YorksPast

This post continues my focus to that section of the road east of North Sherman Street in Springettsbury Township, York County; i.e. Whiteford Road.  The Map of the City of York, Pennsylvania and Suburbs, issued by York Chamber of Commerce in 1945 is the earliest map that has been discovered containing a straightened Whiteford Road.  This is the sixth part of a series examining the reasons for the names associated with this stretch of road.  Other posts in this series and related posts include:

• A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 1 – Avalong
• A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 2 – Bofors at York Safe & Lock Co.
• Eliot Ness cracks the York Safe & Lock Company
• A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 3 – Naval Ordnance Plant, NOP Road Ads
• A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 4 – New 1948 N O P Route Cuts Traffic Hazards
• A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 5 – Housing Development on 1930 Map containing a Whiteford Street
• Arsenal Road evolved from a Crooked Road that had an Iron Bridge that Shivered and Shaked

 

The significant housing development east of Eberts Lane first seen on the 1930 Map of the City of York and Suburbs, which I displayed in part 5, continues to be shown on the 1945 Map.  I previously noted that most of this development was never built; the Chamber of Commerce likely continued to include plans provided by a developer.  Part 5 also showed that sometime between 1930 and 1937 the main thoroughfare is straightened; i.e. the Whiteford Road placement that most people remember prior to circa 1970 Route 30 construction in the area.

This 1945 Map of the City of York and Suburbs is the first map showing the main thoroughfare going straight through Whiteford Street in the development; I’ve enlarged this section in the upper left part of the posted map.  I’ve added present road names on this map in Blue.

In 1958 our family moved to a house near the intersection of Ridgewood and North Hills Roads.  Heading south on North Hills Road to East Market Street one went under the Railroad Tracks in a narrow underpass.  Do any of my readers remember how often this North Hills Road underpass flooded with even the slightest amount of rain?  This underpass was eventually filled in to make a grade-level rail crossing.

The location of the Avalong Farms Dairy Bar, established in 1955, is shown at the corner of Whiteford and Mt. Zion Roads.  A 1957 Avalong advertisement in Part 1 of this series, notes that this dairy bar is at the corner of Arsenal and Mt. Zion Roads.  I’ve seen the present Whiteford Road, i.e. roadway east of North Sherman Street, formerly known on various old maps, old advertisements and land deeds as:

• Mill Road
• Loucks Road
• Whiteford Street
• Arsenal Road
• Wineka Road

Wineka Road is a new find!  Do any of my readers know the story behind this road name?

Through land deed research, I’ve been trying to locate a Whiteford Farm in the general vicinity of Whiteford Road.  I went this route due to a tip and because the hunch about tracking down the father of Karen Whiteford, in Part 1, did not pan out.  Karen’s father, Walter, did not own land on Whiteford Street although he did work at the York Safe and Lock Company through 1943.

During ongoing land deed research for a family history book, I took a break and checked the deed progression of the Meadowbrook Estate from Edwin Myers to Alva Long.  It was in the deed where Alva Long acquired the Meadowbrook property from the Robertson Estate that the metes and bounds noted: the public road formerly known as the Wineka Road.  A deed plot unmistakably shows the reference was to the present Whiteford Road between Memory Lane and Mt. Zion Roads.

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