Category Archive: Farmland Preservation
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Survey of Greene and Washington Counties
Eugene Matta
PHLF News
March 7, 2008The Farm Survey of Greene and Washington Counties, managed by PHLF under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Historic Preservation (“BHP”), is about ninety percent complete.
The survey contains a list of 1,150 farms and farmsteads from both counties and includes photographs and descriptions of historic buildings, uses of farm lands, and potential priorities for easements.
The survey focuses primarily on existing historic structures. For the next steps, Landmarks hopes to work with local organizations from both counties to help promote agricultural tourism.
The survey information will also be compiled in a statewide database managed by the BHP.
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Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Announces New Non-profit Corporation
Mark Bibro, Chair, announced today the formation by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) of a new non-profit corporation to expand PHLF’s activities in neighborhood and urban revitalization. The Chief Executive Officer will be Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., and Arthur Ziegler will serve as president.
The new non-profit, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation (LCCC), will build a financial base by obtaining loans, grants, and investment capital and in turn will finance and develop projects that assist in the revitalization of urban centers, towns, and neighborhoods. The corporation may undertake the actual developments, and co-develop or lend funds to community development corporations and others that undertake such work. It will also work to support expansion of the regional employment base and energy conservation, green and sustainable goals, and assist rural and farm economic developments. LCCC will also contract with government and private agencies to define such projects and conduct feasibility studies for them.
Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr., who resigned last week after eight years as the Director of the Pittsburgh Fannie Mae Community Business Center, will become one of Pittsburgh’s newest Chief Executive Officers. Dr. Slaughter will now serve as the CEO of the newly established company, Landmarks Community Capital Corporation. The company’s focus will be on providing equity, debt, short and intermediate term financing for housing and economic development activities in Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and West Virginia markets.
Slaughter will utilize his vast experience, which includes serving as the former Vice President of Dollar Bank’s Community Development group and past Director of Preservation Services of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. Brian Hudson, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, said,
“Howard’s new role as CEO of Landmarks Community Capital Corporation will benefit the State by ensuring that more capital is deployed in this market, which will have a significant impact in Pennsylvania. We are fortunate to have someone with Howard’s skills serving at the State level and as the CEO of LCCC.”
Arthur Ziegler said of Howard, “He has been deeply involved in community development financing from every perspective and we are certain he will lead our new non-profit to excellent results. He has been deeply involved in preservation nationally as the former PA Advisor to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.”
Slaughter said, “There is an opportunity in the market to provide appropriate financing for existing and new developments independently and in collaboration with other financial intermediaries and developers. Landmarks Community Capital Corporation will be a private-sector catalyst and a participator in financing housing, mixed-use, and commercial developments. It will also focus on public sector policy initiatives and work with legislators as well as utilize tools like the New Market Tax Credits to bring additional needed capital to the region.”
Brief background of Dr. Howard B. Slaughter, Jr.: He holds five earned degrees, including a Master’s Degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Public Management and his Doctorate in Information Systems and Communications from Robert Morris University. He also attended Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, completing the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government. He completed course work on Fundamentals of Real Estate Finance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Real Estate. Slaughter is also a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow and serves on the Board of the Urban League of Pittsburgh, and on the Board of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, receiving a gubernatorial appointment from Governor Ed Rendell. He is also the Founder of the Financial Literacy Program of Pittsburgh at Robert Morris University. He will start his new job on October 15, 2007.
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Farmland Saved
June 28, 2007
PHLF NewsSeveral years ago we worked with the South Fayette Township Board of Commissioners and Township Manager Mike Hoy to analyze what uses might be made of the historic 217 acres Boy’s Industrial Home of Western Pennsylvania. The home had closed and only one historic building remained, but the land was used for farming and natural growth.
As part of our Farmland Preservation program, we employed the landscape design firm of LaQuatra Bonci, and the architectural firm Landmarks Design Associates, both of Pittsburgh, to work together with government leaders and community residents and our staff to try to develop a preservation plan for the property.
We are pleased that South Fayette has just announced that the Allegheny County Agricultural Land Preservation program is paying $1.6 million or $10,000 an acre for the rights to the land to ensure that it will remain farmland permanently. Fifty-seven acres will be utilized for recreation.
Through our Farmland Preservation program, this brings total land protected under the original grant we received from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to 1,314 acres.
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Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. Keynote Address at the 2006 National Preservation Conference
PHLF News
October 31, 2006“Preservation In Pittsburgh” Keynote address of Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. at the 2006 National Preservation Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, October 31, 2006
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Down on the Farm
While Landmarks has gained national attention using planned gifts like easements to enable historic buildings to be adapted and reborn, our greatest satisfaction comes from helping people of all demographics support our mission and their families. Consider Clare and Duncan Horner.
