York Town Square

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Made in York Archives

York, Pa., and York County, Pa., continue in their search for an identity. It appears the ‘Creativity Unleashed’ brand, put into play about 5 years ago, works for recruiting designers but is not concrete or broad enough to help explain a county. And the ‘Factory Tour Capital of the World’ slogan used by tourism folks never was strong and only four of 13 tour sites today are factories. Harley-Davidson, seen here, is one of them. So why not go with what people commonly say about York: It’s near everything. This thinking caused the York Daily Record to suggest ‘The Middle of Everything’ or something like that.

Many readers here will remember going downtown on a Saturday to buy shoes and other clothes. That day seems to have passed with retailers selling their stuff mainly in the suburbs. That’s mainly. In Hanover, you can still shop for shoes on a Saturday and other days to the week. Clarks Shoes, known as Clarks Bostonian Outlet, is open on the square, and there’s another dose of nostalgia now awaiting visitors. A local collector and Clarks employee Donald Hamme has put up a display of Hanover Shoes relics. Hamme told The Evening Sun in Hanover that when Harper “H.D.” Sheppard and Clinton “C.N.” Myers founded Hanover Shoes in 1899, the company’s motto at that time was to provide “the greatest shoe value on Earth.” Now Clarks customers get an extra value, a case exhibit showing memorabilia, courtesy of Donald Hamme. ‘I have enough to fill it three times,’ Hamme told the Evening Sun.