York Town Square

This is one of a series of photographs from York, Pa., Daily Record files showing moments surrounding George Leader’s swearing in as Pennsylvania’s governor. The longshot candidate was top votegetter 60 years ago – in the November 1954 election. The question today is whether another York countian, Tom Wolf, can score a similar victory. Like Leader, Wolf was relatively unknown before the election year. But smart marketing, among other things, moved him ahead of other Dems in the spring primary, and polls show him ahead of challenger and sitting governor Tom Corbett today, Election Day, 2014.

That’s Mount Wolf borough in the center of this undated picture. That road running diagonally starting at about 7 o’clock gives it away – the longtime main connector between Mount Wolf and its neighboring borough, Manchester. Interest is growing in Mount Wolf borough, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf’s home in boyhood and adulthood.

The York Fair Midway, behind the grandstand, is shown in this aerial photograph in 1932. Notice the number of livestock barns at right. Some of their footprint has been replaced by the now-Utz Arena. This scene was captured by Madison Bay Company of East Berlin. The York County Heritage Trust sold prints for years in its bookshop, but it was part of the neat things available this year – as in all years – at the Trust’s Book Blast.

Linked in/Neat stuff: Marro’s Lunch/York Barbell’s spectacular I had to look twice to figure out

This description came with this week’s ‘Picturing History,’ a then-and-now series that provides a neat slider that allows you to see the photo, well, before and after. The intersection of North George Street and Parkway Boulevard in York is shown in this photo from Sept. 13, 1914. The back of the photo reads, ‘Old house of Benjamin Myers who was married to a “Smyser” No Geo St at P.H. Cemetery.’ That’s then. Now, this is where Parkway dumps traffic into George.

W.S. Nye’s and John G. Redman’s ‘Farthest East’ carried this bird’s eye view of Wrightsville, perhaps from the perspective of Chickies Rock on the Lancaster County side. One hundred years before this image was made, two Hellam/Windsor township families were engaged in a property dispute that involved a Susquehanna River ferry and and fishery, among other things. This case, involving Hellam Township land, reached the U.S. Supreme Court: Ewing v. Houston. This little-known case is ripe for further study

The York Daily Record/Sunday News has captured Tom Wolf in scores of photos in his

Wiest’s Department Store was one of the big three such York, Pa., stores in its day. The Bon-Ton and Bear’s were the other two. Today, the Bon-Ton operates in many states, and the other two only exist in the memories of thousands of York countians. But Wiest’s former store is the longtime home of a high-profile Pennsylvanian. Tom Wolf, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, operated the Wolf Organization from the old Wiest building for years.

Scott Wagner is the latest York countian to make statewide political news after voters wrote him in to victory in a special election for a State Senate seat that covers most of York County. York, Pa., has seen several of its politicos gain high state rank in recent years.

Tony Jordan provided this rare and interesting photo of Wolf Supply in Mount Wolf to