From squealing pigs to wireless, York, Pa., markethouses have changed
This poster appears on the Table of Contents page in the third edition of the York County, Pa., history “Never to be Forgotten.” It merges the William Wagner market drawing from 1830 featured on the book cover (see below) with a 2000 drawing of Central Market. Also of interest: York’s old Hudson – new Exchange City building sparks memories and Old York City Market: ‘It was a real treat for me to walk to market with Grandma’ and Steps of old York City Market mark its former location.
York County artist Tracey Bisher Cullen merged the old and the new in rendering a market scene detailing York in 1830 with a similar scene in 2000.
She drew that poster for placement in my “Never to be Forgotten,” published in 1999 in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of York County.
The York Daily Record artist showed a man sitting on the hood of a car, typing on a laptop outside Central Market. She thus captured plans 10 years ago to gentrify the markethouse… .
Today, those plans are intensifying with the advent of wireless Internet service in Central Market. That is part of an effort to spread free wireless Internet in downtown York.
If wireless was around 10 years ago, it certainly wasn’t in or near Central Market.
So the man with the laptop in the drawing would have been working without benefit of the Web. Seems like ages ago that laptop users were so confined.
But that’s progress versus the market scene described at the time York’s Centre Square market sheds were torn down in a middle-of-the-night raid in 1887.
Gone are the days, a newspaper said, that the York area can “still devote its very commercial centre to a retail trade in squalling hens, slobbering calves and squealing pigs.”
On further thought: Wonder what the man with the laptop will be typing on 10 years from now?
For a year-by-year chronology of York County historical events from ‘Never to be Forgotten,” click here.
Also of interest:
Y-FI needs businesses or people, anywhere in the downtown area, who can share bandwidth, host equipment or donate to help defray equipment costs. Visit www.myyfi.com to learn how to help spread free wireless Internet in downtown York.
A sampling of other York market posts:
– York County farm vs. factory tension relieved in overnight raid .
– Going to market a longtime York County pastime.
– York’s Central Market sells steak … and sizzle.
– The forgotten fifth York market house.
– York Market House No. 1 – Penn Street Farmers Market.
– York Market House No. 2 – The architecturally striking City Market.
– York Market House No. 3 – The first Eastern Market.
– Market House No. 4 – Central Market, York’s most popular.
– York Market House No. 5 – Carlisle Avenue Market, revisited.
