Grants Awarded

The Pennsylvania Heritage Parks Program (PHPP), administered by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) announced $2.8 million in heritage park grants for the state's 12 heritage areas for 2007. Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area was awarded $240,000 for the following grant projects:

• Braddock's Field Historical Society: to restore the appearance of the entryway to the Braddock Carnegie Library and ensure its structural stability for many generations by replacing the deteriorated 118 year old sandstone slabs with granite. These stone slabs constitute both the entryway surface into the main floor of the library and also the roof of the tunnel entrance to the basement bath house which provided Carnegie's mill workers an opportunity to clean up before entering the library
• Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation: to develop additional educational museum displays to interpret "The Faces of Brownsville," which will be a portrait and collage-type display featuring important Brownsville citizens of historical significance, and "If These Walls Could Talk," featuring en etched glass panel suspended in front of five windows facing a significant Brownsville scene
•  Friends of the Riverfront, Inc.: to remanufacture and install new interpretive signage panels to continue educating and entertaining thousands of people that live, work, and play along the region's riverfronts every year. The scope will involve system-wide sign condition assessment and documentation, remanufacturing of existing interpretive signs with new technology, installation of new signs, plus ongoing monitoring and maintenance
• Greensboro Borough: to develop construction drawings and specifications for a series of three canoe/kayak river landings in Greensboro Borough as part of the unified greenway along the Monongahela River Water Trail
• "History to Go—The Carrie Furnaces": to develop the second installment in SIHC's History to Go DVD series which uses portable DVD players to help users to learn about history on the site where it occurred revealing a vanished landscape
• TourAnytime Program: to produce the printed materials and associated website for cell phone and MP3 tours
• 1892 Battle of Homestead Historic Artifacts Box: to research, design, develop, produce and market the 1892 Battle of Homestead Treasures Box to educate and promote the public on the events surrounding the battle
• Carrie Furnace Drawings: to reproduce 3,235 archival drawings of the Carrie Furnace Site. Many of the drawings are over 100 years old, in a fragile state and exhibit a variety of conservation concerns. Their digitization will allow SIHC to fulfill the increasing number of requests from researchers desiring access to this collection and provide a safer mode of access and use of the collection

In 2006, Rivers of Steel was awarded $240,000 for the following grant projects:

• Pump House/Water Tower Trail Head: repairs and site development plans
• Port of Pittsburgh Commission: Downtown Water Shuttle between PNC Park, Station Square, and Point State Park
• Our Story—The Rivers of Steel Tourism Performance Venue: stage production 
• Routes to Roots Driving Guide Revision: update information and convert from web page to database drive system
• Greater Ford City Community Development Corp.: renovate/protect structure of former PPG pattern shop building for a new Ford Ditty Museum Complex, Ford City Borough, Armstrong County
• Working Glass: Industrial and Commercial Glass in Western Pennsylvania
• Montour Trail Council: Interpretive Program, Phase 1: Research 
• Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation: expansion of Flatiron Building Heritage Center/Frank L. Melega Art Museum Gift Shop and Visitor Center, Brownsville Borough, Fayette County
• Penn State University: Coal and Coke Heritage Center professional design implementation
• Bulgarian-Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center: renovation and expansion, West Homestead, Allegheny County
• Carnegie Library of Homestead: front steps repair, Munhall, Allegheny County
• Media on Demand: development and enhancement of media delivered via the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area's website
• Hidden in Plain Sight—a regional folklife curriculum: folk traditions of cultural groups for K-12 classrooms
• Monessen Heritage Museum: complete facade renewal and install an elevator
• Friends of the Riverfront: Three Rivers Trail access site completion - canoe and kayak racks for storage, Sharpsburg, Verona and Rices Landing, Allegheny County
• Mon Valley Art Billboards, Mon Valley, Allegheny County