1830 William Wagner watercolor of the York County Almshouse. Most of you probably cringe along with me when you see some of the figures we spend as a county today. I’m sure the reaction was the same in 1838 when York Countians read the published report for the year before.
Lewis Miller drawing of the new courthouse, 1839. I recently wrote about a thief stealing the copper spouting off the York County courthouse in 1874. That was the York County’s second courthouse, completed in 1840. Click here to read about the spouting heist. York County residents, as always, had plenty
Prosperity seems to have come to the York County of 140 years ago, if the ads in the December 31, 1867 issue of the York Gazette are any indication. Entrepreneurs and agents from New York, Philadelphia, Maryland, and Adams County were offering investment opportunities. Real estate was enticingly offered by
I guess it is human nature to want to have the biggest and the best. We are always impressed by the tallest buildings and the most gigantic pumpkins. Our forebears were no different, as we can see by the Lewis Miller drawing above of a huge pumpkin. Miller captioned it:
We know York Countians have had a long love affair with the oyster. Start digging near the site of any old tavern, such as the Golden Plough, and you are likely to turn up remnants of long-ago oyster shells. Crushed oyster shells might be far under the streets you travel
One hundred years ago stylish shoes were just as important as they are today. A large illustrated ad for the B.A. Shorb Shoe Co., 24 West Market Street, appeared in the York Gazette in the fall of 1907. Good leather shoes were a substantial investment. No cheap plastic–oops, “man-made material”
That’s what the York County Shopping Center (now York Marketplace) on East Market Street was offering in celebration of its Second Anniversary fifty years ago. Does anyone know who won the brand new 1958 rear-engine Renault Dauphine automobile? It was a 4-door, 4-passenger sedan and you could enter the giveaway
50 years ago, you could buy a three, five, seven, or nine-piece chrome or wrought-iron dinette set at York Supply Company, 43-45 West Market Street, starting at $39 to $50 for the set. While you were there, you might as well equip your laundry with a Speed Queen wringer washer.