page_title: Black Moshannon State Park Historic Districts
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Black Moshannon State Park Historic Districts / Background
caption_attribution_description: Men of Civilian Conservation Corps Company 359, Camp S71-PA, working on a dam in Black Moshannon State Park, near Phillipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, USA.
context_page_description: The Black Moshannon State Park Historic Districts are three separate historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places at Black Moshannon State Park in Rush Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The structures in the historic districts were constructed in the 1930s during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The three districts are: the Beach and Day Use District, with 18 contributing structures, including 11 different picnic pavilions, concession building, bathhouse, museum, and four open pit latrines; the Family Cabin District with 16 contributing properties, including 13 cabins, one lodge and two latrines; and the Maintenance District with four contributing properties, including a storage building, three-bay garage, gas pump house, and ranger's residence.
  Beaver Meadow CCC Camp S-71, near Philipsburg was home to CCC Company 359, which built the structures in the three historic districts between 1933 and 1937. Black Moshannon State Park opened in 1937, and over the years some of the CCC-built structures have been lost or replaced, including the dam that forms Black Moshannon Lake.
context_section_description: The CCC, founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, created many jobs for unemployed industrial workers from Altoona, Bellefonte and Tyrone. Black Moshannon State Park is just one of many examples of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps throughout central Pennsylvania.
  Beaver Meadow CCC Camp S-71 was built in May 1933 near the abandoned village of Beaver Mills, and was one of the first CCC camps built to expand recreational facilities in Pennsylvania. Over 200 young men moved in and began the work of conserving soil, water and timber in the Black Moshannon area. They cut roads through the growing forest to aid in fighting the many wildfires that sprang up, and planted many acres of red pines as part of the reforestation effort. The CCC also built many of the park facilities still in use today. They built log cabins, picnic pavilions, a food concession stand, and miles of trails. Early on the CCC constructed a dam at Black Moshannon Lake, on the site of the former mill pond dam.
  The CCC camp closed in January 1937 and Black Moshannon State Park opened that same year. In the 1950s the CCC-built dam was replaced by the current structure. In 1987, the existing CCC structures in the park were placed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of three separate historic districts. All three districts were built between 1933 and 1937 and are designated as the day use, family cabin and maintenance districts.
caption: Men of CCC Company 359 working on the dam in Black Moshannon State Park, c. 1936.
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