Nearly three decades ago, the couple purchased a run-down house in the Mexican War Streets Neighborhood from Landmarks, then gave us a facade easement on the property. They went on to restore the building and acquire four others, now in various stages of restoration.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that when Landmarks recently offered to use Richard Scaife and Laurel Foundation funding to purchase a preservation easement on the Horner’s mid-19th century, 65-acre Greene County farm, the Horners not only agreed, but are using the $25,000 purchase price to restore the farmhouse and are refinancing their mortgage to secure the easement and make a $25,000 gift to endow the costs associated with monitoring it.
The story of the creative way the gift was structured and the Horner’s three-decade relationship with Landmarks will be featured in the next issue of PHLF News. For now, however, Duncan and Clare are just happy knowing that they’ve preserved a home for daughters Anne and Jocelyn.
As for the farm, “it’s a strategically located property on the intersection of two rural roads adjoining Ryerson Station State Park,” says Landmarks President Arthur Ziegler. “The woodframe Victorian farmhouse with carpenter gingerbread posts and wood barn represent the prior use of the property as an active farm.
“The site has both lowland and hilltop, a large pond with earth dam, a wooded area above the pond contiguous to the State Park woodland and there is a wetland with a wide variety of natural growth in the lowland. It’s definitely worth preserving.”
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Making hay out of history
By Marjorie Wertz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 20, 2005Pennsylvania wants to make hay out of its historic barns.
The state House and Senate recently passed a resolution to take inventory of Pennsylvania’s historic barns and to use the list to promote agriculture and tourism.The inventory, conducted by the state Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, is due November 2006.
“There are 22,000 farms in western Pennsylvania in 33 counties,” said Lu Donnelly, project coordinator for an upcoming exhibit on barns at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. “Many of these farms have more than one barn, yet many of the barns are falling down.
“Pennsylvania is quickly losing its rural heritage. Barns are very important and I’m glad the Legislature is aware of them,” Donnelly said.
The inventory was sparked by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, a legislative research agency of the General Assembly. “Pennsylvania has a rich agricultural heritage and barns have been a mainstay in the state’s agriculture industry,” said Jonathan Johnson, senior policy analyst for the center.
Researchers will start with farms listed with the state’s Century and Bicentennial Farms Program, which recognizes families who have been farming the same land for 100 or 200 years.
“We have over 2,000 farms in the centennial and 205 farms in the bicentennial categories,” said program director Catalina Ruhl. “But whether there are barns on these lands is another thing.”
The Albert and Nancy Lee Shetler farm, located outside of Greensburg, is the only Westmoreland County farm to receive the bicentennial farm award since the program was implemented last year.
The Shetlers’ original log barn burned down and the family built a new one in 1909. It was one of the first barns in the county built with trusses.
The legislators’ resolution did not determine what constitutes a historic barn, Johnson said.
According to criteria set by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation’s Historic Farm Preservation Program, a historic barn must be at least 50 years old, said Jack Miller, director of gift planning.
“The barn should have significant architecture or architectural style,” Miller said.
A major grant from a local foundation helped the organization to preserve five farms throughout Western Pennsylvania with historic buildings and more than 1,300 acres of farmland since the program started in 2000.
“Rural preservation is especially important in Allegheny County,” Miller said. “We’re down to less than 18,000 acres of farmlands. One of the issues that farmers are facing is the escalation of taxes and urban sprawl. They can’t afford to pay the taxes and they end up selling part of their land because farming no longer pays the bills.”
Miller said his role is to show farm owners how planned gifts can be beneficial in saving farmlands.
Liberta and Richard H. McConnell have lived on their Buffalo Township, Butler County farm since 1939. The couple purchased the farm from her parents, Daniel and Pauline Zeloyle.
“In the block foundation of the barn, somebody chiseled 1900 into the block,” said Liberta McConnell. “My dad bought the farm from Oscar Uhl and I think he was the one that founded it. The barn is still in good shape. Some people let their barns go downhill and that just makes me sick. Once the barns are gone, they’re gone and that’s the end of an era.”
The L.B. Roenigk Farm in Buffalo Township, Butler County, also has a 110-year-old barn.
Most of the old barns in Pennsylvania are known as bank barns, said Gary Shepard, director of the Penn State Cooperative Extension in Westmoreland County.
“These historic barns were designed as closed structures. They were very efficient at the time and worked for a small number of animals. They’re beautiful old buildings but in light of modern technology, they don’t fit in,” Shepard said.
Bank barns were built into a mound of earth or an artificially created bank.
“They tend to be poorly ventilated and dark as opposed to what we use today,” Shepard said. “Feed was dropped into the basement of the bank barns for the animals. These barns continue to be used by dairy farmers and they still work but they don’t offer much animal comfort.”
Historic barns were considered near extinction in 1987 when the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Successful Farming magazine launched Barn Again, a national program to preserve historic farm buildings. Barn Again has shown how historic barns can be adapted for new farming uses and ways in which preservation techniques are more cost-effective to tearing down and rebuilding.
