York Town Square

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Don’t know much about ‘York Revolution’ history?

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Virginia’s Richard Henry Lee was one of 64 delegates who met in York Town for nine months from Sept. 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778. One of his brothers, Francis Lightfoot Lee, joined him in York and another brother, Arthur, served as an American diplomat in Paris. All three were ancestors of the best-known Lee from Virginia, Robert E.
In a “Connections 2007”, I did my best to explain why the York Revolution baseball team drew its name from York’s American Revolution past.
But the best part of the six-page spread is the first color printing that I’ve seen of the York County Heritage Trust’s paintings of key figures from York and the Revolution – the 1775 to 1783 Revolution, that is.
We published 15 of the trust’s 16 murals. We lost Richard Henry Lee because of space, although we picked him up above. The painting of Marquis de Lafayette, apparently part of the same series but displayed at York’s Lafayette Club, did make the Connections cuts. …


Taken as a group, these 3 1/2-feet by 6-feet paintings are impressive. They most recently were on display in the Heritage Trust gallery as part of the “Nine Months in York Town” project in 2002.
And oh yes, they’re in good shape considering that they hung outside during the rainy 150th anniversary of Congress’ visit in 1927.
Indeed, they were a forerunner of the Murals of York, the 18 large outdoor paintings on the walls of buildings throughout York’s downtown.