The Sauer Kraut Clue
Arsenal Road Quest
My post 35 Participating Restaurants for March of Dimes Coffee Day in 1958; Avalong, Paddock, Bury’s/Playland Steps drew this comment from Melissa:
An Arsenal Road clue fell out of mother’s recipe book. I’ve never commented to these blogs. Hope you get this OK. This just fit so nicely with your Arsenal Road quest.
On October 10th a pork and sauer kraut supper was held at Springettsbury School with address at Mt. Zion Road and Arsenal Road. I do not know year?
I can picture why Mom had this newspaper clipping. Dad did not like his vegetables. I bet he tore this out and circled “Optional Vegetable” in clipping, then handed it to Mom.
For those new to my Arsenal Road Quest, I’ll review it latter in this post. I can tell you however, that research pursuit requires determining the year of this ad. October 10th falls on a Saturday for two years during the 1950s; 1953 and 1959. Last week I looked through the newspaper microfilms at the York County Heritage Trust, however could not find the ad.
I contacted Melissa via e-mail, with my findings, asked for her thoughts and requested a scan of the ad. The subject line of her reply was “The Sauer Kraut Clue” and hence the title of this post.
Melissa could not provide a scan, however did provide the additional clue; the date was underlined several times and a question mark was between “October” and “10”. I assumed the month or date was incorrect; expanding the scope of the search immensely, such that I about to give-up. After Melissa assured me only the month was underlined, that narrowed the search considerably. The “October 10” ad appeared in the Saturday November 10, 1956 issue of The Gazette and Daily.
In scrolling through newspaper microfilms at the York County Heritage Trust, at one stop point to check the date, the following short ad caught my eye:
I now had ad examples for 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958 where, what is now the Mt. Zion Road end of Whiteford Road, was also know as Arsenal Road in the mid to late 1950s. Some time ago, a reader commented to my post A Road Named N.O.P., Arsenal and Whiteford; Part 1 – Avalong. That post contained a 1957 yearbook ad with Avalong’s address at Corner Arsenal and Mt. Zion Roads. The reader suggested a simple explanation; the students working on the yearbook got the address wrong, because he was positive Arsenal Road never extended to Mt. Zion Road.
Last month a new find, in The Gazette and Daily ad for 1958 Coffee Day, substantiates the information in the post that started it all in 2012; where I discovered, during the late 1950s, a move was under foot for the Arsenal Road name to extend all the way to Mt. Zion Road … the Arsenal Road Quest continues for the details, now knowing my research needs to concentrate in the 1955 or prior time frame.
Thanks Melissa, you get a “gold star” on my list of YorksPast history mystery detectives!
