Only in York County

I’m dipping into my email box again today, sharing a variety of responses to previous reader questions or memories. Many are just short responses that I was originally saving for longer columns; I hope you’ll enjoy the miscellany today!

Radio memories

I’ve written several times about York County’s radio history. One reader, Mark Daniels, wrote some time ago, “I had the privilege of working at WZIX, WNOW, WQXA, WOYK, WSBA, WIOV, WHP, WRKZ, and others before finally settling at WFIL in Philly for the past 21 years. York has been blessed with so many great personalities; Doc, John, Wayne Trout (who announced at our York Suburban football games), Hal Raymond, Ed Lincoln, and many others were my heroes. Thanks for the memories!”

And, if you’re interested in York County radio history, you might be interested in “Doc” Daugherty’s obituary, which astute researcher Audrey Lerew shared with me. It lists a lot of Doc’s accomplishments, which might be familiar to longtime readers.

Blue booths

Back in late 2015, reader Deb Baugher asked about a restaurant with blue booths across from Bear’s Department Store. I’d talked about this a few times since then, but never officially addressed this question, about which I received a few letters.

Ivan Spahr wrote, “The restaurant with the blue glass between the booths was in the basement of McCrory’s store near the square. That blue glass made it all the more novel for a little kid to eat there.”

Another couple of readers wondered whether Deb was thinking of the White Rose Restaurant next to Bear’s on the square, including longtime commenter Bill Landes. I also heard about that from Gretchen Frederick, who wrote, “The restaurant next to Bear’s Department store was called the White Rose Restaurant. I worked at Bear’s in 1963 and a co-worker and I ate lunch there nearly every day. The restaurant owner was usually in the kitchen and his wife worked at the cash register. I don’t recall their names but they knew their regular customers and were very friendly to everyone.”

Restaurant fire

This one really goes back a way – in 2012, Bill Unger asked about the name of a restaurant outside Red Lion that he thought might have burned down in the mid-1960s. We’d shed some light on some possibilities that in a 2013 column, with some readers thinking the date might have been off and others recalling different restaurant fires. Luddy’s Seafood was the one I heard pop up most often, but more than three years later, I received a short note from Thomas Steele, who said, “This restaurant was known as Dottie’s when it burned down on a cold January night in 1982.”

Mad Cubicle

Late in 2015, William Stambaugh asked some questions about former downtown businesses like Discorama on North George Street and what he described as “some hippie establishment” on the southwest corner of Pine and Philadelphia streets.

Reader Karen Gunnet replied, “It was called the Mad Cubicle. It was in the early ’60s, a little before the hippie movement. I was about 13 or 14 when we would frequent this place. The owner, Rich, had a pet raccoon. I also remember the Discorama being on Market Street in the early ’60s but don’t know when it moved to that location. The owner was my teacher at North Hills Junior High School, too.”

City schools

Just last fall, I shared a big list of things readers wanted to hear memories about. One of them was a request from an unnamed reader for a list of schools that were part of the York City public school system in the 1950s.

LoAnn Clark replied about that, “I checked the collections of the Library/Archives at the York County History Center and found the Annual Report of the York Public Schools: 1954-1955. Within this report is a listing of all school buildings in use at that time. The schools named are: Duke Street, Smallwood, Pine Street, Central, Garfield, Stevens, West Princess Street, Hartley, Noell, Ridge Avenue, Aquilla Howard, Betsy Ross, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, McKinley, Madison, Jackson, Arch Street (though only one classroom was in use in this building), Roosevelt, Wilson, Devers, Hannah Penn Junior High, Phineas Davis Junior High, Edgar Fahs Smith Junior High, and William Penn Senior High School. I enjoy reading your column and hope this answers the question.”

LoAnn, that’s awesome – thank you so much! I hope our unnamed reader sees this and is helped by your info!

North Mall

Some time ago, reader Tana Lewis wrote, “I just wanted to add my ‘two cents’ about the North Mall Someone mentioned that a Bon-Ton was there. I believe that Mailman’s actually was the larger store on the west end of the mall.”

This is very germane because we just talked about that location in last week’s column, and my sister Linda Smith and I just discussed it the other day. It was, in fact, first a Bon-Ton (before Mailman’s), and my sister worked there at the time! I had actually mistakenly said my sister worked there when it was Mailman’s, but I was mistaken. She later went to the West Manchester Mall and worked at Hess’ before going to work in the advertising department of the York Daily Record, where she stayed until her retirement.

Tana, I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your note on that location sooner, but I’m glad the timing worked out based on other conversations on this topic!