More information keeps turning up on USO activities locally during World War II. This undated newspaper article and photograph from the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archive files shows volunteers packing up the canteen at the Pennsylvania Railroad station on North Street. It mentions a fifth anniversary USO celebration, so it
I learn a lot from the readers of this blog and of my York Sunday News column. Please keep sharing your information. In my recent column and blog on York’s USO activities I mentioned that the Salvation Army was one of the USO’s founders, nationally and locally. George Lenkner of
In my last post I shared a 1909 clipping about the new Pocket Monthly magazine, which was listed as a York, Pa. publication with printing done at the Wrightsville Star newspaper office. None of the five surviving issues lists a particular person as publisher. The contents page gives addresses for
Long before there was the internet, television, movies, and even radio, people liked to be entertained. You couldn’t go to the theater or circus or a ball game all that often, so you read. Literary magazines were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. York County Heritage
A friend who has two grandsons in the Navy recently commented on how much those grandsons have appreciated services offered by the USO. Local USO volunteers played an important part in York County home front service during World War II, serving almost 88,000 service men and women pausing briefly at
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
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
I recently posted the first part of an 1874 newspaper article describing an evening excursion taken from the Peach Bottom Railway station in York to Springwood Park in York Township. The second half of the account is below, describing the good time had by all: “Soon partners for a ‘grand
In a recent post, I shared some 20th century history and photos of Springwood Park in York Township. The park closed in 1954, after operating about 80 years. Springwood was developed as a destination for picnicking and dancing by the Peach Bottom Railway. The narrow gauge railroad opened from York
One place that is still remembered fondly is Springwood Park in the Ore Valley area, north of Yoe in York Township. At least one of the buildings, a home, still stands and I understand there are still some remnants of the pool off the east side of the Springwood Road.