Harold L. Ickes (1874-1952)
Altoona, Blair County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
FDR's Sec. of Interior 1933-46. Builder of public works, ardent conservationist, fierce fighter for human rights, advocate of government as an agent for the public good. This is the site of his boyhood home.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Harold L. Ickes grew up in Altoona before rising to become one of the most consequential figures of the New Deal, serving as Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior from 1933 to 1946. He oversaw a vast public-works program that built dams, roads, and public buildings across Depression-era America, all while championing conservation of the nation's natural resources. Blunt and combative, he was also an early and forceful advocate for civil rights within the federal government.
Why it matters
Ickes embodied the New Deal conviction that government could be a force for the public good, leaving a lasting mark on America's landscape, its conservation ethic, and its early civil-rights advances.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Harold L. Ickes
- · Franklin D. Roosevelt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hysong v. Gallitzin School District
Gallitzin, PA · est. 2021
In 1894 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Hysong that Catholic Sisters of St. Joseph could wear their religious habits while teaching in Gallitzin's public schools. The decision so alarmed the legislature that it passed the 1895 Garb Act, banning religious dress and insignia for public school teachers across the state. The clash set off a long conversation, continued in state and federal courts, over where personal faith ends and secular public education begins.
Cresson Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Cresson Township, PA · est. 2014
In the early twentieth century tuberculosis was a leading killer, and Pennsylvania fought back with a network of state sanatoria where fresh air, rest, and good food were the main treatments. Opened in 1913 on mountain land donated by Andrew Carnegie and guided by health commissioner S. G. Dixon, Cresson became a national model. It was notable for being racially integrated and for running its own nursing school and elementary school, treating some 40,000 patients before it closed in 1964.
Benjamin Walker Homestead
West Saint Clair Township, PA · est. 2006
In the tense years before and during the Civil War, the Walker Homestead in Bedford County served as a vital station on the Underground Railroad, perilously close to the Maryland line and the reach of slave catchers. Benjamin Walker, Abner Walker, Sr., and George Harbaugh worked hand in hand with African American conductors John Fiddler, Elisa Rouse, and Joseph Crawley, guiding hundreds of freedom seekers from the Pennsylvania border across the mountains and northward toward liberty.
The Rosedale Banishment
East Taylor Township, PA
On September 7, 1923, amid rising racial hostility, Johnstown Mayor Joseph Cauffiel ordered every Black and Mexican resident who had lived in the area less than seven years to leave. By some accounts more than 2,000 people were driven out under threat of jail. The episode drew national attention—much of it from Black journalists and activists—prompting a state investigation and a public backlash that helped cost Cauffiel his reelection.