York Town Square

Part of the USAToday Network

School days Archives

It’s called ‪the Hobbit House around York, Pa., and you can’t help but to look its way when you drive by it. Leslie Klinger got her wish to look inside. ‘I delivered pizza there on occasion. I was sooo excited the first time, they invited me in to have a look. Very kind and generous people,’ she wrote when this History Mystery photo appeared on the York Daily Record’s Facebook page. Another Facebook commenter, Heather Klinefelter, quipped: ‘Haha! I call it Toad Manor.’ Hobbits? Toads? We’ll side with the Hobbits. So, where does it stand? Have you ever had the opportunity to visit it?

This might seem like an easy History Mystery quiz, but it’s been about 10 years since these big metal boxes were taken out of service in York County, Pa. Time passes fast. They were sold in 2006 after their electronic replacements successfully operated earlier that year. So a partial generation of folks never had the opportunity to use these mechanical machines. OK, what are these?