Universal York

Part of the USA Today Network

1880s Archives

I noticed Prospect Hill Cemetery has been posting historical information on their Facebook page about notable people from York County’s past who are buried there.  Today’s was on Henry Lee Fisher, attorney, historian and Pennsylvania German poet.  Fisher is one of my favorites from the past, and I realized I

York’s Bullfrog Alley (part of East King Street) had a distinct personality over the years.  It was famed as the home of “gypsies” who went out traveling each summer and for basket making, some of which seem to be in same families.  It was also the home of a gang

Suppose you were ready to spread your toast and the margarine was white instead of yellow.  It is not very appealing, is it?  Some of you might remember when margarine came packaged with a capsule of yellow food coloring; it was mixed in at home to make the spread look

Who knows how many thousands of sturdy musical instruments emanated out of the growing complex of buildings that stood imposingly for 136 years at the intersection of Broad and Philadelphia streets in York? The York County History Center Library/Archives has 16 volumes of shipping records, up through 1944, and it

  As promised in a recent post, here are more graphics showing the remarkable growth of the Weaver Organ and Piano Company factory in just 22 years. The 1882 building, designed by the Dempwolf firm of architects was of fair size, but the 1892 and 1898 additions added much more

When I was very young, I used to amuse myself with my grandparents’ parlor organ, very probably made by the Weaver Organ and Piano Company. As a teenager I took piano lessons, as my daughter did later, on a York upright piano, another Weaver product. I am working on an