Can Anyone Help Date This Piece of Glen Rock Furniture?
Glen Traditionals headboard
In a response to my post on Glen Traditionals Furniture, Misty from Massachusetts emailed a photo of this ornate Glen Traditionals headboard. She would like to know about when it was made. If anyone can help, I will be glad to pass on the information.
I had previously blogged about Glen Rock’s concentration of a variety of manufacturing in a fairly small town in the latter part of the 19th century. This time I looked at George R. Prowell’s 1907 History of York County. Glen Rock was still going strong.
According to the Prowell, there were very few people living in the area now known as Glen Rock until around 1838. Then the railroad came through and so did William Heathcote. A recent immigrant from England, Heathcote built a woolen mill. Prowell sees that as the start of Glen Rock’s manufacturing boom. By 1907 he calls the town “One of the leading manufacturing and business centers in York County.”
Prowell lists an impressive list of factories manufacturing shoes to rope. He includes several furniture factories:
“The Enterprise Furniture Company of which George W. Geiple is president, Flavel Seitz, secretary and I.J. Young, treasurer, make sideboards and other furniture in large quantities. Dise Furniture Company, of which U.S. Dise is the principal owner, makes furniture of different kinds.
Glen Rock Stamping Company makes furniture, hardware, specialties and stamped metal goods. J. M. Grove is president and Irvin F. Grove, treasurer.”
The railroad is gone along with most of the manufacturing, but Glen Rock is still a picturesque little town on the south branch of the Codorus Creek. Today hikers and bikers follow the recreational rail trail along the route that took all those goods out of town and distributed them throughout the nation.
