Universal York

I see York city is restoring its Keystone markers, those familiar keystone with a rectangle signs that tell you the town you are entering, where its name came from and how many miles down the road to another town. Good for the city–every bit helps in first impressions. There is

Anyone who has passed through York has probably noticed the Colonial Court House on West Market Street by the Codorus Creek. It is a replica of York County’s first courthouse, which originally sat in the middle of York’s square. Now part of York County Heritage Trust, the impressive building is

I have had several comments and questions already about my recent York Sunday News column on the 15 or more ferries that crossed the Susquehanna River at one time or another between York County and Lancaster County. Since there were so many, I could only fit in a couple of

This is the second on my series on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission markers in York’s Continental/Center Square. It marks the site of the Black Horse Tavern, one of the earliest buildings in York, The proprietor, Baltzer Spengler, was one of York’s very early leading citizens. The marker, in

Thanks to June Evans for sharing the history of the Horn Farm Center for Educational Agriculture with me, as well as these old photographs of the site. See the captions for more identification and attribution. A portion of the eastern part of the present farm goes back to Christian Crowl

I started out writing about a little tidbit tacked to an article about the York Imperial apple in the August 13, 1920 York Gazette and Daily. The subject was timothy grass–you know–the plant that is mown, along with clover, for hay, and how timothy came to York County, along with

Seems to be some Irish excitement about President Obama visiting the village of one of his Irish ancestors, but they have nothing on us. As York County Heritage Trust Library Director Lila Fourhman-Shaull pointed out in an article she wrote for Trust Talk, YCHT’s member newsletter, shortly after the president

Philip A. Small examining Christian Roth’s wheat Whenever I start researching some York County history, it seems like someone from the Small family turns up. Pennsylvania German immigrant Lorentz Small settled in Windsor Township in 1743, but soon the family became involved in carpentry, building, mills, iron furnaces, retail and

  Lewis Miller drawing of York’s square in 1799. I recently posted a Lewis Miller illustration of “wicked boys” taking a wagon apart and reconstructing it on the roof of the market house in 1804. I was asked where that market was. Click here to read that post. It was