The York, Pa.-based Spring Garden Band plays here at the rehabbed Farquhar Park bandstand in York. The 153-year-old group, with roots as a regimental band during the Civil War, will play at the bandstand again on Sept. 7. For a photo of the band in 1861, see below. Background posts: Long Level and Pleasureville fielded bands?, Community bands play on and Parade Music Prince Roland Seitz: From Shrewsbury to Friday Night Lights.
Members of what became the 87th Pennsylvania Regiment's band, the Spring Garden Silver Cornet Band, started playing together in a carpenter shop in Freystown, now the eastern part of York, in 1855.
In fact, the band's first cornet player was William Frey.
The band marched to war with the 87th in September 1861, and the U.S. Department of War discharged members in 1862.
A reformed band played on after the war, and plays around York County today... .
Continue reading Spring Garden Band: 'It's like being in the room with history' .
