A History Walk will take place in the Yorkshire neighborhood of Springettsbury Township on Saturday September 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM. (Rain date if September 25, 2021)
Yorkshire History Walk on September 18th
Stephen H. Smith will be sharing some historical stories about Yorkshire as the lead speaker in a walk through that Springettsbury Township community on Saturday September 18, 2021 at 3:00 PM. The walk begins at the Yorkshire Elementary School parking lot on Maywood Road. My comments will serve as an introduction to Yorkshire residents sharing their memories during this stroll through Yorkshire.
Brenda Neff is the organizer of this walk and the Yorkshire Memories Facebook page has been providing the details, and will give up to the minute info in case the walk has to be postponed due to inclement weather. The rain date is the following Saturday; September 25, 2021. Please RSVP to Brenda at: blndln@comcast.net if you have not already done so via Facebook, so we have enough maps for everyone.
The Yorkshire History Walk route has been selected to provide a good mix of architectural variety and history, while avoiding heavily traveled roads. Sidewalks have been selected as much as possible, however please be careful, since there is the occasional uneven sidewalk. Also be aware of light traffic on the roads not having sidewalks.
When the initial Yorkshire History Walk was conducted in June of 2017, it was a hot day; resulting in an abbreviated tour. The tour this year will be conducted heavily within Yorkshire proper. The Wynwood Road, 3rd Avenue, and Pinehurst Road loop will be included this year.
The first 288-lots, of the Yorkshire development, were laid out by Robert B. McKinnon, and approved on May 3, 1924. A realtor’s office in York, known as Diehl on the Square, was the sales agent in the first weeks of Yorkshire development advertising. However when a big Yorkshire lot sale was staged at the end of June of 1924, The Conrad Realty Company of Harrisonburg, Virginia, was the selling agent.
During the last big day of the sale staged by Conrad Realty Company, the full-page local ads noted The Spring Garden Band would be giving a concert during the afternoon’s sale and a new Hudson automobile was to be given away. However based upon the low deed activity and not a mention by the local papers in the sale’s aftermath, it appears that sale was a flop.
When Mahlon Haines purchased 318-acres of adjoining properties during October and November of 1924, to create his Yorkshire Ranch, all the unsold lots in the Yorkshire development were part of the sale.
Click on this LINK for a yorkblog.com Full View of the photos and illustrations in this post.
Links to related posts:
Earliest plans for Yorkshire on the Lincoln Highway
Mahlon Haines’ Yorkshire Ranch
Edna Dimmerling mystery evolves in Yorkshire
Reading the Headlines: A Quick Index to All YorksPast Posts
I was the librarian at the ‘new’ Yorkshire Elementary School in 1967 until it closed in June, 1983. I lived in the York area all of my life until I retired and taught in York Suburban for 22 years and never knew the history of Yorkshire! The Yorkshire School children came from wonderful, solid American families. I think the area could be a model for ‘typical America in the 1940’s to 1980’s’. I loved teaching there. And almost forty years after the school closed, I still love hearing about my former students as adults, and cry when I hear one of them has died. Best wishes on your Yorkshire Walk. Wanda Ogden
Wanda,
Thanks for sharing your memories of Yorkshire Elementary School.
Stephen
a. Are high resolution images of this neighborhood, say from the 1920’s to the 1950’s, available? If ”yes” how can interested people get them?
b. There is a large (I did not measure it) cavity in the backyard of our 217 Wynwood Road. It is not visible from the surface but we know it exists because we saw it once when we were digging a hole to plant a tree. Also, for years, I kept putting yard refuse down the ”hole that goes to China”. What could explain the cavity? What evidence there is for any explanation? What technology is needed to map the cavity? How can we get a hold of such technology and how much does it cost?
Jorge,
Aerial photos are available from the late 1930s to the present via Penn State’s Imagery Navigator site:
https://maps.psiee.psu.edu/ImageryNavigator/
These are high altitude aerial photos taken about every ten years during the time period you are interested in.
There are two J. David Allen lower altitude photos that show parts of Yorkshire in better detail. One has previously been posted on YorksPast and the other, recently discovered, photo is being annotated for a future post.
Using old maps and aerial photos, I have not discovered any former quarry, or similar feature, that may account for the cavity in your backyard.
Stephen
Mr. Smith we loved your walk and telling of the sites in Yorkshire. We did join you late and missed a few things. I asked where I could get a print out of your numbered talk sites and you said in Yorkspast, which I am in. I am not able to find where I can pull up your info. Can you guide me on this?
paul Ilyes
Paul,
In the coming days, my presentations, at each stop, will be posted as a series of YorksPast articles. In order to stick to an overall 90-minute History Walk, with about 5-minutes walks between the 9-stops, my presentations were edited to stick to the overall time schedule. The posts will included the full text that I started with at each stop, prior to the edit.
Stephen