Fairmount fit for Roger, Anita and Pongo, Perdita
Fairmount is a once-grand part of York City that still has some grandness, particularly after renovation of several units. Also of interest: All unsung York Town Square posts from the start.
Red Lion’s Fairmount Park is not the only overlooked part of York County known by that lofty name.
But York’s recovering Fairmount section, an early city suburb of Victorian mansions, has been deteriorating for so long that it’s understandable why many people don’t know about it.
Few venture to that north section of York.
To orient you: North Beaver Street passes through the heart of this neighborhood just before it intersects with Parkway Boulevard.
Historian George Prowell dates the neighborhood to 1884, when attorney E.W. Spangler bought 17 acres of undeveloped land north of the Codorus. Before long, workers constructed the North Beaver Street bridge. Writing in 1906, Prowell viewed the neighborhood as one of the most “interesting” parts of the city.
He meant it was one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods.
One can squint and almost see a neighborhood right out of “101 Dalmatians,” with Roger and Anita walking Pongo and Perdita.
Actually, some of the neighborhood’s beauty has returned. Some of the decaying Victorians have been renovated into 38 apartments.
The rehab cost was about $170,000 per unit.
But that’s a small cost to reclaim the neighborhood from Cruella DeVil wannabes.
So there it is, overlooked York County landmark No. 25, York’s Fairmount neighborhood. Other overlooked county sites and landmarks:
Other overlooked York County sites and landmarks:
— The JCC’s Holocaust sculpture
— The Little Courthouse
— Aldersgate United Methodist Church’s Copper Beach carving.
— Prospect Hill Cemetery
— War Mothers Memorial
— Work War II USO at former York County Academy gymnasium
— York’s Salem Square soldiers monument
— York’s Cookes House
— York’s rowhouses
— Wrightsville’s monuments
— The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge
— Memorial trees along highways Route 30 & Susquehanna Trail
— The Inches
— Camp Stewartstown
— The Wrightsville Bridge supports
— New York Wire Co.’s factory whistle
— Mary Ann Furnace
— York’s Hartman Building
— Hanover’s Iron Mike and The Picket
— York’s Eberts Lane
— Helen Reeves Thackston Memorial Park
— WW II defense worker housing
— Shiloh’s former town square
— Loucks one-room school
— Red Lion’s Fairmount Park— Carlisle Avenue Market House
— York’s Fairmount Neighborhood — Ma & Pa Railroad, Muddy Creek Forks draw fans
— Delta’s slate clock and Mainline Museum — Spring Grove’s top-of-class museum
— York’s Reservoir Hill
— Forgotten York Valley Inn
— Wallace-Cross Mill
— Jefferson town square
— James Buchanan’s home “Wheatland”
— Columbia’s Clock and Watch Museum.
Groundbreaking to renovate the once-grand Fairmount neighborhood.
