Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL)

PAL was well represented at this year’s annual meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology held in New Haven, Connecticut. John Kelly served on the Conference Planning Committee and co-chaired a session on CRM archaeology where he presented research along with Heather Olson, Karen Stewart, and Holly Herbster. Tim Mancl also attended the conference. During the annual business meeting on Sunday, Karen Stewert was announced as the winner of this year’s Student Paper Competition for her presentation entitled 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯? 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘊𝘙𝘔 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴. Congratulations, Karen! #Palri #HistoricalArchaeology #NortheastArchaeology

Our team member Michael Lozano joined Alisa Augenstein and Maureen Cavanaugh - Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL), Michelle Johnstone - City of Worcester, Albert LaValley - Sustainable Comfort, Inc., Phil Renzi - The Architectural Team, Dave Traggorth - Causeway Development, Paul Lassard - Architect, Brian Lever and Anthony Rossi - Rossi Development for a roundtable at Preservation Massachusetts’ fall historic preservation conference. Mike shared the story behind Trinity’s $71 million transformation of Worcester’s historic courthouse into the Courthouse Lofts, a vibrant mixed-income housing community. Funded primarily through federal and state low-income housing and historic tax credits, the project also received critical support from the City of Worcester for site control and remediation. Attendees toured the Lofts, where original features like judges' benches and jury boxes were incorporated into apartment designs. The project, which also includes the Major Taylor Museum, has won multiple awards for its success in balancing historic preservation with addressing Massachusetts' housing crisis. #HistoricPreservation #AffordableHousing #Worcester #CourthouseLofts #PreservationMA

We are building a culture at PAL where amazing people (like yourself) can do their best work. We are looking for an experienced Information Technology Manager who would like to join our dynamic team. Check us out!

Come join our team! We're #hiring a new Accounting Manager in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

PAL is excited to announce that the Johnstown Flood National Memorial, a unit of the National Park Service in western Pennsylvania, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. PAL architectural historians and archaeologists prepared the National Register documentation for the Park, which preserves and interprets buildings associated with the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club that sat on the shore of Lake Conemaugh. The lake water, impounded by the South Fork Dam, flooded nearby Johnstown when the dam collapsed on May 31, 1889. The massive amount of news coverage of the tragedy prompted a national disaster relief effort that included the greatest test to date of the nascent American Red Cross, which had been founded in 1881 by Clara Barton. #Palri #JohnstownFlood #NationalRegister #ClaraBarton

Join us at the 2024 MA Historic Preservation Conference, where PAL staff will be participating in a session on Friday, September 27, at Worcester's Hanover Theatre. Maureen Cavanaugh and Alisa Augenstein are part of a panel discussing affordable housing in a session titled Preservation & The Housing Crisis. Amid a housing crisis with dwindling buildable land, is it possible to accommodate the need for more housing units without losing buildings that tell the stories of our past? Join the roundtable of developers, architects, and consultants for a discussion on three challenging Worcester buildings – the Worcester County Courthouse (now Courthouse Lofts), Mission Chapel (now Mission on Summer), and the J.H. & G.M. Walker Shoe Factory (now Walker Lofts) – that were reactivated into vibrant market-rate housing. Panelists will dive into various incentives they leveraged to make their projects work, challenges they faced along the way, and why preservation is a more valuable tool than ever for communities in the grips of a housing crisis. https://lnkd.in/dE3CU2mw   Trinity Management, LLC The Architectural Team Causeway Development LLC Sustainable Comfort, Inc. #historicpreservation #worcester #historicworcester #historicmassachusetts #historictaxcredits #palri

PAL is pleased to announce that the North Burial Ground in Lancaster, MA, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places. PAL architectural historians prepared the National Register documentation for the cemetery, which was established by the town in 1800 in the north part of Lancaster. The cemetery is significant under Criterion A in the area of Community Planning and Development, and under Criterion C in the area of art for its collection of gravestones embodying distinctive styles and iconography from the late 18th through 20th centuries and demonstrating the shift from hand-carved to machine-carved gravestones. #Palri #NorthBurialGround #LancasterMA #HistoricPlaces #NationalRegister #CemeteryHistory #HistoricPreservation

Join us at the 2024 MA Historic Preservation Conference, where PAL staff will be presenting a session on Friday, September 27, at Worcester's Hanover Theatre. The session titled Archaeological Site Preservation: Case Studies in Protecting Massachusetts’ Archaeological Heritage for Future Generations will feature presentations by Suzanne Cherau, Ted Dattilo, Dianna Doucette, and John Kelly, and be moderated by Maureen Cavanaugh. Every year dozens of irreplaceable archaeological sites in Massachusetts are lost due to development, environmental changes, or other factors. In recent years, PAL archaeologists have become increasingly active in raising awareness of threats to sites, educating the public, and reaching out to organizations and individuals whose primary objectives are to support innovative projects that aid in the preservation of threatened archaeological sites. In this session, PAL archaeologists will highlight specific examples of conservation, protection, and monitoring of archaeological sites around the state and discuss challenges and best practices that help preserve sites in place for future generations. https://lnkd.in/dE3CU2mw #Palri #PreservationEfforts #ArchaeologyConference Preservation Massachusetts

Exciting News Alert! Heather Olson, PAL’s Laboratory and Collections Manager, along with Traci Picard and Carlos Munoz, have just released a fascinating podcast episode on Snowtown, the vibrant, mixed-race neighborhood that once thrived at the foot of Smith Hill in Providence, RI, before its demise in the late 1800s. Catch the episode now on the Rhode Island Report, the Boston Globe’s podcast series covering a wide range of topics relating to Rhode Island news and culture. Check it out: Researchers hunt for clues about Snowtown, a vibrant, mixed-race neighborhood wiped out in Providence (https://ow.ly/HFBu50SUcPW). You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. #Palri #SnowtownProject #ProvidenceHistory #BostonGlobe #RhodeIslandHistory

Nestled in the heart of Hyde Park, the former William Barton Rogers School is reopening its doors this summer as Boston's first senior housing development tailored toward LGBTQ+ adults! The Pryde, constructed in three building campaigns between 1902 and 1933, includes 74 residential units, a vibrant community center, and an art exhibition space that will host Portraits of Pride. The public wing will house permanent office space for the 54th Regiment, a volunteer organization committed to preserving the history and legacy of the first regiment of African Americans from the North to serve during the Civil War and who trained at Hyde Park's Camp Meigs. PAL was a proud member of the Pennrose development team that successfully completed the $50 million residential conversion. Photo credit Robert Benson Photography & PAL. #LGBTQ #thepryde #historictaxcredits #affordablehousing #palri