Editor’s Note: The following editorial was provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation..
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 2 recently debuted an online, interactive story map for the Potters Mills Gap Transportation Project (PMG) on Route 322, in Centre County. The story map is part of an innovative, creative effort to mitigate project impacts on historic resources in the project area.
As designed, the story map satisfies a portion of the mitigation requirements for adverse effects to the Penns/Brush Valley Rural Historic District identified as being eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The Story Map, titled A Journey to Potters Mills, is the first of its kind to be used by PennDOT as mitigation for adverse impacts to historical resources. The PMG project had an impact on several wooded tracts, historic buildings, and historic farmland areas within the Rural Historic District. It was determined that the character defining features of the Rural Historic District in the Potters Mills area would be adversely affected by the project.
The story map, produced by historical specialists from McCormick Taylor, Inc., displays the locations and details about various historically significant sites, people, and events within the project area. Viewers accessing the web-based mapping of the project area may explore the rich history by a simple mouse click.
“The intent of the Story Map is to provide the public with insight into how the development of transportation within the Potters Mills Gap has, over time, impacted the Historic District,” said Karen Michael, PennDOT District 2 Executive.
The McCormick Taylor project team consulted with various other organizations to collect the information displayed within the map. The project team sought images which spanned the development of the area, and included diverse subjects and formats including photos, historic maps, portraits, documents, and other records.
