St. Joseph reports on John F. Kennedy in York, PA
The St. Joseph Gazette of St. Joseph, Missouri, reported on John F. Kennedy’s Friday September 16, 1960, lunch stop at the Lincoln Woods Inn in Springettsbury Township. Earlier in the day, Kennedy spoke on the Square in Lancaster, prior to traveling westward on the Lincoln Highway (then Route 30; now Route 462) to the Lincoln Woods Inn.
This summer the 100th Anniversary Lincoln Highway Auto Tour passed through York County in the same westward direction. The Lincoln Highway, conceived in 1913, was America’s first coast-to-coast highway. To finish out the Highways’ Centennial Year, this is the first of several additional Lincoln Highway associated posts. Previous related posts in York County include:
- Lincoln Highway Centennial Auto Tour at Haines Shoe House
- York was in danger of losing the Lincoln Highway during 1914
- Walking the Lincoln Highway from Coast-to-Coast
- Haines Shoe House will be a June 23rd Lunch Stop on 100th Anniversary Lincoln Highway Auto Tour
- 20 York Businesses that Built the Haines Shoe House
- ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE Memorial in Paradise Township, York County
- Mystery Ice Cream Bar along the Lincoln Highway
- Melvin’s Drive-In, Lincoln Highway Ice Cream Bar; I-83 Opens
- John F. Kennedy’s 24-Hours in Central Pennsylvania
- Lincoln Woods Inn; Mystery of the Medallions
- LoPiccolo’s in Violet Hill connection to The Woods in Springettsbury Township
- 1906 York Automobile Owners form York Motor Club; their Club House still stands
- Motels & Restaurants named via the Lincoln Highway; Lincoln View in Paradise Township, York County
- 23¢ per gallon at York’s Only Gasoline Shopping Center
Continue reading for more on John F. Kennedy’s visit.
Senator John F. Kennedy stopped at the Lincoln Woods Inn for lunch on Friday September 16, 1960; between campaign stops in Lancaster Square and the York Fairgrounds. The St. Joseph Gazette of St. Joseph, Missouri, reported in their Monday September 19, 1960 issue, “Kennedy asked to see Richard F. Griffith the enterprising man who built the place from an old stable in the woods along Lincoln highway. ‘If everybody did his job as well as you did, this country would be in lots better shape,’ Kennedy said to him with great warmth.”
Also in Monday September 19, 1960, The Gazette & Daily in York, Pennsylvania, published this photo on page 3. The caption states “WAITRESSES GREET KENNEDY – Sen. John F. Kennedy knocks on a window at Lincoln Woods inn in response to a greeting by waitresses there. Kennedy stopped at the inn to eat and rest Friday prior to his appearance at York Inter-State fair.”
Jim McClure has a copy of the actual photograph at the end of this York Town Square post: John F. Kennedy lunched on Lincoln Woods Inn’s Expensive Fare in 1960.
After the lunch stop, Kennedy’s motorcade preceded onto the two-lane Whiteford Road, which becomes Arsenal Road; eventually arriving at the York Fairgrounds. I was in 5th grade at North Hills Elementary School at the time; the teachers had all the students lined up single file along the Whiteford Road side of the school grounds to wave as the motorcade passed by. I wonder if any photographs of the children waving to the motorcade exist?
Links to related posts include:
- Pennsylvania’s first Gino’s was in Springettsbury
- Reminiscences of Walking to North Hills School
- Baltimore Colts at Central High and more Gino’s
