York Town Square

York City Market/Historical authenticity/Marshall’s service

The old Damon’s Grill building in York, Pa., is down. Or will it be remembered as the old Banana Max building? Either way, the building near Roosevelt Avenue and Route 30 has been leveled, to make way for a new WellSpan family medicine practice office. That will building will give south York-based WellSpan a significant presence on the northwest side of York for the first time, not far from the proposed site of Memorial Hospital on the old Hawk Lake golf course site. By the way, the fence to the left has a story to tell. Also of interest: Check out this photograph of Hawk Lake from the air.

This is a bit of York countiana:

People are keeping an eye on the demolition of the old Damon’s building for a reason other than anticipating that WellSpan will be operating on their side of town.

The Damon’s/Banana Max parking lot provided access to the nearby Northwest Plaza shopping center from Vogelsong Road and the York City Business and Industrial Park to its north.

Somewhere along the line, a fence went up that restricted access through the parking lot. So that made it hard to get from here to there.

The demolition project hasn’t helped things. As the photograph above indicates, there’s a hard barrier against such shortcuts.

Maybe somewhere in WellSpan’s plans, a solution to this traffic quirk can be found.

Food Fair memories: Paul Pfeiffer, Sr. asked York Sunday News columnist Gordon Freireich a question after reading his column about the York City Market:

“I am 81, soon to be 82 next month, and we always called it the “Duke Street Market”. As a small boy, I would pull my wagon to the Market to haul my mother’s produce back home. I lived on Manor St. across from the ‘Dutch Club.'”

In your article you mentioned the Food Fair store on South George St. That brings me to the reason way I am sending you this e-mail. I have vivid memories of pulling my wagon to the Food Fair to haul my Mother’s groceries back home. However I have a question about that store that you may be able to confirm or answer for me. I remember that over the entrance to the store that there was a ‘large cardboard figure of a giant.’ No one in my age group remembers that.”

He asked Gordon if he remembers the giant, and I’ll pose that question to yorktownsquare.com readers. Please comment below.

“I went to that Food Fair every Friday with my Mother,” Paul wrote. “Just maybe you would take the time to respond to my question. I sure would like to know. I am a faithful reader of your column. It brings back fond memories.”

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Historic authenticity: Historic York is sponsoring a presentation on “The Value of Authenticity” from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on April 23.

Erin Hammerstedt, field representative, Preservation Pennsylvania, will present on a topic that touches on the use of traditional materials in historic preservation.

Details: info@historicyork.org .

Betty Marshall, York’s first elected female mayor, was honored in a memorial service Sunday.