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Booklet gives road map to The Avenues: Linked in with neat York County, Pa., history stuff – Jan. 31, 2010

The Avenues Neighborhood Association has re-published the “Northwest York” booklet. That publication, issued in 1984 to celebrate that York, Pa., neighborhood’s 100th anniversary is packed with information on well-known York County people and institutions that started in The Avenues, an area synonymous with Northwest York. For example, a forerunner to Memorial Hospital started there. This drawing on the cover is courtesy of historian/artist Jim Rudisill, who called that neighborhood home. It shows one of the two pavilions at Farquhar Park, part of Northwest York. This structure no longer stands. For details about the $10 booklet, contact: Mary Anne Bacas, ma@bacas.com. The Avenues Neighborhood Association snail mail address: 663 Madison Avenue, York, Pa. 17404. Also of interest: Industrialist Thomas Shipley’s ‘enduring monument’ in York did not ‘endure’ and S. Morgan Smith and P.H. Glatfelter, with businesses on the edge of The Avenues, head list of York County industrial movers and shakers and Spring Garden Band: ‘It’s like being in the room with history’ .

A mixed bag of neat stuff … .
When the York Daily Record/Sunday News’ Buffy Andrews edited my column on the availability of Katharine Beecher candy, a former York County-made delicacy, at the York Township Cracker Barrel, she related a story about her good experience with Beecher:
I wrote it up for the newspaper (1/31/09):

The factory where Katharine Beecher Co. made candy in Manchester for half of a century had a special window.
Or else special people working near that window.
For when Buffy and other youngsters knocked on the
pane, something special happened…. .

Someone inside, working with a big stick of hot taffy,
would break off a piece and hand it out the window to Buffy.
Years later, Buffy Andrews, now a York Daily Record/Sunday News editor,
recalls that special window and that special treat, which she learned about from her
sister.
It was a bit of a secret, although other kids in the community learned of the window and the special person inside.

Story of the day: Larry Walker is a York Suburban grad. His photos about a Colorado soldier won top prize in Editor & Publisher’s 2009 Photos of the Year competition. See his work here.
Blog post of the day: Yorkblogger June Lloyd writes about how a stubborn York City Market tower held on mightily against the wrecking ball before crashing down on Duke Street.
Forum of the day, The Exchange: The Iceman Cometh: Memories when ice was delivered to homes for ice box use.