In 1934, Franklin D. Roosevelt made rolling visit to York
This page from The Gazette and Daily tells about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s appearance on his train’s platform on its way through York in late May 1934. (To see a list of other presidential visits, click here.) Background posts: York-area woodcarver made life-size JFK statue. But where is it now? and Teddy Roosevelt in York: ‘I know York county farmers are prosperous. Their barns are bigger than their houses’ and Headline: ‘Beards on Parade at Gettysburg (Battle) Field’ .
President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled through York County by train at least two times in the 1930s.
He waved from his private car but did not appear on the platform as he headed through Hanover to give his own Gettysburg Address at the Adams County battlefield on May 30, 1934. Crowds also lined the tracks in Menges Mills and Spring Grove to catch a glimpse of the president.
But on his way back through York, he stood on his train car’s platform, waving to a crowd estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 people. The train did not stop… .
After the special train passed through, kids picked up coins from the rails, flattened by the president’s passing train.
Four years later on an August afternoon, a smaller crowd observed the president’s train as it passed through York.
For additional posts of presidential visits to York County,check out FDR.
