In 1892, voters narrowly turned down the ballot question for establishing Webb Township via a separation from Spring Garden Township. In the vote aftermath, the backers of this proposal were chagrined, believing with just a little more campaigning they could have changed the minds of 22 of the voters; thus
Abraham Pfeiffer established Pfeiffer’s Brewery in York, Pennsylvania, during 1857. Pfeiffer’s could be the first of a string of breweries located at the northwest corner of King and Queen Streets. At the onset the Civil War, Pfeiffer’s brewery operations were moved to Violet Hill, along the Baltimore Pike in Spring
In 1931, Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects designed elegant grounds, surrounding a mansion planned for William S. Shipley, at one of the most elevated sites in Wyndham Hills. The site included a former quarry, in which a vast sunken garden was intended. Grace Hartman provided some insight about that early Wyndham
William S. Shipley is known for his leadership in the “York Plan” and for being the national spokesman for that defense production plan during World War II; however he also provided astute leadership during York Ice Machinery Corporation’s transition from Ice Making to Air Conditioning during the 1930s. William S. Shipley succeeded his older brother Thomas Shipley as president of Yorkco in 1930.
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.
The Violet Hill Alums Group shared geographic recollections of Violet Hill Elementary School that describe the Violet Hill neighborhood of Spring Garden Township as it was from the late 1930’s and onward. Thanks to Thomas Stambaugh and Kathryn Bentz Schwartz for allowing me to illustrate the group’s memories.
Aden Buser was the supplier of cigar boxes and cases to fourteen cigar makers located in and around Tilden, i.e. Longstown; an unincorporated village which has always straddled three York County townships and presently is the crossroads of four public school districts. Research into one of Aden’s advertising items revealed neat details about Tilden.
The frantic activity at the top of South Queen Street hill in 1952 centered on a race to get WSBA-TV on the air as the nation’s first commercially equipped UHF station (i.e. Channels 14 to 83). At the time, minimal TV reception was available in the York area.
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.
An item of York Corporation lore concerns the burial location of a large intricate casting at the Grantley Plant following WWII. Reasons for the burial range from it being less expensive than cutting up the bulky casting for scrap to a potentially secretive nature of the WWII era casting.