{"nrhp_refnum":"87000738","name":"Laurel Hill RDA","other_names":["Laurel Hill State Park"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"4 mi. W of New Centerville and PA 281","address_restricted":false,"city":"Somerset","county":"Somerset County","state":"PA","lat":39.99508313150005,"lon":-79.24207692698641,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-05-18","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture","Conservation","Entertainment/Recreation","Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Laurel Hill State Park, a 3,935-acre state park in the foothills of the Laurel Mountains in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in Middle Creek Township, developed as a Recreation Demonstration Area around Laurel Hill Lake. The nominated resource is a historic district of CCC-constructed buildings and structures.","why_significant":"The park is described as one of three Pennsylvania state parks built by the Civilian Conservation Corps for the National Park Service as Recreation Demonstration Areas. It is said to contain one of the largest collections of CCC-built architecture in the Pennsylvania state park system and is presented as an excellent example of the National Park Service's philosophy for outdoor recreation facilities outside the National Park system. The district is evaluated as historically and architecturally significant in the development of Pennsylvania state parks.","narrative":"Laurel Hill State Park covers 3,935 acres in the foothills of the Laurel Mountains in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and was built around a lake the Civilian Conservation Corps created by damming Laurel Hill Creek. Camps SP-8 and SP-15 built the Recreation Demonstration Area between July 1935 and 1942, and the National Park Service transferred the facility to the state of Pennsylvania in October 1945. The historic district includes a park office and maintenance area, four organized group camps, two former CCC camps and three day use areas, with about 210 buildings and seven structures, most of them contributing. Organized Group Camp No. 1 has a central administrative unit, a mess hall, a recreation hall and four unit camps of cabins with wane-edged siding and log or squared timber porch columns. The district is regarded as a significant example of Emergency Conservation Work architecture in Pennsylvania state parks, with standardized military-style barracks and garages at the former CCC camps.","period_of_significance":"1935-1942","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Rustic/Standardized","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Park facilities in use; the Park Office residence is now used as an office and Organized Group Camp No. 1 is used by handicapped campers.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.436821-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/87000738.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000738/0025670173-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000738/0025670173-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"Nyttend, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurel_Hill_State_Park_offices.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993877","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q98881342"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/somerset-county/laurel-hill-rda-87000738/"}