Dallastown’s Merchants Box Company made boatloads of distinctive wooden file boxes for the National Archives. Recent queries about Merchants Box Company, in conjunction with a National Register application, caused me to look deeper into my Merchants investigation, started over 25-years ago; as part of Barshinger family research. That was when
During the early 1900s, there were at least four Smeltzer Cigar Factories in Bittersville; a small village located at the end of the trolley line from York into southeastern York County. Cigar manufacturing was the dominant industry in York County in the early 1900s; both in terms of number of
I’ve zoomed-in on a section of a record album cover entitled: “York Division of Borg-Warner presents ‘all in the YORK family;’ a recording of one of those “sales musicals” performed at a destination sales meeting in Bermuda during October-November 1972. Those musicals usually played off of a Broadway play or
Publishing houses producing York County newspapers in 1899 were defined by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as factories. York County had three newspapers based in York City that year, however there were also nine newspapers published around the county. I’ll be presenting my talk “Countdown of the Top 50 York County
An artifact of Bube’s Brewery’s 1908 YORK Ice Machine still adorns the walls of that Lancaster County establishment in Mount Joy. That YORK Manufacturing Company machine was an addition to a YORK Ice Machine, which Alois Bube previously purchased in 1893. The 1893 YORK Ice Machine was one of the
The Hanover Wire Cloth Company manufactured a highest priority pure nickel cloth for the ‘Manhattan Project.’ The fine mesh nickel cloth was produced from January to June of 1945; for that and for other necessary war materials throughout the war, they are listed among the nineteen York County war production
American Machine and Foundry Company’s first manufacturing plant was established during April 1900 in Hanover, York County, PA. AMF was organized March 26, 1900, and set up their offices in Brooklyn, NY. To rapidly start production, AMF leased the existing shops of Hanover Foundry & Machine Company; and retained much
The AMF facility in Glen Rock is listed among the nineteen York County war production plants granted the Army-Navy “E” Award during World War II. The “E” Award is for Excellence in Production; it was the highest honor given industry in recognition of outstanding production of necessary war materials. A
Chris Brown submitted an example of a Baltimore made York Safe and Lock vault door within a 1926 bank in Smyrna, Delaware. I initially became aware of the Baltimore plant of the York Safe and Lock Company several years ago, via an ABC News broadcast showing such a vault door
The 1942 “York Plan” movie had a local star in York Safe and Lock’s machinist Jesse Breighner, who appeared in about 20 scenes. After which Jesse enlisted; becoming a decorated navigator-bombardier in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. This post also looks at the repository of that “York Plan” film.