Funding Awarded for Mooncrest Historic Preservation Efforts

The Moon Township Board of Supervisors has awarded a contract to the Murrysville-based T&B Planning for a historic-preservation action plan for the Mooncrest neighborhood. 

The township in recent months launched efforts to document the 42-acre neighborhood's historic past and World War II roots. 

The $34,000 contract includes a total of 679 hours of work on the plan. Supervisors awarded the contract in a 4-to-0 vote earlier this month.  

Pennsylvania designated the Mooncrest neighborhood as a historic district in 2004.

Moon officials are now working alongside faculty at Robert Morris University to publish a book documenting the neighborhood's history. The Moon Historic Architectural Review Board also is preparing an application for the neighborhood to be submitted to the National Register of Historic Places. 

T&B's plan will outline ways in which the township can better preserve the historic neighborhood and its aging housing stock, officials said at the Board of Supervisors workshop meeting in December. 

Supervisors earlier this year agreed to match a $10,000 grant awarded to the Historic Architectural Review Board for the effort. Under the contract, the township will now contribute $24,000 toward the action plan, funded through the township's capital reserve budget. 

T&B Planning's offer was recommended to township supervisors by the Historic Architectural Review Board.  

Constructed in 1943, Mooncrest, tucked off Old Thorn Run Road, was first home to Neville Island shipyard workers before its housing stock was sold to private landlords in the 1950s. Moon Township's school, police station and municipal building were all once housed in the neighborhood. 

For more on historic preservation efforts in Mooncrest, visit Patch's topics page.