ROOTS & BRANCHES

Off and on for more than a decade, I served on Pennsylvania’s State Historic Records Advisory Board or SHRAB and every few years we’d be briefed on plans for a new building to house the State Archives.

But like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, those plans would get to a certain point and then peter out, even as the need for replacement became more and more necessary as the deficiencies of the 1960s vintage tower—an architectural triumph but logistical nightmare—in which the archives was housed became more and more apparent, including a multitude of leaks.

So it was with great joy earlier this month that I was able to attend a reception and tour for the opening of the new Pennsylvania State Archives, located at 1681 N. Sixth St. in Harrisburg.

The new building is a simply beautiful piece of architecture, but its features are more than “skin deep.”

There’s a spacious public area with computer access to many records that have now been digitized (along with access to Ancestry.com, which has partnered with the archives to digitize items of high value to genealogists such as the publicly available death certificates).

The area to which original documents can be paged for scanning is equally large and comfortable for researchers.

The new building has much room for expansion on its three floors, and that’s impressive since State Archivist David Carmicheal said moving just the 250 million records currently in its custody was estimated to the equivalent of transporting everything in the a three-bed house … 78 times!

That this project succeeded after so many previous false starts is in doubt a credit to the two people in charge of it. Carmicheal formerly headed the Georgia State Archives and moved that institution during his tenure there. And Andrea Lowery, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (of which the State Archives is a part), is by trade a preservation architect, so she was able to talk the language of buildings and construction whenever Carmicheal came to her with additional needs for the new building.

Whatever accolade is better than “state of the art” is how I’d describe the new archives.

To give a somewhat trivial item that speaks to the attention to detail, there are even ledges in the restrooms on which you can safely place an item!

To get more information about the new State Archives (including days and hours of opening), go to its website at the URL, www.PAStateArchives.com.

And the good news for genealogists interested in repositories doesn’t stop here: After years of problems with its facility in Harrisburg’s Forum Building, the State Library of Pennsylvania is planning to reopen all its services on Jan. 9, 2024.

Expect a report from “Roots & Branches” by mid-January!