YorksPast

Next week Davies Drive will open as a through road connecting East Market Street and Concord Road. It will be a short-cut to The First Post and to Saubel’s Markets; for many in the area. Others claim the road-opening will cut noticeable time off their daily commutes.

The southward view of the new at-grade rail crossing shows the major piece of the infrastructure allowing Davies Drive to be completed as the through road. A Ribbon Cutting officially opening this road section is scheduled on November 8, 2023 at 4:30 PM.

I’ve been following the Davies Drive progress since spring, because this was an occasional detour on my walks to the Post Office on Concord Road. The May 10th photos show early work on the at-grade rail crossing before any road construction had begun.

I understand the nearby Pleasant Acres Road Bridge, spanning the railroad tracks, is in bad shape and will be closed to vehicle traffic soon after the Davies Drive at-grade rail crossing opens.

Why the name Davies Drive?

Several individuals inquired about the road naming. Some even looked into potential connections to the various York County folks with the Davies surname; there are about a dozen. However the naming comes from the first industrial business to be build in the Meadowlands Business Park in Springettsbury Township.

Bob Kinsley developed this business park in 1988 on a 100-acre triangular tract wedged in between the 4-lane Route 30 and Heindel Road. The primary road running through the business park is Concord Road, which is a continuation of Concord Road already named within the neighboring Yorklyn development.

In 1989, the Davies Can Company, a division of the Van Dorn Company of Ohio, built a 96,967-square-foot manufacturing plant on the southeast corner of Concord Road and a road to be constructed. That road was slated to be named after the first company building on one of the four lots with frontage along the road.

The primary product manufactured at the York plant of the Davies Can Company, and at subsequent named companies at the site, remains one gallon metal paint cans. William T. Davies established the company in 1922. Their first plant was located at 872-882 East 72nd Street in Cleveland, Ohio. The Van Dorn Iron Works purchased Davies Can Company in 1944, as Van Dorn began purchasing companies that complemented their business.

The following 1993 Aerial Photo zooms in on the Davies Drive area of Meadowlands Business Park in Springettsbury Township. Annotations point out the sequence of new construction in that area from 1989 to 1999.

Build in 1989 were the Meadowlands Center business offices at 3542-3576 Concord Road (A), and Davies Can Company at 599 Davies Drive (B).

More Meadowlands Center business offices at 3500-3540 Concord Road (C) follow in 1990. Then a warehouse at 580 Davies Drive (D) is built in 1992, followed by a light manufacturing business at 589 Davies Drive (E), which was built in 1994.

The building on the southwest corner of Concord Road and Davies Drive, takes the address 3630-3670 Concord Road (F), it was built in 1999.

As shown in the following 2022 Aerial Photo, of the same region as the 1993 Aerial Photo, the first extension of Davies Drive south of Heindel Road is the result of constructing the York County Emergency Services 911 Center; which opened in 2007 at 120 Davies Drive.

Another significant business, selecting a large lot within the Meadowlands Business Park is the United States Post Office for their East York Branch; it was built in 1995 at 3435 Concord Road.

Click on this LINK for a yorkblog.com Full View of the photos and illustrations in this post.

Links to related posts:

Illustrating a walking route to Miller’s One-Room Schoolhouse on Heindel Road

Davies Drive crosses a former Army Air Field and a planned Speedway

Bridging Stony Run Tributary during construction of Commons Drive