Scott Branthoover’s bank barn in West Newton was built around 1904 or 1907 and has been in his family since 1945 when his grandfather purchased the farm. Much of his farm’s infrastructure is built around the barn.
“We’re putting red sheet metal over one exterior side of the barn to preserve the wood. It’s very labor-intensive to keep the wood preserved,” said Branthoover. “We did a lot of replacement beam work downstairs and I put in a cement floor in the upper floor. This barn is still a very functional part of our business.”
One of the most visible farms along Route 30 in Westmoreland County is the Clair Frye farm in Unity Township.
“The house is about 200 years old. I don’t know exactly how old the barn is, but I think it’s well over 100 years old,” said Lois Frye.
She and her husband, the late Clair Frye, purchased the farm in 1954 from Martha Kuhns.
“There was a barn that sat up the road from us and somebody told us that barn had been built during the Battle of Gettysburg,” said Frye, 75. “The rumor was that the workers stopped construction on the barn because they could hear the cannons from the battle. I believe our barn was built around the same time.”
Frye’s son, Wayne, now runs the farm. He said there is an underground cave with a spring that runs down the hill to the barn.
“There used to be a watering trough for travelers along old Route 30,” said Wayne Frye, of the road that runs directly through the farm.
The Carnegie Museum of Art is also harvesting the revived interest in barns.
It will sponsor a special exhibit, “Barns of Western Pennsylvania: Vernacular to Spectacular,” beginning in February.
The state Historical and Museum Commission has been working on farmland preservation issues with the agriculture department for some time, said Jane Crawford, press secretary for the commission.
“This is an interesting and ambitious project. We have to meet with some of our partners to get a sense of what has to be done and how this inventory can be accomplished,” said Crawford. “We’ve already been working on identifying historic farms so this resolution will be a continuation of what we’ve done but at a stepped-up pace.”
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Slowing urban sprawl
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Sunday, December 12, 2004Jack Miller remembers well the day in 2000 when he met Lucille Tooke on her family farm in Pine.
Tooke stopped the tractor she was riding and in the subsequent conversation she eventually told Miller, “I think God sent you to me.”“Talk about pressure,” said Miller, director of gift planning for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
His mission — to find some way the nonprofit preservationist organization could help Tooke preserve her farm, and save it from ending up as part of either another new housing development or a commercial project in the fast-growing suburban North Hills.
Starting with Tooke’s farm, the Landmarks Foundation has used novel financing strategies as part of its Historic Farm Preservation Program to save five historic farms in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, encompassing some 1,300 acres of property and 10 different farm structures.
It did so with the help of a $500,000 grant from Richard King Mellon Foundation, which the foundation matched with an additional $600,000.
Using bargain sales and sometimes complicated gift strategies, the Landmarks Foundation has been able to leverage that $1.1 million to protect structures and land with an estimated value of about $6 million, said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., head of the organization since its inception 40 years ago.
“Farms are disappearing at a very rapid clip in Allegheny County and Southwestern Pennsylvania and urban sprawl is gaining even though we have a declining population,” Ziegler said. “Our program has been important both in terms of slowing sprawl and preserving farms and farm buildings and that way of life.”
“Some of these historic farms that can show how people lived 100 or 200 years ago need to be preserved,” Miller said.
That doesn’t mean economic development has be stopped in the process.
“They can be developed around rather than developed on,” Miller said.
One problem is that the program now is out of funds. And the foundation has identified at least 10 more farms it says are “architecturally significant.”
Nine are in Allegheny County and one is in Washington County. In addition, it has had inquiries about other farms in Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
If the organization had another $1 million, it could save another 2,000 acres and five of those properties, Miller believes.
Landmarks has approached other foundations in hopes of raising more funds, Ziegler said. In addition, Miller said the foundation is hoping to work with others dedicated to preserving farm properties, including the Allegheny County Agricultural Land Preservation Program, in an effort to attract more private support.
The farm preservation program got its start when Tooke donated her 64-acre Hidden Valley Farm on Old State Road. It features a farmhouse built in 1835 that was awarded an historic landmark plaque in 1979.
“She (Tooke) wanted to see if there was a way she should get the funds she needed to retire without having to prostitute the farm,” Miller said.
At his suggestion, Tooke agreed to establish what is known as a charitable remainder unitrust, or CRUT.
With this form of gift, a donor transfers cash, securities or other properties to the trust, and in the process avoids capital gains tax, receives a federal income tax deduction, and a percentage of the trust’s value in income annually over a set period.
Because federal tax laws required the trustee to entertain bids to assure the highest price for the assets, Tooke could not just give the farm to the foundation outright. But she was legally permitted to specify that any organization willing to preserve the property would have the right to match the highest offer.
