recreational features, such as Black Moshannon State Park in Centre County and French Creek State Park in Berks County. The Appalachian Trail, an extensive network of linked hiking paths from Maine to Georgia, winds through Pennsylvania and represents another kind of recreational historic landscape. Longwood Gardens in Chester County is a popular tourist venue and noted historic landscape combining historic buildings, fountains, a horticultural conservatory and landscaped grounds. Scenic waterways or river valleys can also function as historic recreational landscapes. Riverfront Park in Harrisburg, a several mile long walking path along the Susquehanna River, was created as part of the early 20th century City Beautiful movement and is a historic recreational landscape as well.

Longwood Gardens, Chester Co.

Commemorative and Battlefield Historic Landscapes

Historic battlefields such as Gettysburg Military Park and the Brandywine Battlefield have great Civil War and Revolutionary War significance, but also function as popular tourist attractions and recreational areas. Those historic military landscapes might include historic buildings, monuments, interpretive buildings, fencing, hedgerows, trees and streams, as well as skirmish or battle engagement sites. Some cemeteries are also considered to be historic landscapes, especially those with a formally designed plan created as commemorative parks as well as burial grounds. Both the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh and Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia have been recognized as historic landscapes listed on the National Register. Memorial parks made up of statuary and greenspace might also be considered as commemorative historic landscapes. The Mothers Monument in Ashland, Schuylkill County offers a statue dedicated to mothers set on a steep hillside overlooking the town's main commercial thoroughfare. The Firemen's Drinking Fountain monument in Slatington, Lehigh County and the Protection of the Flag Monument in Athens, Bradford County are similar historic landscapes created as a setting for statuary.

Gettysburg Battlefield, Adams Co.	Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia
Mothers' Monument, Ashland, Schulykill Co.	Firemen's Drinking Fountain, Slatington, Lehigh Co.

Institutional Landscapes

Historic institutional landscapes include educational school campuses, as well as the grounds of hospitals, orphanages, prisons, religious properties and other government or cultural institutions. Numerous universities, public and private secondary schools, convent/church/school complexes, prisons and state mental or tuberculosis hospitals have been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania. These properties often include distinctive landscapes of associated agricultural land, carefully designed public parks or academic quads, recreational facilities such as stadiums, ball parks and play grounds. Statuary and designed allees of trees and walkways are an important part of the institutional setting. The park surrounding the Capitol building in Harrisburg is a created natural landscape with a distinctive plan made up of a wide variety of species of trees (carefully labeled), commemorative statuary, an intersecting pattern of walkways and steps, a fountain and allees of trees. The Capitol Park is the work of several well known landscape architects working at the turn of the 20th Century.

Dickinson College, Carlisle, Cumberland Co.