Only in York County

Today, I have two memories of neighborhoods in the greater Dover area to share – one from the Picketts area as you go out Davidsburg Road to Washington Township, and the other of the Weigelstown area of Dover Township.  I hope you’ll enjoy these memories; as I grew up spending a lot of time in both areas, I certainly did!

Longtime reader and commenter Gary “Pappy” Heiland shared the photo seen today, and wrote, “In your column … about the Picketts, referring to the bridge on Davidsburg Road as the Conewago bridge stirred my thoughts. I lived in the Picketts from 1941 to 1949 at the intersection of Cedar Lane and Pickett Road. I attended the Airy Hill one-room school that was located at the intersection of Pickett Road and Davidsburg Road.”

He continued, “The bridge you called the Conewago bridge was known as Shady Nook bridge when I lived in the area and a few hundred feet below the bridge was Shady Nook dam; I think it is a low-head dam. I used to walk across it when I was 6 to 12 years of age.”

I remember this area very vividly; in high school, my best friend lived on Cedar Lane, and we spent many days wandering around that area, hanging out on the creek banks and telling stories about the dangers of the dam, which, as Gary points out, is one of the low-head types that have caused a number of deaths in York County over the years.

On a happier note, however, I also had a nice note from reader Bonnie Slagle, who replied in response to an earlier question about the B&B Garage in Weigelstown.

Bonnie wrote of B&B, “The following information was given to me by my brother, Frank Arndt, who worked at this garage for 18 years before it closed. The garage was built around 1946 by two men who married sisters from Dillsburg. The name B&B comes from these two men, Charles J. Baker and William Alexander Bollinger. The primary function of the garage was the repair and inspection of automobiles, trucks and tractors. They also sold Amoco gasoline.”

She continued, “My brother began working there in 1956 and stayed there until it closed. It was a very busy small garage with mostly local residents as customers. Sometime in the late 1960s, Mr. Baker was test driving a car he had just repaired or inspected and was involved in an accident on Davidsburg Road. Mr. Baker was killed in that accident. Mr. Bollinger sold the garage sometime in the 1970s, and it was torn down to make room for the parking lot of Spangler’s Supermarket.”

Bonnie, thanks so much for sharing that info!