York Town Square

Part of the USAToday Network

History mystery doorknobs: Yes, they’re engraved with ‘YC,’ and they’re attached to what doors?

Linked in/Neat stuff: ‘Crooked neck’ Smith/Stauffer’s Biscuit Company
history
The York Daily Record/Sunday News’ photographer Chris Dunn captured these engraved doorknobs while on assignment recently. Where was that assignment, or more, directly, in what building do these doorknobs – and doors – reside? That’s the history mystery were posing here. Check out the answer below. Also of interest: History mystery photo: This angry-looking lion’s head is sure to fend off vandals

Other neat stuff from all over … .

Gary “Pappy” Heiland, a regular contributor here, worked at the McKay Company chain making plant in York from 1956 to 1974. He gives here a short tour of the first couple hundred feet of the chain plant.

He starts by describing what he sees after entering the old plant from the Grantley Road, hearing noise from the forming machines in the building’s northeast corner.

“These machines took the coils of wire and shaped them into links of chain. One of the operators here was Adam Smith and one of the maintenance men was his brother Eugene (crooked neck) Smith. The southeast corner was pretty noisy too, as this is where the coils of steel rod were drawn through a circular die to turn the rod into wire. As manufactured, the rod was of uneven circumference but by drawing the rod through the die it became wire of the same same size. One of the men who worked her was Clyde Kessler.”

‘Crooked neck’?

We hope more to come from Gary.

Peanut butter goodies gone? The ydr.com story’s headlines and subheads tell it all about venerable Stauffer Biscuit Company’s longtime product: “Where are the Peanut Butter Goodies? Some upset they can’t find Stauffer’s holiday favorites. The company said it’s not selling a holiday tin, so it isn’t making some cookies that were made just for the tin.”

Interesting look: Googling for something recently, I ran across this fact-filled master’s thesis by former York countian Erin Krepps: Preserving Archaelogical Resources: Historic Preservation and Public Education in York County.

 

*This photo sits atop the York Daily Record’s Facebook Page, with this description on a post therein: “These York County-emblazoned doorknobs can be found on the doors to the Commissioners Meeting Room in the York County Administrative Center.