Mahlon Haines’ Yorkshire Ranch
My post Exercising Buffaloes via Airplane in Springettsbury resulted in nine e-mails from present and former Yorkshire residents. The most often asked question: Was the Yorkshire Ranch very large? Mahlon Haines purchased several properties during October and November of 1924, encompassing 318-adjoining-acres; so yes I would consider that a large ranch. The location of the ranch via marked up historic and present aerial photos will serve to orient the reader in viewing a neat photo of the Yorkshire Ranch Barn. If you are reading this on the Ydr.com site, click on this LINK for a Full View of the illustrations in this post on the original YorkBlog site; since the ydr.com site will occasionally cut off important details in the cropping of illustrations.
After the Great Depression hit in 1929, Mahlon Haines developed streets on the Yorkshire Ranch and gave housing lots free to the unemployed who agreed to build upon them. Records indicate not many unemployed individuals took advantage of this offer; since the lot cost was only a tiny part of the expense of building and owning a home. It was not until the mid-1930s that the Yorkshire development started to grow; as indicated in a four-column ad in the September 7, 1936, issue of The Gazette and Daily. Even so, it took the post World War II housing boom to quickly cover much the land of the Yorkshire Ranch with hundreds of family homes.
Mahlon N. Haines first purchase of large acreage in the countryside occurred in December of 1917, when he purchases 199-acres of farmland along what eventually becomes Haines Road in Springettsbury Township. Haines names this farm Haines Acres. This same name was used by the housing development eventually built upon this farm and several adjacent properties.
Mahlon Haines next major purchase in the countryside occurs during October and November of 1924, when he makes several purchases encompassing 318-adjoining-acres. Haines names this acreage Yorkshire Ranch. I’ve drawn the boundaries of Yorkshire Ranch on a marked-up 2016 Bing.com Aerial Photo. The 1924 Yorkshire Ranch boundaries are also shown relative to Haines’ 1917 property.
For this same area of Springettsbury Township, the earliest available historic aerial photo from Penn Pilot is dated March 19, 1938. I’ve transferred the 1924 Yorkshire Ranch boundaries onto the 1938 aerial photo; also referencing Haines’ 1917 property.
I’ve noted the location of the large Yorkshire Ranch Barn, the Yorkshire Two-Room Schoolhouse and the Horse Race Track known as Haines Park within the Yorkshire Ranch property. These are all within the field of view of a neat late-1940s photo at the end of this post. I’ve also noted where Mahlon Haines house and barn were located within his Haines Acres property.
The blue arrow on the 1938 photo indicates the westward viewpoint of this circa late-1940s low altitude aerial photo by Dave Allen. This photo, focusing on the large Yorkshire Ranch Barn, is from the collections of the Springettsbury Township Historic Preservation Committee Archives.
The farm lane from the Yorkshire Ranch Barn to East Market Street (leading off to the right side of the photo) becomes Lyndhurst Road. The road leading from the barn, past the schoolhouse, to the oval track at Haines Park becomes 5th Avenue. The other roads shown with houses build along them in this circa late-1940s photo are Wynwood Road (undergoing the newest house construction) and Pinehurst Road immediately west of Wynwood. In the post-WWII building boom, all these roads, and more, are extended southward (to the left side of the photo), past 5th Avenue, quickly covering much the land of Yorkshire Ranch.
Links to related posts include:
- Earliest plans for Yorkshire on the Lincoln Highway
- Yorkshire History Walk on September 23rd, 2023
- Route of the Yorkshire History Walk
- Exercising Buffaloes via Airplane in Springettsbury
- Racing Horses at Haines Park in Springettsbury
- Haines Park transforms into a Trailer Park
- The Shoe Wizard celebrates 33 Years as a Yorker
- Mahlon Haines runs for Congress in 1922
- Haines’ School of Brains at Kreutz Creek
- 20 York Businesses that Built the Haines Shoe House
- Naming of Three Mile Run waterway in Springettsbury