Thus, Landmarks ended up as the highest bidder, paying about $580,000 to purchase the property. The foundation then placed preservation easement on the farmhouse and the land to prevent any nonagricultural development.
Tooke was able to retire in Chambersburg, Franklin County, with a revenue stream that will last a total of 20 years. Her three daughters will receive the payouts if she dies before that period expires.
Landmarks Foundation’s objective was not to own the property, only to preserve it, Miller said. “So we had to find someone to buy it who would honor the terms of the easement.”
That turned out to be William Versaw, of Fox Chapel, who is also interested in preservation.
“I have five children and wanted to find a place we could use and enjoy close to home,” said Versaw, who has restored the historic farmhouse and enjoys gathering apples on the property for apple pies.
“It also had an appeal to it because it can never be developed, so it can be passed on to future generations,” he said. “I’m not opposed to development, but if we can save some green space in this area, it makes for a good balance.”
Versaw purchased the property for about $400,000, and he gave the foundation an additional $10,000 to endow the preservation easement. The funds cover Landmarks’ expense in monitoring the property annually.
“We lost about $200,000 on the deal, but we should get that back from the funds that remain in the trust at the end of the 20-year period,” Miller said. That is because Tooke made the foundation the irrevocable beneficiary of her trust.
The foundation found other methods to preserve other farm properties.
One example is the O-Shea-Hausen farm in Donegal, Westmoreland County, a property owned by two priests, Jeremiah O’Shea and C. William Hausen, which traces its roots back to the early 1800s.
Landmarks helped the owners pay off a mortgage (about $50,000) on the 62-acre site, generate some additional income for their retirement through a charitable gift annuity and provide $10,000 to endow the monitoring costs for a preservation easement.
The foundation will get back the gift portion of the annuity when the donors die.
O’Shea said he and Hausen purchased the Geary farm in 1992. It contained a barn that dated back to the 1890s, which was built by the Geary family, and a log cabin, which dates to the mid-1800s.
O’Shea said he contacted Landmarks after getting information about its program from American Farmland Trust.
In another case, Landmarks assumed a mortgage on a farmhouse owned by James and Dorothy Wycoff, descendants of the original owners of the Van Kirk Farm in Elizabeth in order to obtain a preservation easement. Horses used in the Lewis & Clark Expedition once were boarded on the 71-acre farm property.
It also saved two other properties in Elizabeth, one a 214-acre farm off Park Avenue owned by the estate of Helen R. Wycoff by negotiating a preservation easement.
The other property was an adjoining 54-acre parcel off Rothey Drive. The organization purchased the property at fair market value and conveyed it to owner of the Wycoff farm, who accepted the land as payment for an easement.
“Every situation is different,” said Miller. “It depends on the owner’s life situation, their family situation. But I think it’s important for people’s personal advisers to help them recognize that sometimes they can help them achieve their goals by showing them how they can give away their assets rather than keeping them.”
In the case of preserving an historic farm property, “You don’t have to give it away and lose it; you can give it away and keep it,” he said.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
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Historic Rural Preservation Program Announced
Pittsburgh, Pa. . . . .
On December 11th, 40 farmers attended a meeting at Hidden Valley Farm arranged by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation to discuss new and creative tools now available to help preserve Allegheny County farms.
One of those tools included Landmarks’ Historic Rural Preservation Program, which offers a variety of planned gifts that help farmers reduce income, estate and property taxes, while preserving historic farm property.
Also presenting were representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Allegheny County Conservation District and Allegheny Land Trust. They discussed how development, scenic and conservation easements could be used to provide cash and reduce real estate assessments for farmers being threatened by increasing development and urban sprawl.
“The remaining farmers in Allegheny County have become land rich and cash poor,” said Landmarks’ president Arthur Ziegler. “We want them to know that they have options other than selling their property to developers or losing it to estate taxes.”
Landmarks held the meeting at Hidden Valley Farm to show how an historic farm can be preserved without having a negative financial impact on the owner. The 64-acre 1835 farm was gifted to a charitable remainder trust and eventually purchased by Landmarks.
In return, the donor received significant tax benefits and a 20-year income stream. At the end of that time, Landmarks receives whatever remains in the trust, an amount expected to offset the loss Landmarks’ experienced after making protective façade and scenic easements a condition of its resale.
Now that these farmers know that they have choices, the next step is to meet with them individually to discuss their interests and needs. Though this collaborative effort, it will now be possible to match a variety of preservation tools to meet the specific needs of the individual farmers.
“According to the most recent census statistics, farm acreage in Allegheny County dropped by nearly 35% between 1987 and 1997 and most likely another 20% since then,” said Ziegler. “Our only hope to preserve what’s left is to work together and maximize our resources in meeting these farmers’ needs.”
Contact: Jack Miller
Director of Gift Planning