Penn-Craft Historic District
Why it's listed
Penn-Craft is a homestead community in the rural hills of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, laid out on 200 acres of farmland ten miles northwest of Uniontown. Between 1937 and 1943, the American Friends Service Committee and fifty families of unemployed coal miners built the community, which includes stone houses of local red sandstone, frame temporary houses, outhouses, brooders, a cooperative store and a factory. William Macy Stanton, a Quaker architect who had worked on the federal Cumberland Homesteads, prepared the layout and house designs, and project manager David Day devised movable wooden forms that let unskilled workers lay straight stone walls. Homesteaders built their own houses and earned labor credit for work on one another's homes. The district is regarded as an exceptional national example of 1930s back-to-the-land planning and the most complete example of its type in Pennsylvania. It was intended as a model that corrected problems found in federal subsistence homestead projects.
Significance in brief: The nomination argues the district is an exceptional national example of 1930s back-to-the-land idealism and the most complete, unchanged example in Pennsylvania of New Deal subsistence homestead communities. It is presented as a model self-help community that corrected problems of the federal homestead projects and served as a precedent for later self-help programs. Its physical integrity and the labor-credit and selection systems are cited as key reasons for listing.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 89000356, listed May 18, 1989. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | Roughly bounded by PA 4020, Twp. Rd. 326, and Twp. Rd. 549, Penn-Craft |
|---|---|
| County | Fayette County |
| Listed | May 18, 1989 |
| Reference number | 89000356 |
| Resource type | District |
| Period of significance | 1937-1943 |
| Architect / builder | William Macy Stanton, architect; David Day, project manager |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Community Planning and Development, Social History |
| Level of significance | National |
| Acreage | 175 |
| Coordinates | 39.95923, -79.91237 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 89000356.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7163133
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.