Commerce & Government–Delicate Balance in Hanover
50 years ago, in 1957, Lawrence B. Sheppard, President of Hanover Shoe Company, opposed a Hanover council proposal to limit parking on Carlisle Street from Park Avenue to Library Place to three-hours. Mr. Sheppard warned that such an ordinance “… would force the factory owners to move from the community.” The regulation, which had been proposed to provide more parking for shoppers, was then tabled. However the parking regulations played out, the shoe company continued to prosper in Hanover.
Sheppard was the son of Harper D. Sheppard, who, with his partner Clinton N. Myers, built a struggling shoe factory into a nationally-known maker of quality shoes. The web site of the Sheppard Mansion, an inn and fine dining establishment opened in 1998 by Sheppard descendants, states that Sheppard and Myers built their shoe empire on selling the best possible shoes for one price ($2.50 in 1899) and by selling directly to the public.
Hanover Shoe has been part of the huge C&J Clark International shoe company since 1978, but the retail store in Hanover only changed the name from Hanover Shoe Outlet to Clarks Bostonian when they remodeled a few years ago. The Hanover Evening Sun has just reported that Adams County’s Conewago Township Board of Supervisors recently requested that Clarks complete further traffic studies before building their proposed new distribution facility. It is to be located across Kindig Lane from their present building and will be three times larger.
Whether past, present or future, balancing the needs of the employers and merchants who provide jobs with those of the residents, as well as maintaining the infrastructure, challenge officials in all of York County’s 72 and Adams County’s 34 municipalities.
