York Town Square

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Lafayette Club bowling ball is on auction list, but what is to become of its paintings? Linked in to history, 4/5/13

Neat stuff below: Dunkers150/Camp Security/Gettysburg150 tweeting

Scores of items, including many keepsakes like the mugs and plates above,  from York, Pa.’s, Lafayette Club will be sold at auction on April 15. Items without such a legacy – kitchen mixers and some bowling shoes and a bowling ball from the club’s alley, are also on the list.The longtime private men’s club – which gained an open membership in the past 15 years, closed in August 2013. Also of interest: 10 years ago, York’s exclusive Lafayette Club became less exclusive.

Here’s the question, make that questions, about the Lafayette Club auction.

What will become of the famous painting of American Revolution hero Marquis de Lafayette that has been a fixture on one of the club’s walls for years? (See below) And also those murals of York scenes? (It’s not clear that they can be removed.) 

If anyone knows, please comment below. Meanwhile, we’ll try to get answers.

Here’s what we do know, according to the York Daily Record/Sunday News: The Lafayette painting was sold through a private antique sale held last month. It sold for $1,400.  (A National Audubon painting sold for $1,500.)

Check out the ydr.com Lafayette Club story on the auction and also see this site for photographs of auction items.

The Lafayette painting in the Lafayette Club’s reading room is seen in this 2009 photograph. It sold to an unknown buyer for $1,400. For background on the marquis and the famous toast shown in the painting, see: Lafayette Club honors Frenchman, though books on the nobleman often forget York, Pa.

Neat stuff from all over …

New on FB: Yorkblogger June Lloyd has flagged the new Friends of Camp Security Facebook page. The “about” section gives a succinct summary of York County’s Revolutionary War POW camp: “The last undeveloped Revolutionary War POW camp in the U.S., from 1781 to 1783 it housed many British troops surrendered at Saratoga and Yorktown.”

June is a supporter of preservation of the old camp site and has everything you wanted to know about the site on her Universal York blog.

Tweeting on Gettysburg150?: Well, a lot of folks have enlisted to Tweet, including many experts. Buffy Andrews over at Buffy’s World has some lists of Civil War tweeters. Go on there and follow! While over there, check out her best of blogs for the week: Central Market to Elizabeth Marshall to GameTimePA editor honored .

Dunkers150: There’s a seminar Saturday at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg on “Dunkers Impacted by the Battle of Gettysburg.” That’s an intriguing topic. How pacifists were affected by a battle going on around them. Here’s a bit more information on a related topic: Of Pennsylvania’s conscientious objectors: The ‘other side’ of the Civil War.

It’s past the registration deadline but here’s a contact: www.etown.edu/svmc