Map exploration and newspaper research were used to prove a postcard shows President William H. Taft speaking to York, Pennsylvania, residents from his rail car on the morning of May 31, 1909. He stopped in York for several hours, before attending a Memorial Day monument dedication at Gettysburg later in the day.
What was your favorite Pontiac? Was it purchased at Doll’s Pontiac in York? That building at 337 West Market Street was built in 1887 as the City Hotel of Eli Kindig, the patriarch of horse dealers and antiquarians. Fascinating stories of folks and businesses associated with the building are shared in this post.
When I-83 was constructed through York County in the 1950s, most dwellings taken by eminent domain were simply demolished. However when highway construction schedules allowed, these condemned structures were offered for sale; provided the buyer stuck to strict schedules and conditions. If the intent of the buyer was salvaging selected
This is a recent early spring view looking down on Center Square in York, Pennsylvania. Is it spelled Center or Centre Square, and when was the name Continental Square adopted? In colonial times, a Court House and market sheds occupied the square in York Town. As a result, in the
A Flory family of veterans, two from the War of 1812 and one from the Revolutionary War, were the prominent builders in the Meadowbrook area during the first half of the 1800s. The first substantial structure to be built was a 2-1/2 story brick farmhouse, followed by another dwelling, a
S. Forry Laucks, the President of the York Safe & Lock Company, had already been on the Board of Directors of the York County National Bank for 34-years, when he was elected the seventh President of the institution in 1930. As such, his signature began appearing on all currency bills
This post explores an assortment of four Stony Brook Drive-In Theatre queries from YorksPast readers. Their curiosity ranged from the history of the Hoke Farm, upon which the Drive-In Theatre was constructed in 1949, to a comment involving a nearby York County company that manufactured outdoor screens for Drive-In Theatres;
The origins of Springettsbury Township Park stretches back centuries. In 1793, Jacob Strickler established a 44-acre farm straddling present Mount Zion Road; with the farm fields worked by Strickler descendants, continuously for over 100-years. Dr. Louis V. Williams conveyed those same 44-acres to Springettsbury Township in 1966, at the conclusion of a 10-year installment payment plan. Three years later, the farm fields were transformed into the initial nucleus of Springettsbury Township Park.
Verna Williams surprised me by submitted a photo of a sign heralding the office of Dr. L. V. Williams; used at one, or more, of his locations in York County. The sites include: the initial 1911 office in Mount Wolf, progressing to multiple locations in the City of York, and finally in Springettsbury Township; where he added an office during the 1940s, to his farmhouse along Mt. Zion Road. I had been helping Verna unravel Dr. Louis V. Williams’ connection to General Edward C. Williams, when she discovered the photo of the sign.
Connecting the dots on the naming of Powder Mill Road may go back to inspection visits to the U. S. Army General Hospital in Penn Park during the Civil War. A lasting positive impression of the hospital and the York Community could have influenced Dr. Thomas C. Brainerd to select York as the site for his powder mill venture in 1874; which led to the naming of Powder Mill Road.