My previous post showed a December 1956 Gazette and Daily full page ad for the one-year-old York County Shopping Center. It listed the 28 stores and businesses and stressed the free parking. Downtown businesses did try to counteract the shopping drain that year by placing a real carousel in the
It was Christmas season 1956, and the battle lines were drawn between downtown and suburban shopping centers. The first stores in the York County Shopping Center in Springettsbury Township probably opened in the fall of 1955, since the center celebrated their second anniversary in October 1957 by giving away a
Much has been written over the years about the traditional concert of Christmas carols played each year on the New York Wire Cloth steam whistle, recently moved to Metso. Jim McClure has verified that Karl Smyser originated the concerts in 1925. That was not, however, the first attempt to play
Here is a tour of York’s Center/Continental Square, featuring the big star that was the centerpiece of the decorations from the late 1940s through the 1950s. I’m not sure when the star was first fabricated and when it was replaced with other decorations. These photos, showing the square from various
As I noted in my last post, showing photos of the Christmas trees of the Small family boys at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, you don’t see too many snapshots from that era. The first consumer camera had been recently introduced by Kodak and they were
It looks like children of over a century ago received plenty of toys for Christmas if they were from well off families, like Morris Small and Henry Spahr Small, pictured here. The photos are from an album of photos taken from 1896 to 1910 and donated in 1957 to the
Do a online search looking for the first American Christmas tree and you come up with a wide range of answers. More than one of the answers can be correct, depending on how you ask the question. Is the Lewis Miller drawing above the first know depiction of an American
The photo above could have been taken about the same time as the one I recently posted of the Davy Crockett merchandise. This one is also from the Simon Collection at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives. It is identified as McCrory’s toy department and is probably from the 1950s.
Touring the wonderful Christmas displays at Winterthur Museum has become part of my annual holiday celebration. I was thrilled Sunday to hear the Winterthur guide tell us that the very first area we were touring this year was based on an account of a Christmas fair held by the Dorcas
The Lewis Miller drawing above is often seen around Christmas. It is said to be one of the first known American depictions of a Christmas tree. As with many of Miller’s illustrations of York County Life in the first half of the 19th century, there is more than one thing