Only in York County

As happens a few times each year, I’ve spent the past week both clearing out my email inbox (which feels great) and stressing out over the number of not-yet-fielded Ask Joan questions I have in it (which feels less great).

In honor, I’m putting a couple of extra questions out there today, including several I could particularly use your help with!

What’s inside

1. Recipe for Knaub’s bakery cake
2. Seeking info on Stillman’s store
3. Apple Pan Dowdy recipe sought
4. Naming North Mall jewelry store
5. How to find older articles

1. I could find anything in your blog about Knaub’s bakery. My favorite was the chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. Is there a recipe from Knaub’s out there for this?
– Bev Weber

We’ve talked a bit about several area bakeries, but not too much about Knaub’s. I’d love to collect some memories and hopefully a recipe for that chocolate cake with peanut butter icing for Bev, so please let me know if you have either!

2. There was once a store called Stillmon’s. What did they sell there and was it on East Market Street?
– Jerry Gingerich

Jerry, we’ve talked about this one a little bit before, if it is, as I suspect, the Stillman’s Department Store that readers recall being next to the Crider’s store on East Market Street in downtown York. You can see previous memories of both of those stores and more here, here and here.

General descriptions have called it a department store, though earlier memories suggest it may have first started as a dress shop. Any details on that are welcome!

3. I would love the recipe for Apple Pan Dowdy that were made by Jay’s Supermarket years ago. They were delicious.
– Nancy Rudisill

We did a pretty great job finding lemon sponge pie recipes from Jay’s for my friend Dawn, so I’m hoping we can do the same with this Jay’s Apple Pan Dowdy recipe for Nancy!

4. There was a jewelry store in the North Mall in York County. My grandmother is wondering what it was called. She is driving us all nuts about it, could you help her remember!
– Cindy

So, I dug into this one a bit and looked through many of our previous North Mall memories – here, here, here and here – but couldn’t find much if anything about a jewelry store. Help! Anyone have an idea?

5. A reader named Susan Ramirez, who lives in North Carolina, recently reached out to me trying to find copies of a previous article about a UFO sighting in Manchester Township in 1979 or 1980. She was wondering how she could find such an article without having an exact date.

Since I get similar questions often, I thought I’d finish up today’s post by sharing the info I gave Susan, so if you’re looking for past articles, hold on to this!

The two places I suggest you try are the information desk at Martin Library in York, and the York County History Center. Our digital archives here at the paper don’t extend back before 1993, and our microfilm collection is really only useful if you have a particular date.

The Trust has at least some of its records digitized, and thus searchable, but there may be a fee to have them research for you. They have some info on that on their website, but I suggest calling the Archives at 717-848-1587 and talking to Lila Fourhman-Shaull or one of her assistants – tell her Joan at the newspaper sent you, if you get Lila!

The Martin Library research desk is home to Ann Funk, the reference librarian who often helps me out with Ask Joan material, and she is a great resource if the library has anything relevant in its collection. The library is at 717-846-5300.

I hope that helps!

Got any questions? Ask Joan using the form at right. I’ll attempt to answer them in a future “Ask Joan” column on this blog. I get a large volume, but I will feature three each week and answer as many as possible!