YorksPast

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Readers Choose Top 10 Posts during November 2016

Near the beginning of every month, I’m sharing with my readers the top 10 posts from the previous month.

This single graphic, features illustrations from all top 10 posts; however giving greater space to the higher ranked posts.

Synopsis and Link to each November Top 10 Post

These are your favorites during November 2016:

1—Rocky start for Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse. One of the many issues that resulted in the establishment of Springettsbury Township in 1891 was a long-standing desire by a group of residents near Longstown to have a schoolhouse built in their neighborhood. The Longstown residents felt the resulting new, more-rural, school district, in a new township to be named Springettsbury, divided from the suburban part of Spring Garden Township, would better appreciate their need for a Longstown schoolhouse.

2—Founders and Leaders of York Corporation.  On October 20, 2016, I was the speaker at the 87th Annual Reunion of the Twenty-Five Years Continuous Service Club of the company; which has been part of Johnson Controls since 2005. The 1466 employee members of the club have worked with the company producing YORK Air Conditioning and Refrigeration products for a total of more than 50,990-years. This post contains the first part of my remarks.

3—Take me out to the Ballgame of Yesteryear.  “Take me out to the Ballgame” serves as an introduction to a baseball game that took place 120-years ago. That baseball game pitted teams from rival newspapers in York, Pennsylvania; the Gazette versus the Daily.

4—Dr. Spotz used Race Car to make York County house calls. Dr. G. Emanuel Spotz had a fascination for fast cars. He joined the York Motor Club, in 1913, when their clubhouse was already located at 2025 East Market in Springettsbury Township. Dr. Spotz purchased the clubhouse, for his personal residence, when the York Motor Club decided to sell it in 1923. Dr. Spotz is Shelly Riedel’s great-grandfather; she submitted a neat photo of the York Motor Club.

5—Longstown One-Room Haunted Schoolhouse.  Over fifty-years ago I first heard stories of a ghost haunting the schoolhouse in Longstown. In 1962 our family spent our first summer on a farm near Longstown. Seitz’s corner grocery store was located a very short bike ride from our farm. That store was where I heard about the haunted schoolhouse on several occasions.

6—Springetts Rezoning Round 3 and Possible Solution.  Fourteen people contacted me about a newspaper notice for a Springettsbury Township Planning Commission meeting. This is a considerable increase from three contacts about the cryptic notice during Round 2 of this rezoning. This indicates more residents are reading these notices.

7—Ghost mystery of Longstown Schoolhouse solved.  Readers provided some neat reactions to my posts about the Longstown One-Room Schoolhouse in Springettsbury Township. Ted Fauth suggested, “A pictures is worth a thousand words. Why not show the 1938 aerial image of the schoolhouse?” Bob Taylor had a question that puzzled me, until Brenda Knaub came to the rescue with her memories of a schoolhouse fire. Linda Long provided enlightening comments about the ghost mystery of that schoolhouse.

8—Dempwolf drawings of Laing Mansion.  John A. Dempwolf’s original drawings for the Springettsbury Township retirement mansion of West Virginia coal baron John Laing are in the Collections of the York County History Center. The first floor includes: a living room, a parlor, a library, a dining room, a kitchen and a pantry. The second floor includes six large bedrooms and three complete baths. The Dempwolf drawings are not dated, however newspaper articles confirm they were created in 1906. The Springettsbury Township building still standing at 2025 East Market Street.

9—Readers Choose Top 10 Posts during October 2016.  Near the beginning of every month, I’m sharing with my readers the top 10 posts from the previous month. These were your favorites during October 2016.

10—Coal Baron built Mansion in Springettsbury.  West Virginia coal baron John Laing built a retirement mansion in Springettsbury Township. It still stands today; on the northwest corner of East Market Street and North Vernon Street. In 1906 Laing purchased six adjoining lots, two big lots plus four standard lots, to create one mega-lot with 120-feet of frontage along East Market Street and 250-feet deep, stretching back along North Vernon Street. John Laing retained noted local architect John A. Dempwolf to design the building still standing at 2025 East Market Street.

This chart tracks the level of my YorksPast readership. Thank you to the multitude of readers that e-mail me with comments, suggestions and finds; you’re created a wonderful backlog of subjects for me to post. Your continued feedback is very much appreciated.

Links to the Top 10 Posts for the 13 most recent months:

Reading the Headlines: A Quick Index to All YorksPast Posts